On Wednesday May 2nd and Thursday May 3rd, New Dorp High School had its annual spring show. This year the show being presented is “Pippin”. “Pippin” is a broadway musical which debuted in 1972, it was written by Roger O. Hirson and also featured music and lyrics composed by Stephen Schwartz.. This musical is different from other musicals because while it has a story going on, the show is clearly being controlled by a man known as “The Lead Player”(Played by Matthew McComb). This man is there to basically steer the show into the right direction and ensure that he never disappoints the audience, Of course this means that this show needs to have a decent plot to explain why there would be a “Lead Player” in the first place and it gives us just that.
The story of Pippin (or how the show is supposed to be preformed) shows the life of the first born son of Charlamagne (Played by Brandon Smith), King of the Holy Roman Empire. Pippin (Played by Joesph Caruselle) is an educated child where as his brother Lewis (Played by Blerim Cukovic) was raised to be a soldier. Throughout the play, Pippin is trying to find meaning in his life and promises his tutors (and the audience) to never waste his life on “frivilous” things. Pippin does several things to find his “Corner of the Sky” or meaning in life such as going to war, asking his grandmother (Played by Jessica Maldonado) for help on how to find meaning, killing his father to become king with the help from his untrustworthy step-mother Fastrada (Played by Sabrina Bogen) and even by falling in love with a wonderful woman named Catherine (Played by Amanda Courtright) and moving into her large estate with her son Theo (Played by Robert Heany) and his pet duck, Otto. When all that fails, it is revealed to Pippin that his search for greatness and meaning was doomed from the start and the only way he could feel truly complete was to perform “The Grand Finale” which consisted of Pippin jumping into a flame and being killed. After a huge song (literally entitled “The Finale”) performed to convince Pippin to jump into the flame. Pippin ultimately declines and goes back to Catherine and Theo, where he was the happiest. In anger The Lead Player takes away all of the sets, takes away all of the music and asks Pippin if this is how he really wants to live, with no music or magic, just with a very “casual” life. The play finally ends with Theo singing the song “Corner of the Sky” from the play and being praised and taken away by the lead player and the rest of the cast symbolizing that the entire process of finding ones meaning will be repeated by Theo.
Overall, The school’s performance of “Pippin” was amazing and it truly shows how hard the actors, band, dancers, and people alike work to make a phenominal show. The cast did their parts perfectly without any problems or conflicts. Being in the band, I can’t really say that we performed all the songs to their potential or else this would be a bias article but i think that we did a great job. The dancers also did an amazing job, their dances matched the flow of the show and it never seemed unnecessary. Truly, this was a show that one shouldn’t have missed due to it’s intricate plot, funny lines, and amazing music.
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