The Courier-Journal (2024)

In the span of less than five years, director Diane Paulus led three Broadway productions that were showered with accolades, including multiple Tony Awards. The revival she mounted of the musical “Hair” won a Tony for Best Revival of a Musical in 2009 and “The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess” napped the same award in 2012.

But it was the next year when the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League — which present the Tony Awards — recognized Paulus’ 2013 Broadway revival of “Pippin” with the award for Best Direction of Musical. It made her only one of three women to receive that award, placing her among Julie Taymor (“The Lion King”) and Susan Stroman (“The Producers”).

On Tuesday, the touring production of Paulus’ revival of “Pippin” comes to the Kentucky Center as part of the Broadway in Louisville series.

For Paulus, who was born in 1966, “Pippin” was part of her childhood in New York. Living in Manhattan, she regularly saw Broadway musicals, including three performances of “Pippin,” which was directed by the legendary dancer and director Bob Fosse and ran from 1972 through 1977. During its run and even after it closed, the music of “Pippin” was woven into Paulus’ life.

“I remember it being this powerful, seductive world and remember wanting to be part of it,” she said. “I played ‘Corner of the Sky’ on the piano and danced the Manson Trio (the name of Fosse’s soft-shoe dance number in the musical at the apex of a gruesome battle scene) in my seventh-grade talent show. I sang ‘With You’ at my brother’s wedding. The soundtrack went with every milestone.”

The musical is a show within a show, where a group of traveling players tells the story of Pippin, the son of the 9th century Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, known as Charles in this story.

Story continues after the gallery

Reviving a Time-Honored Musical

In some ways, “Pippin,” with music by Stephen Schwartz — the composer behind “Godspell” and “Wicked”— seemed to belong to the 1970s. When it premiered, Schwartz’s music was deemed as heavily rock influenced and audiences drew parallels between the story and younger generation of that era, and society’s distress over the Vietnam War.

Pippin, on the cusp of adulthood in the musical, tries to find his place in the world — including a dramatic portion of the show where he goes to war in a quest to prove himself to his father. He subsequently questions war, then toys with revolution and has a foray of sexual adventures that leave him empty.

That background could make the musical an intimidating venture for any revival. But perhaps the most daunting aspect is that the musical had the fingerprints of the legendary Fosse.

But Paulus embraced that because Fosse was so integral to the original production. She enlisted director and choreographer Chet Walker, who was in the original production as a teenager. She also shared with Walker and Schwartz her idea of adding a twist to this remarkable musical — to weave it with performances of the Canadian circus troupe Les 7 doigts de la main (Seven Fingers of the Hand), which was founded in 2002 by artists who worked for the Cirque du Soleil.

“Chet said Mr. Fosse loved the circus. He loved clowns. He love the films of (Federico) Fellini. It was a world that interested him,” Paulus said.

Casting for Quadruple Threats

Paulus described casting as a task of finding “extraordinary quadruple threats” — those who could sing, dance, act and perform acrobatics. Finding such multi-talented performers was also a goal, she said, in casting the touring production.

But casting the role of Pippin’s father, Charles, was a case of happenstance. Months before the Broadway production closed last year, Ashland, Ky., native Terrence Mann was planning to leave his role as Charles to work on the upcoming Netflix series “Sense8.” That’s when John Rubinstein, who had played Pippin in the original production, got a call from his agent in New York about auditioning for the part in front of Paulus and Walker. He got the part and was invited to go on tour. Although he had performed in several Broadway productions since “Pippin,” he hadn’t toured in a show since 1968.

“It is a show that is very different in character, flavor and ambiance, but it is the same show,” Rubinstein said when asked to compare Fosse’s and Paulus’ productions.

Paulus’ production, he said, retains about 20 percent of Fosse’s choreography with the other 80 percent simulating his style and blended with the acrobatics.

He also defined her re-imagining of “Pippin” as “brilliant.”

“Instead of this production being about dance (as Fosse’s production was), she made it about magic and acrobatics and daring feats with Pippin struggling with — metaphorically and realistically — measuring up and be as extraordinary as the people on stage around him,” Rubinstein said.

Paulus said having Rubinstein in the production was “a dream come true.”

Raised in the Arts

Besides seeing “Pippin” several times as a child, Paulus was immersed in the arts. She played piano growing up and even considered it as a career choice. She danced as a child with the New York City Ballet and developed a love of George Balanchine’s story ballets “Coppelia,” “Serenade” and “Harlequinade.”

But when she went to Harvard for her undergraduate degree, she chose political science. As time went on, she felt herself drawn to the transformative effects of theater and its capacity to strengthen communities. She said she sees politics and theater as ways of making the impossible possible.

“I opted to do it through theater and art then through legislation, but both feel very connected to me,” she said.

While at Harvard, she said “my mind exploded” seeing productions at American Repertory Theatre that was then under founder and artistic director Robert Brustein. But she later returned to New York and earned her Master’s degree from Columbia University, where she studied with Andrei Serban, who helped her start directing operas, and Anne Bogart, who has directed 14 productions at Actors Theatre of Louisville since 1991.

“I’ve carried Anne with me to every rehearsal that I conduct — just how you work with actors, how you nurture a process and how you push actors to be greater than they are and do the best work of their lives,” Paulus said.

A Life of Creating Musicals

Since 2008, Paulus hasn’t just revived works but has experimented to bring new musicals to the stage in her position as American Repertory Theatre’s artistic director. From that perch, she saw “Finding Neverland,” a new musical she directed, premiere at A.R.T. last year open on Broadway in March. The musical is based on the 2004 film about “Peter Pan” writer and playwright J. M. Barrie.

While she still has solid footing in New York, her artistic home is at A.R.T. in Cambridge, Mass., where this month she opens an opera called “Crossing” with music by composer Matthew Aucoin and inspired by Walt Whitman’s diary written when he was a nurse during the Civil War. In August, she opens a new musical “The Waitress,” composed by singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles (“Love Song”) and inspired by Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 film of the same name.

Given her workload, her time directing “Pippin” is in the rearview mirror these days. Given its connection to her formative years, however, it is never far from her heart.

Reporter Elizabeth Kramer can be reached at (502) 582-4682. Follow her on Twitter at @arts_bureau.

IF YOU GO

What: “Pippin.” Music and Lyrics Stephen Schwartz. Book Roger O. Hirson. Director Diane Paulus. (Recommended for ages 10 and above)

When: Tuesday through June 7

Where: The Kentucky Center, Whitney Hall, 501 W. Main St.

Admission: $28 to $93

Information: (502) 584-7777, www.kentuckycenter.org, www.ticketmaster.com