Pippin Review

Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts presented their captivating rendition of Pippin by Roger O Hirson and Stephen Schwarts on November 14^th through the !9^th. Undoubtedly this show could have run for another weekend and sold just as many tickets.  Director Carrie Morgan very skillfully found new and innovative ways to represent the characters of Pippin’s mind and fancies. The actors were very well trained, especially considering the three-quarter round audience, and the magic of the show was kept hidden until the opportune moment for presentation.  Everyone that was lucky enough to see the show now has a memory that will last forever, and anyone else should get their tickets for the next SLSPA production as soon as possible.  This show definitely lived up to the standards of the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts.

One of the very creative aspects that was used to differentiate this production from others was a white face paint that all of the “inconsequential,” and I use the term lightly, characters wore. It was a simplistic way to represent a physical difference between the characters that tried to influence Pippin, William Floor, in a negative sense, versus the ones that were actually important to his life and future. Naturally Floor was not wearing the circus attire makeup, and for good reason.  Pippin is required to appear in every single scene of the musical giving him more stage time than anyone else under those hot lights that might have melted the makeup right off. The three female leading players, Samantha Gibbons, Brielle Johnson, and Gabee Snarr, were an absolutely amazing trio of influential devils.  They manipulated Pippin’s mind in every aspect that their character possibly could.  The three women worked wonderfully together, harmonizing voices beautifully, and interacting with each other and every other character on the stage and off. These four actors did an amazing job with their material and the context of the play as a whole.

Another huge factor in the success of this show was the spectacle and technical elements, especially those of a three-quarter round theatre. It is often difficult for high school productions to even project into a regular proscenium theatre, but these student go above and beyond.  This musical has quite a bit of magic and hidden tricks throughout the story, and with audience on three sides of the room, it is a lot more difficult to mask those magical moments.  However the technicians at SLSPA are all very dedicated and very knowledgeable students who know how to work with the environments that they are given within a certain time period.  The set was never very complex, which seems to be a theme for Carrie Morgan, but the lighting and the props and the sound systems were quite and in depth process.  The students were able to pull everything together and put on this miraculous show without a single hitch.

Not only was this show simply put together well, but the performance was breathtaking in every aspect through the lyrics, the delivery, the emotions of the actors, the simplicity of set contrasting the complexity of plot, the technical involvement and so much more. Well done, SLSPA.