<b>PIPPIN</b> 4110 Bailey Avenue/O'Connell & Company SpeakupWNY | Buffalo NY and Buffalo News

Through April 6
PIPPIN 4110 Bailey Avenue, Amherst/O’Connell & Company

A very long time ago, what eventually became France was ruled by a king known to history as Pepin the Short.
For context, he was the oldest son of Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor.
This king could read and write and was educated, not common in those days.
He wanted something better in those years after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
Then Pepin became king of his piece of his father’s former empire and governing was difficult for him, interrupted by wars and indecision.
A group of students at Carnegie Mellon took the bare facts from the Dark Ages and created a musical, with music and lyrics from Stephen Schwartz.
Eventually, with complete changes, “Pippin” showed up on Broadway, for a long run and an eventual revival for a long run.
There has also been a change in the show’s ending.
It’s not some show with hot-shot songs leaving people at the end singing as they leave.
Instead, it’s a look at one noble and his complicated life and family in difficult times.
It’s getting an O’Connell & Company production, strong with some good performances.
Director and choreographer Joey Bucheker has taken advantage of the space in O’Connell’s theater to tell the tale.
That includes the stairways and steel stage towers allowing different perspectives.
It’s a young cast benefiting from five weeks of rehearsals, long by local theater standards
There are also key performances from Jetaun Louie as the Leading Player in a show built around a traveling theater county, along with Connor Hersch’s Pippin, John Kreuzer’s Charles (Dad) and Lisa Ludwig’s Berthe, the prince's exiled grandmother.
The rhythm of the show is a little unusual today, because it’s clearly a three-act play, merged to two in this later production.
The show opens with the theater company, as Pippin returns from school, “Magic to Do” from the performers and “Corner of the Sky” from the prince.
He’s not really interested in Dad’s job, instead seeking to solve the great issues.
With some assistance from others, particularly Stepmom Fastrada (Kelleigh Murray) Pippin puts a knife in Dad’s back, only to learn there are decisions to being in the top job and he finds that difficult.
He collapses.
The Leading Player maneuvers him to become involved with the widowed Catherine (Ashleigh Chrisena Ricci) and her son Theo (Carter Riccio) and settle them down on her estate and away from power.
That’s the Leading Player’s “On the Right Track.”
Urged by the Leading Player and the other players to kill himself in a blaze of fire and glory, he backs away to continue his quest for something better and the Leading Player immediately cancels the play, leaving Pippin, Catherine and Theo alone on stage.
There is a lot of singing and dancing, especially “Glory,” “Simple Joys” and “Spread a Little Sunshine.”
That it’s a young cast gives performers that drive to be good and maybe dream about a bigger show and a larger stage and a career.
“Pippin” is a great show, ready on stage.

A.W.