musicals, pippin?

Question

is there anyone who knows about Pippin. my brother got me the CD and I love the music but I really have no idea what is going on. I kinda would rather listen to my les mis or rent because I do know what they are about please help so I can enjoy it. :-)

thats awesome, thank you so much I knew it had something to do with something like that but thank you VERY much for that. :-)

Answer 1

The play begins with a leading player of a troupe and the actors in various costume pieces of several different time periods. The Leading Player (often said to represent the devil) invites the audience to join them in a story about a boy prince searching for fulfillment. Pippin tells the scholars of the time of his dreams and they happily applaud Pippin on his ambitious quest for an extraordinary life. Pippin then returns home to the castle and estate of Charlemagne (King Charles), his father. Charles and Pippin don't get a chance to communicate often, as they are interrupted by nobles, soldiers, and couriers vying for Charles' attention. Pippin also meets up with his step-mother Fastrada, and her dim-witted son Lewis. Charles and Lewis are planning on going into battle soon, and Pippin begs Charles to take him along so as to prove himself.

Once in battle, the Leading Player re-enters to lead the troupe in a mock battle using top hats, canes, and fancy jazz as to glorify warfare and violence. This charade of war does not appeal to Pippin, and the boy flees into the countryside. The Leading Player tells the audience of Pippin's travel through the country, until he stops at his exiled grandmother's estate. There, Berthe (his grandmother) tells Pippin not to be so serious and to live a little. Pippin takes this advice and decides to search for something a bit more light-hearted. He chooses "the flesh," sex. After an overwhelming orgy of sexual activity, Pippin realizes the true nature of sex as an all consuming entity, and begs the Leading Player to halt the troupe in their erotic dances.

The Leading Player then tells Pippin that perhaps he should fight tyranny, and uses Charles as a perfect example of an unenlightened tyrant to fight. Pippin plans a revolution, and Fastrada is delighted to hear that perhaps Charles and Pippin will both perish so that her beloved Lewis can become king. Fastrada arranges the murder of Charles, and Pippin falls victim to her plot. He kills Charles while praying and becomes the new king. However, after petitions from the masses, Pippin finds himself being just as tyrannical as Charles. He begs the Leading Player to bring his slain father back to life, and the Leading Player does so.

The exiled Pippin then travels and stumbles upon an estate owned by Catherine, a widow, with a small boy, Theo. Pippin thinks himself above such boring manorial duties as sweeping, repairs, and milking cows, but warms up to the lovely Catherine. However, as time goes by, Pippin realizes that he must leave the estate to still find his purpose.

All alone on a stage, Pippin is surrounded by the Leading Player and the various troup members. They all suggest that Pippin complete the most perfect act ever--the Grand Finale. They tell Pippin to jump into a box of fire, light himself up, and "become one with the flame." Pippin is reluctant, but agrees that perhaps suicide is the best way to go, but he is stopped by one actress from the troupe--the woman playing Catherine. Catherine and her son stand by Pippin and defy the script, the Leading Player, and Fastrada. The Leading Player gets furious and calls off the show, telling the rest of the troupe to pack up and leave Pippin, Catherine, and her son alone forever, trapped on an empty and dark stage. Pippin realizes that he has given up his extraordinary purpose for the simplest and most ordinary life of all, and is finally a happy man.

Answer 2

Those explanations are all well and good. But what is it really about?

Pippin's character is Everyman. He is the personification of every individual and the hurdles he has to deal with should resonate with all of us.

It is set back in time to give us distance and perspective - yet Pippin deals with the same issues we deal with today -- love, boredom, war, marriage, suicide, death.

Another play very similar is The Fantasticks -- a story of Everyman and his journeys.

Answer 3

Pippin is about Prince Pippin who comes home from school to find his father, King Charles, going to war. Pippin goes to war with his father and they sing about the virtues of war and the victory of the king. Pippin decides that being a hero of war is empty and the villagers are all sad and hopeless. Pippin looks for something to fill his life. After visiting his grandmother, he wants to live life to its fullest. He experiments with sex to find meaning in his life but by the end of Act I, he decides to lead a revolt against his father. His stepmother tries to get her other son to be the next heir to the throne instead of Pippin who assassinates his father. Once he gains the throne, he decides that that isn't the life for him and prays to have his father back. The king is brought back by magic. Pippin is sad that he is failing at finding purpose in life and finds Catherine in a country home with her small son. He does household chores that are below him but he and Catherine fall in love. When Catherine asks him to take over the household (marry her) he runs away. Catherine weeps over the loss. Pippin is distraught and the other players try to get him to commit suicide by burning himself to death. He decides that he'll settle for Catherine and not commit suicide.