Pippin

Rating:
Summary: Good show ruined by editing
Review: Pippin is one of the best broadway shows of the 70's. Unfortunately, you'd never know it from this video of the show. While the cast is wonderful, the severe editing to make the show fit the length of a television broadcast ruins it. There are major jumps in story that completely delete songs, sections of songs, even complete scenes. And it's a major shame. William Katt makes a nice Pippin. He sings well and looks good in the part. Chita Rivera is great as Fastrada. She's..beautiful, devious, scheming, everything Fastrada should be. And what can be said about Ben Vereen. He's at the top of his form here in his Tony Award winning performance. Sound and video quality are good here. I just wish there were a special edition being issued that would put back everything that was cut out to fit the two hour time slot.

Rating:
Summary: Despite the quality a MUST have
Review: I have been reading the many good and bad reviews and thought I should add something. I am an expert on Bob Fosse and his work. This particular production was pulled together by Kathryn Doby (Bobby's assistant for years). It was rather hasty in putting together as it was meant for a television broadcast. In the process of setting the time format for television many cuts were made to the original script, which unfortunetly are now not available. What is important about this version is it allows the closest view of Bobby's original work that we may ever have. Bob worked on this show while at great odds of the composer (Schwartz), to the point of having him barred from rehersals. It is amazing the show ever made it to where it got. The fact that we can still see the original art that was the choreography of Bobby, is the ONLY reason that this video should be in your collection. He won the Tony award for his work on this show (he also won the oscar for Cabaret and the Emmy for Liza with a Z this same year, the ONLY director to EVER do that) Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Good record of 1981 made for television performance...
Review: I had never seen Pippin before, so I don't have a stage comparison. Most of the complaints are about the video quality and the sound. First, this was filmed as a television production, not for screen or home video. Some of the reviewers have forgot that fact when complaining about the video and sound. VHS was just beginning to take off and very few cinemas had multi-channel sound. I have a VHS tape of a concert film made at that time, "The Last Waltz" and the sound from those live performances aren't too good either. If they ever release the video TV special "Liza with a Z", it will probably be of this quality too. But, it's the performances that are worth watching. Just seeing Ben Vereen's dancing in "Glory" makes this DVD worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Broadway it ain't, but...
Review: I watched this video production with a certain amount of trepidation; after all, it was at the tender age of eight that I had first seen "Pippin" on Broadway, with the original cast. I was not disappointed in the final product of this video, either. Certainly, production values are uneven, and as the musical opened in 1973 and this video was shot in 1981, the material (and performers) suffer a bit from dating; in Chita Rivera's case, carbon-dating, perhaps. But it is still glorious fun to watch Fosse's hip-swishing choreography and pelvis-popping staging, the design staff's imaginative use of cloth and rope to construct castles and foliage, and Ben Vereen at his song-and-dance finest. The cast, including the "Greatest American Hero" (oh, God, am I dating MYSELF? Egad!) William Katt as Pippin, Chita Rivera reprising her role as Fastrada, and Martha Raye as Berthe, do commendable jobs with the material, which is as good as any Stephen Schwarz and Roger O. Hirson ever wrote. Sound quality is uneven, as is the video quality, but hey, this is 1981. They didn't even have Dolby Surround yet.

Rating:
Summary: Pippin
Review: Bob Fosse's masterpiece Pippin is the tony award-winning Broadway musical starring the incomparable Ben Vereen. The show was written by Stephen Schwartz, the Academy-award winning composer of Godspell and The Prince of Egypt. Also stars William Katt as Pippin, Benjamin Rayson, Martha Raye, and Chita Rivera as Pippin's relatives. The video has amazing dancing and singing, as well as some hysterical comedic moments. Anyone who enjoys the theatre will love this video.

Rating:
Summary: Broadway it ain't, but...
Review: I watched this video production with a certain amount of trepidation; after all, it was at the tender age of eight that I had first seen "Pippin" on Broadway, with the original cast. I was not disappointed in the final product of this video, either. Certainly, production values are uneven, and as the musical opened in 1973 and this video was shot in 1981, the material (and performers) suffer a bit from dating; in Chita Rivera's case, carbon-dating, perhaps. But it is still glorious fun to watch Fosse's hip-swishing choreography and pelvis-popping staging, the design staff's imaginative use of cloth and rope to construct castles and foliage, and Ben Vereen at his song-and-dance finest. The cast, including the "Greatest American Hero" (oh, God, am I dating MYSELF? Egad!) William Katt as Pippin, Chita Rivera reprising her role as Fastrada, and Martha Raye as Berthe, do commendable jobs with the material, which is as good as any Stephen Schwarz and Roger O. Hirson ever wrote. Sound quality is uneven, as is the video quality, but hey, this is 1981. They didn't even have Dolby Surround yet.

Rating:
Summary: Broadway Baby Says WAAAAAAAAAH!
Review: I saw Pippin years ago on Broadway and loved it... I was so excited to renew my aquaintance with it when I bought the DVD! Unfortunately, while preparing to put this film on digital medium, well, they skipped the preparing part. The dvd sounds and plays like a worn out old VHS tape. It's still fun to watch but just so dissapointing...

Rating:
Summary: Hit and miss.
Review: The cast was a hit and a miss. Chita Rivera and Ben Vereen are wonderful. William Katt was wrong for the role, but he has the stage presence and personality to pull it off. I would like to see Pippin revived because the music is wonderful. It is still a joy to watch and I recommend it for musical fans.

Rating:
Summary: No better on DVD
Review: PIPPIN is a model show of its time period, a theatre piece of delightful contrasts: traditional AND unique, colorful AND dark, pastoral AND risque, cynical AND optimistic. I've listened to the cast album LP for years, always finding the songs fascinating. Now here's a professional production of the play "to have and to hold" on DVD. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to its expectations. The performances are wonderful, as other reviewers have pointed out. (With the exception of otherwise adorable William Katt's voice breaking quite a bit.) However, the maddening cuts have NOT been restored for the DVD, and the sound quality is very poor for a DVD. It doesn't sound like the actors were individually miked, making the vocals very flat when amplified by the DVD medium. Having watched the DVD a couple of times, I decided to sell it and to invest in a copy of the original cast recording on CD :-)

Rating:
Summary: Magic To Do
Review: In 1972, Pippin opened on Broadway to great acclaim and won a bunch of awards. Jump ahead about ten tears and someone finally had a good idea. Television broadcasts of musicals were nothing new. "Peter Pan" with Mary Martin, "Cinderella" twice,with Julie Andrews and Leslie Ann Warren, but would Pippin be good enough as well. Yes! After all, who could go wrong with an all star cast of broadway veterans led by Ben Vereen singing and dancing around the stage in his Tony Award winning role, William Katt, Chita Rivera, Benjamin Rayson, and Martha Raye. The singing, for the most part is right on except for William Katt who seems to have a little trouble getting started but gets it later. The best in the show though has to be stage and screen veteran Martha Raye as Berthe. I always have to sing along when she sings "No Time At All". Bob Fosse's choreography is great as usual. This is of the best scores in musical theatre with music and lyrics by award winning composer Stephen Schwartz, who also wrote musicals like "Godspell" and "Children of Eden" and more recently, movies for Disney and "The Prince of Egypt". Buy this video. It's worth every penny.