'Pippin' Revival Is A Circus Of A Show
One of those newly inverted performers is Patina Miller, a Tony-nominated actress, who plays the Leading Player — kind of the ringmaster of the story, in this version.
"I trained for the trapeze, and I've been hula-hooping a lot, but I've never moved and hula-hooped," Miller says wryly.
In fact, every one of the actors has been trained in circus skills. Andrea Martin, the former SCTV star and comic actress, does a show-stopping act, which I won't give away — but it truly is death-defying, Snider says.
"Circus is dangerous; you push physical limits, and it never gets undangerous," Snider says. "But [now I] have a 67-year-old woman, incredible performer, just saying, 'I wanna go out there and do this; I wanna make this happen' — and I am responsible for this. You really have to train methodically, and you have to be diligent and really calculate what moves are going to work for her body."
Schwartz admits that when Paulus first approached him with the circus idea, he was skeptical.
"I didn't really understand what she was driving at, particularly," Schwartz says. "Um, I thought, well you know, 'What's the difference? So somebody will be on a trapeze.' And I didn't quite understand how theatrical this could become, and how exciting."