The musical Pippin opened on Broadway on October 18, 1972 and lasted for close to two thousand performances. It got generally good reviews and a couple of Tony Awards but some attributed its longevity to its extensive use of television advertising showing moments from the show…one of the first times that had ever been done. The book was written by Roger O. Hirson and Bob Fosse, and Fosse also directed. The songs were by Stephen Schwartz. It was revived on Broadway in 2013 and ran for an additional 709 performances.
It's also been one of the most-produced musicals of its time. Somewhere, someone always seems to be staging it. I think I've seen it three times, none of them on Broadway, and I always thought the performers (and everything else that Stephen Schwartz worked on) were better than the book and tunes for Pippin. I saw it the first time just to see it and the other two times because I had good friends in those casts. It's just not a musical I care for a lot. No matter how good my seats were, I always felt the people on stage were too distant for me to care about them.
In 1981, there was a production in Canada starring Ben Vereen in the role he'd originated (and won a Tony for) on Broadway. David Sheehan, who some of you may have known as an entertainment reporter, produced and directed a video production than ran incessantly on cable channels in the early days of that new marketplace. It was advertised as the first time a Broadway musical had ever been filmed for television but I can think of lotsa antecedents including Peter Pan with Mary Martin.
The video was faulted for looking a bit cheap and for omitting some songs and other chunks of the show but it did capture Vereen's performance and there were some other good people in it including William Katt (in the title role), Martha Raye and Chita Rivera. Here's that video for your possible viewing pleasure…
