Monday, February 08, 2010

By JONATHAN DEVIN | Special to The Memphis News

The brand new Playhouse on the Square opened its doors for the first time last week with a “dark and funny” musical about searching for meaning in life. “Pippin,” the Tony Award-winning musical by Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson, took the stage Jan. 29. The show runs through Feb. 21.

“The play’s theme of searching for something great in life and then finding that you make your own happiness is very touching to me,” said Scott Ferguson of Chicago who directs the play. “I think that the end of the play is going to jerk some tears.”

Ferguson has directed 13 other productions at Playhouse on the Square, including last year’s “Altar Boys.” He said the choice of the musical is perfectly suited to its venue.

“It’s a perfect show for the opening of the new theater because the play begins in an empty theater and then sets come on,” Ferguson explained. “At the end of the play they take everything away and you’re left with an empty theater. So I think it’s very appropriate in a brand new theater that the audience will come into an empty space, it’s filled with theater magic, and then it all goes away.”

“Pippin” was written in the 1970s and its music reflects that era rather than the period music of its story. In it, Pippin, the oldest son of King Charlemagne, comes home from school to find that his father has taken a new wife, Fastrada, who brings along her son Lewis, neither of which Pippin particularly likes.

Pippin’s lofty ambitions for his own life, which he compares to rivers, mountains and soaring eagles, are quickly put to the test.

“(Pippin) explores all these avenues,” Ferguson said. “He tries being a warrior, he tries the church, he tries art, he tries women – all these different things in life to see what will be the most fulfilling. He ends up discovering that you don’t have to be a complete success.”

Not surprisingly, the play also will give the theater a chance to show off its new bells and whistles like overhead fly space for scenery and the orchestra pit, which will contain a nine-piece ensemble.

Because construction of the theater ran longer than expected, the cast and crew had only five days to rehearse on the new stage, something Ferguson described as “challenging.”

Alvaro Francisco, a New Yorker originally from Memphis, will play the title role alongside Sean Blake as the lead actor in a troupe that leads Pippin through his search. Blake, of Chicago, is making his debut at Playhouse.

The cast numbers about 20 members.

While the play is a comedy, audiences will have to take a light-hearted view of murder, death and suicide along the Shakespearian vein, but Ferguson said to expect moments of resonance.

“The theme definitely resonates with the general populace because I think a lot of us have felt at one point or another that we’ve settled for something,” Ferguson said. “I think this new playhouse offers a state-of-the-art facility that Memphis is lucky to have because there are very few of them in the country.”

Playhouse on the Square is now at 66 S. Cooper St.