STAGE REVIEW : PALLID ‘PIPPIN’ AT PANTAGES THEATRE

“We got magic to do.” But there’s not much magic left in “Pippin” at the Pantages, even with Ben Vereen throwing in his nightclub act afterwards.

This was never a great musical. But it did have a little something to say, back in 1972, about the danger of expecting real life to be a series of production numbers--and it had some terrific ones by Bob Fosse.

Fosse is only a name in the small print in the revival at the Pantages (through Sunday). This show has nothing like the stylistic authority of last summer’s Civic Light Opera revival of Fosse’s “Sweet Charity.”

Rather, it’s everyone’s best guess as to how “Pippin” originally went. (Vereen is listed as director, with the musical staging credited to Kathryn Doby, an assistant to Fosse on the original show.)

However, guessing isn’t good enough in a show which has very little but style to offer. Take Fosse’s opening image, a curtain of smoke through which we gradually perceive a flock of fluttering hands, apparently unconnected to bodies. The smoke hangs there for the longest moment and--bang! Out steps our friendly conjureman, Vereen, showing us that it was just an illusion.

Magic!--when it’s done right. At the Pantages, the smoke was thin, the tempo was rushed and the spotlight was off the mark, so that it first picked out an ensemble member in a black hood and then had to slide over to Vereen. Sloppy.

“Pippin’s” show-stopper is supposed to be a number called “No Time at All,” where Pippin’s crusty Grandma kicks up her heels and shows that there’s life in the old gal yet. Irene Ryan of “The Beverly Hillbillies” played the role originally, and had a ball with it. Betty Ann Grove makes Grandma an agreeable middle-aged lady leading the audience in a community sing. Pretty bland.

Where “Pippin” does get hot, briefly, is the orgy scene, where it looks as if Fosse might have dropped into rehearsals, making sure that the girls prance sufficiently like ponies. The number is supposed to be erotic, kinky and mildly disgusting (“Yccch!” says our young hero afterwards), and it works.

The sets, the costumes, the lighting are of road company caliber. The performers are likable. Vereen doesn’t have the star part. That goes to Sam Scalamoni, as a young medieval hippie who is anxious not to lead the kind of boring, meaningless life that his father does--his father being the Emperor Charlemagne. (I don’t say that “Pippin” is totally without wit.)

Some Pippins have been squeaky-clean youths right out of “Godspell.” Scalamoni suggests that Pippin doesn’t wash too hard behind his neck (this being the middle ages), but that everybody likes him anyway, with the exception of his Dad, Ed Dixon, who doesn’t like anyone very much. Kings aren’t supposed to.

Vereen doesn’t extend himself as our emcee and as Pippin’s tempter--the role calls for him to be a sort of shadow. He does go all-out in the show that follows the curtain calls, even running up to the balcony to entertain the folks up there. “I need your help! I need your help!” he says, clapping his hands. With “Pippin,” he’s got his hands full.

‘PIPPIN’ A revival of the musical, at the Pantages Theatre. Book Roger O. Hirson. Music and lyrics Stephen Schwartz. Director Ben Vereen. Choreography and musical staging by Kathryn Doby. Musical director Milton Setzer. Conductor David Loeb. Production stage manager Mark S. Krause. Sound Abe Jacob. With Ben Vereen, Sam Scalamoni, Ed Dixon, Michael Kubala, Ginger Prince, Robert Ashford, Charles Edward Hall, Betty Ann Grove, Tony Lillo, Jeffrey C. Ferguson, Greg Schanuel, Charles Edward Hall, Rende’ Rae Normanc, Jeb Handwerger. Plays at 8 p.m. today, at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and at 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Closes Sunday. Tickets $19.50-$35. (213) 410-1062.