‘Pippin’: Golden, Delicious Show

Leave it to an ambitious Buena Park troupe to provide the answer to the oddly vexing question: Where do you go in Southern California for first-rate outdoor musical theater?

Virtually all first-rate musical productions seem to be indoors. And to make matters more difficult, most of the appropriate alfresco spaces are given over to a Shakespeare or a Shaw or a “Nunsense” in the summer.

Where to go? The Buena Park Community Recreation Center Patio Theatre. There, the Buena Park Civic Theatre is serving up director Kevin Calvin’s hip-hoppy, rocking version of the Stephen Schwartz-Roger O. Hirson musical “Pippin.” And, as a bonus, an example of what a musical in the outdoors should sound and look like.

This company seems to be on to something. Those who saw their “Jesus Christ Superstar” last summer and the touring Ted Neeley version generally agreed that while the Neeley show wheezed its way through, the Buena Park edition was a revival in the best sense of the word. Obviously not wanting to do another Jesus show in ‘94, the Buena Park folks passed on “Godspell,” the show that established Schwartz’s star on Broadway.

They opted for Schwartz’s 1973 follow-up, a superior piece of pop musical myth-making to “Godspell” in every way.

Here, book writer Hirson eccentrically toys with the circumstances surrounding Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire rule, takes the king’s extremely obscure son, Pepin, and places him at the heroic center of a light and dark picaresque adventure--a fairy tale expressly not for kids.

In 1973, “Pippin” was director-choreographer Bob Fosse’s claim for avant-garde fun on Broadway. Now, “Pippin”--still a Fosse-esque show despite choreographer John Charron’s best tries to put his own stamp on things--is about as good as retro ‘70s gets.

Schwartz’s music suggests vestiges of ‘60s folk and idealism, but with a post-’60s bitterness and maturity peeking through that was absent from “Godspell.”

Our hero Pippin (Robert J. Townsend) wants to be extraordinary and rebel against his father’s war-making (read: Vietnam). In the end, he settles for domestic compromise, just like a lot of ‘60s radicals.

By doing so, he stages his last act of rebellion against Leading Player (Gerry McIntyre), the master of ceremonies and director of Pippin’s tale. Leading Player responds by stripping the stage bare and taking the magic of the ‘60s away with him.

McIntyre himself, though, is pretty magical. Don’t think that Ben Vereen lays permanent claim to a role that amounts to a celebration of slinky dancing and soulful singing (“Magic to Do,” “Glory,” “The Right Track”). Leading Player’s first task is to help awaken Pippin to his youthful ambitions, and McIntyre does that and more: Saturday night, he seemed to also awaken a crowd full of screaming teens. Talk about charisma.

Townsend, as the nice hero and singer of the show’s brighter songs, is very well-equipped (listen to his command of “Morning Glow”). He makes Pippin’s bouncy course worth following.

DeAnne Spicer’s Catherine ultimately lures Pippin to the home front, but while she suggests a worthy mate, Spicer struggles through her two numbers, “Kind of Woman” and “Love Song.”

The rotten types and the cutups in this “Pippin,” though, resound vividly. The aptly named Raun Imperial poses as a harmless, Lewis Carroll kind of king, and then shows who’s really in charge. Denise Vallin turns Fastrada, the queen, into an unforgettable, delicious study of witty deviousness, and makes her big tune (and Schwartz’s most ironic), “Spread a Little Sunshine,” into something creepily funny. Laurie T. Freed is too young for Berthe (Pippin’s vivacious and sexy grandmother), but she knows her way around “No Time at All.”

Even with some nasty miking glitches, even with some curious modular set pieces by designer Jim Book, and even with some follow spot operators asleep at the post, this is a very nifty outdoor musical package.

Charron doesn’t so much do away with Fosse’s original choreography as add hip-hop-inflected layers, with Book’s lights dramatically helping to put us in a metaphorical world. Unlike some so-called rock operas, the music delivered by David Pier’s band (under Jo Monteleone’s musical direction) really rocks--it’s tighter and more blistering than the available soundtrack recording.

* “Pippin,” Buena Park Community Recreation Center Patio Theatre, 8150 Knott Ave., Buena Park. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m. Continuing Thursday, Aug. 18, Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Saturday. $8. (714) 562-3844. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Gerry McIntyre: Leading Player

Robert J. Townsend: Pippin

DeAnne Spicer: Catherine

Raun Imperial: King

Denise Vallin: Fastrada

Laurie T. Freed: Berthe

James Emery: Lewis

A Buena Park Civic Theatre production of the musical by Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson. Directed by Kevin Calvin. Set and Lights: Jim Book. Choreography: John Charron. Musical director: Jo Monteleone. Sound: David Edwards.