"This Pippin is pipin' hot!"

REVIEW: AT SELMA ARTS CENTER, A BUOYANT AND MURKY ‘PIPPIN’ FINDS A BIG, WONDERFUL TENT ALL ITS OWNby Donald Munro       October 15, 2022

This darker side of “Pippin” particularly soars. Session, who grew up in the Fresno theater scene and earned
an MFA at UC Irvine, gives us one of the strongest musicals I’ve seen at Selma, ranking up there with
“Spring Awakening,” “Cabaret” and “Heathers,” as she sculpts the material into a taut, fierce package.
Session’s take feels bold, fresh and disconcerting. I was moved in ways that went far beyond my reaction
when I saw the Broadway revival in 2013.

Still, the show works. It has an unpolished, low-budget-but-big-dreams sheen that actually feels polished in just
the right the way. And Session’s directorial vision makes everything click. Many directorial moments soar, both
bleak and bright: the castanets in “Love Song”; the “Lord of the Rings” map brought out to explain the Holy
Roman Empire (hey, look, there’s Mordor!); the awkward hug between Pippin and Charlemagne (a jolly/scary
Chris Ortiz-Belcher); the jokey menace of the doltish stepbrother, Lewis (a brutish James Anderson); the
sassy bootie interlude from queen and wicked stepmother Fastrada (a superb Jacob Moon), complete with
​ta-dah hand gesture emphasizing a very glittery gold miniskirt.

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