US Tour 1977/Articles

== Chicago Tribune ==
September 4th, 1977 - Chicago, Illinois
=== ‘Pippin’ set to pop in ===
LAST JUNE, “Pippin,” which opens at the Shubert Theater Thursday, passed “South Pacific” to become the seventh longest-running musical in Broadway history. Not bad for an unlikely story about lowered aspirations and the oldest son of Charlemagne.
The whole offbeat idea started in the early ‘70s with a young Carnegie Tech student named Stephen Schwartz who became interested in the true medieval French story of Pippin, the hunchback son of the giant Christian warrior. Schwartz, who had not yet written the music for either “Godspell” or “The Magic Show,” talked a writer friend, Roger O. Hirson, into creating the book for the musical that would go on to win five Tony Awards in 1973.
“When I came to it,” remembers Stuart Ostrow, the “Pippin” producer who has a Tony for producing “1776,” “it was still pretty much a college show. I loved the music. But it wasn’t until Bob Fosse started directing that it suddenly made theatrical sense.”
Fosse, most famous for directing “Cabaret,” has personally rehearsed the cast for the tour. The road cast includes a number of actors from the original, plus jazz singer Thelma Carpenter, Michael Rupert as Pippin, and Larry Riley as the Leading Player, the role that won Ben Vereen a Tony.
Ostrow, who put half his considerable “Pippin” profits into a foundation for the expansion and development of the musical theater, admits he “didn’t expect a hit. Not in my wildest dreams. Of course, imagine somebody putting money into a musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independence,” he says, laughing.
“I’d produce a musical about the Polish dictionary if there were talented people writing it.”
“Pippin” is expected to run until New Year’s Eve, then moves out so “A Chorus Line” can kick its way in.
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