Theater News

Flashback Friday: Pippin Works Its Magic at the Tony Awards 40 Years Ago

Watch Ben Vereen mold the iconic Leading Player character out of nothing but a pair of jazz hands.

After a hiatus of four decades, Pippin has finally made its way back to the Tony Awards. In preparation for this Sunday night’s performance by the cast of its newest revival, we thought we’d bring back this video of the original cast’s 1973 Tony performance, featuring Tony winner Ben Vereen and sea of Fosse jazz hands.

There will definitely be more death-defying maneuvers in this weekend’s performance, though the lack of trapezes didn’t stop the original production from racking up 11 nominations (to this year’s slacker production, which only received ten). Let’s see if the new circus-inspired adaptation of the Stephen Schwartz classic can push Pippin over its standing record of five wins.

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Closed: January 4, 2015