‘Pippin’ Set for Broadway Return April 25 at Music Box Theatre

The first Broadway revival of “Pippin” is coming this spring.

The new production will transfer from its current home at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) in Cambridge, Massachusetts to the Music Box Theater. Previews will begin March 23, and the official opening is set for April 25.

“Pippin” first premiered on Broadway in 1972, and played 1,944 performances before closing in 1977. The original production won five Tony Awards, including best director and best choreographer for Bob Fosse. The musical has gone on to be widely performed by high school and college theater troupes.

The medieval musical is a coming-of-age-story of the son of the French King Charlemagne, and is set to a pop and rock score by Stephen Schwartz. The A.R.T. bills the new production as a “bold new staging of the dark and existential musical you thought you knew. Pippin, on a death-defying journey to find his ‘corner of the sky,’ must choose between a life that’s ordinary or a flash of singular glory.”

The production is directed by Diane Paulus, who is artistic director for the A.R.T. Paulus was nominated for Tony Awards for her previews two Broadway revivals – “Hair” and “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.” Both those productions won Tony Awards for Best Musical Revival.

Chet Walker choreographed the musical, and set it in the same style as Fosse’s original. Scott Pask designed the set, and the lighting design is by Kenneth Posner. Larry Hochman wrote new orchestrations with music supervision by Nadia Di Giallonardo.

No official casting for the Broadway version has yet been announced, but the A.R.T. cast features Matthew James Thomas, known for his role in “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark” and Patina Miller, known for her work in “Sister Act” and “Hair.” Additionally, Tony Award winner Andrea Martin plays Berthe in the production.