The legend of Pippin

“Pippin” is a legendary Broadway musical in more ways than one.

First, it’s based on a historical legend: That of Pippin (or Pepin), the son of the emperor Charlemagne in the eighth century. It’s a Dark Ages quest story, complete with battles and jesters.

Yet this 1972 Stephen Schwartz-Roger Hirson musical is legendary in the theater world as well, because of the two geniuses who made it into an unlikely smash: Ben Vereen and Bob Fosse.

Fosse was the director and choreographer who created a show full of razzle-dazzle; Vereen is the dancer and “Leading Player” who held the entire Flower-Power-Meets-Medieval- Festival extravaganza together.

The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre won’t have Vereen or Fosse at its disposal when it opens “Pippin” tonight, but it certainly will have some potent arrows for its crossbow.

This version is directed by Roger Welch, the theater’s multitalented artistic director, and will feature Hollywood veterans Ellen Travolta and Jack Bannon in the key supporting roles of Berthe and Charlemagne.

Welch will also give us three different “Leading Players”: Max Kumangai-McGee, Brad Willcuts and Ross Cornell. Welch has split the role into three parts.

And the role of Pippin will be handled by one of the CdA Summer Theatre’s most successful alumni, Steven Booth.

Booth is fresh off of a nine-month run in the musical “Avenue Q” at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort, one of the first experiments in moving a Broadway musical direct to Las Vegas.

It wasn’t an unqualified success – it closed in May – but it drew respectable crowds and was an outstanding showcase for Booth, who ended up in the lead role.

Booth used that experience to land another role in New York beginning in September. He plays the lead role of a Chinese monk in “Journey to the West,” a new musical which will debut in the New York Musical Theatre Festival.

In the meantime, however, Booth is returning to his roots. He was born in Kellogg, grew up in Coeur d’Alene and honed his craft in shows such as “Anything Goes,” “West Side Story” and “Oklahoma!” at the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre.

Now he’ll play the son of Charlemagne, a young prince who embarks on a 1970s-style quest to find his identity.

“I’m supposed to be the Everyman,” said Booth, between rehearsals. “This show is very much an open book and Roger is taking liberties with that and giving it a more modern twist.”

It’s still set in the Charlemagne era, but the costumes are a mix of medieval and modern, with a lot of dancers in black.

Michael Wasileski’s choreography will hearken back to Fosse’s original choreography, which was one of the elements that critics raved about when “Pippin” opened in 1972.

“Any musical with an opening as stunning as the one Fosse has devised for ‘Pippin’ would have a lot of trouble running out of steam for a goodly time thereafter,” wrote Walter Kerr in The New York Times.

Kerr’s colleague Clive Barnes said that Fosse’s choreography “takes a painfully ordinary little show and launches it into space.”

As you can tell from that line, the original critics were not overly enamored of the show’s music and book. But they loved its style.

This is a show that allows the director a huge amount of stylistic leeway. Just as Pippin can experiment with different identities in his quest for self, a director can experiment with different ideas in pursuit of an original “Pippin.”

We’ll find out tonight what Welch discovers in this legendary tale.