Curtain call: Magic shows and miracles

The story of “Pippin” is as relevant for today’s Millennial generation as it was for audiences in 1972. Pippin (Sam Lips) is an entitled college graduate searching for meaning in his life. Like Benjamin Braddock in “The Graduate,” Pippin tries to find meaning in fleeting experiences and sexual pleasures, but to the soundtrack of Stephen Schwartz instead of Simon and Garfunkel. After striving to avoid “commonplace pursuits,” Pippin ultimately finds meaning and spiritual fulfillment in the ordinary.

The irony of an elaborate Broadway production extolling the virtues of an ordinary life is taken to vertigo-inducing heights in this revived production. Taking full advantage of the traveling circus setting, director Diane Paulus employs twisting and flying acrobats, fire jugglers and more. The “players” of the play-within-a-play engage in Cirque du Soleil-style feats of extraordinary physical endurance and flexibility. These sometimes-harrowing stunts never steal the show outright, but add a constant tinge of exoticism and danger throughout.

As the Leading Player, or in this version the Ringmaster, Sasha Allen is a sultry presence. Part narrator, part moral temptress, Allen beautifully straddles the line between good and evil with her suggestive hip movements and her dark stares. John Rubinstein, as Charles (Pippen’s father), contrasts Allen’s sharp movements with his boisterous presence. Rubinstein, who played Pippin in the original 1972 Broadway production, brings gleeful mischief to his role, balancing humorous distraction with calculated cold as the king. Rubinstein’s strongest number, “War Is a Science,” blends political satire with tongue-twisting speed in the vein of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Modern Major General.”

But “Pippin’s” strongest performance arrives in its second act. Kristine Reese plays Catherine (Pippin’s “ordinary, common” wife) with a quirky, comic timing reminiscent of Kristin Chenoweth. Reese and Lips share a warm, authentic chemistry that drives the second act even through its anti-climactic conclusion. For all the spectacle and glamour throughout (including Scott Pask’s beautifully rendered circus tent design), the message of modest ambitions plays most honestly at the end, when the stage is stripped bare.

“Pippin”

7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 27, Wednesday, Jan. 28 & Thursday, Jan. 29; 8 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 30; 2 p.m. & 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31; 1 p.m. & 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1. Tickets starting at $34 Wharton Center, 750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing. (517) 353-1982, whartoncenter.com