Music Theatre Company Modernizes Pippin

Friday marks the official run of 's rendition of Pippin—featuring a different take on this coming of age story.

“My idea is we can hopefully translate this show to now—it’s the story of a young man, based on the fictional life of the son of Charlemagne named Pippin who graduates from college doesn't know what he wants to do with himself,” said Jessica Redish, the Founding Artistic Director of The Music Theatre Company.

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While the production is large for The Music Theatre, an 18-person cast accompanied by a five-person band, Redish said it's a scale-back compared to traditional showings.

"It's been really a very interesting change—we put a big dance show into a smaller space," Redish said, "It's a lot of simple, but hopefully elegant dance instead."

In addition to these innovations, the spring show will also feature new faces.

"We want to give more and more artists an opportunity on stage—we have few returning people while everyone else is new," she said, "because of the different nature of the play, the cast is completely different."

And as Pippin gets underway, Redish said TMTC is in the planning phases of next season.

"Our following season we have a goal to present multiple big shows in a year and per our mission we're interested in having those be completely new titles," she said.

Pippin runs through May 6 with showtimes on Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sunday Matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased online or by calling 847.579.4900. 

Additional reporting by Jacob Nelson.