It’s officially less than a month until the start of the spring musical, and this year’s show, with the introduction of some never-before-seen tricks, is proving to be a taste of something different for the theater department.

  Pippin will run from April 1 through 3 at the high school, a show that sophomore Michaela Bryan describes as a great departure from musicals of the past.

  “It’s a lot darker than most of the shows that we’ve done,” said Bryan. “It’s…more centralized around characters and not so much a whole storyline.”

  The show-within-the-show follows the journey of Prince Pippin as he struggles to find his place in life, as told by a traveling group of circus performers – each lead character represents a different “freakshow” stereotype, accompanied by dancers and others with special skills.

  Senior dance captain Maura Hain recalls that the process for choosing which talents to showcase was an arduous one.

  “…We tested everyone, and we pretty much just sent them out there and said, ‘Show us what you can do,’” Hain said. “…So we saw what we saw, we took out what we really liked…we pretty much had certain sections that needed specific choreography, and then all of the free time between those, we threw in all those cool tricks, and gave them their special moments.”

  Those moments are filled by dancers like sophomore Becca Martin, who asserts that each ability will be memorable.

  “…There’s a lot of…unique personal talent,” said Martin. “Stilt walking, juggling, sword swallowing, contortionism, and aerial acrobatics…I walk on stilts. [I practiced by] walking in my street and going up and down the aisles in the auditorium.”

  Bryan echoes this dedication to perfection in her area of expertise: gymnastics.

  “I did…competitive gymnastics for seven years,” Bryan said. “…I do most of the aerial work because I take classes on Sundays now…and I just dance and stuff like that.”

  Even the dancing in Pippin isn’t your average musical theater fare – according to choreographer Michelle Joyce, this divergent style comes from dance legend Bob Fosse, who first translated Pippin’s songs into movement.

  “[Fosse’s] numbers can sometimes be very…subtle, so where a lot of musicals have very big, over-the-top numbers, Pippin has more subtle numbers that sort of go in the the background and just add to the scene, [they’re] not necessarily the entire scene,” Joyce said.

  This style, Hain uses, adds to the overall spectacle of the show: every aspect brings something original to the table.

  “Instead of normal musical theater happy dancing, it’s a lot of tricks; we have a lot of acrobatics,” said Hain. “I feel like people are going to be surprised with what they see because they don’t really know that kids from our school have the talents that they do…it’s pretty cool.”

  If you’re in the market to see a sensational show featuring your own neighbors and classmates performing stunts like unicycling, mid-air acrobatics, and tumbling in addition to the more traditional song and dance of musical theater, Pippin is for you – be sure to get your tickets now.