WASHINGTON — Lucie Arnaz was just 19 years old when she first saw “Pippin” on Broadway — a 1972 production that won director Bob Fosse a Tony, immortalized Roger O. Hirson’s story and cemented Stephen Schwartz’s music as showtunes standards.
“I was a musical-theatre nerd when I was little,” says Arnaz, daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. “I have such vivid memories of that show. I went and got the album immediately and memorized all the songs. … I just played that record until it collapsed.”
So you can imagine the joy Arnaz felt when she got a call from “Pippin” producer Barry Weissler to star as Pippin’s grandmother Berthe in a play that just won Best Musical Revival at the 2013 Tonys, a vote she herself cast as a Tony voter.
“I just thought, ‘This can’t be happening!’ I’m so excited,” Arnaz says. “The smartest thing I did was to not try to talk him out of hiring me, because it’s turned out to be one of the best parts I’ve ever had.”
“Pippin” opens to the Washington public Wednesday night at the National Theatre. The D.C. production is identical to the Broadway revival: the same costumes, the same sets and the same Tony-winning director, Diane Paulus.
Many of the show’s old traditions remain — the Hirson story, the Schwartz songs, the Fosse flair for choreography — only now the tale is placed inside a circus framework filled with acrobatics.
“I’m not hooked on. There are no nets or anything,” Arnaz says, knocking on wood. “I’ve been in the show five months now, and I still stand in the wings and go, ‘How did they do that?’ I’m just like a kid. I’ve run away and joined the circus.”
This circus cast is led by Sasha Allen (TV’s “The Voice”) as The Leading Player and Kyle Dean Massey as Pippin, a young prince searching for meaning and significance.
“They’re young kids and they’re so wonderful because they don’t realize how freaking lucky they are to be in a big, big hit like this,” says Arnaz, who’s spent 45 years in showbiz, including a Golden Globe nomination across Neil Diamond and Sir Laurence Olivier in “The Jazz Singer” (1980). “It’s a play filled with people who have talent that just makes my jaw drop every night.”
The biggest jaw-dropping feature is the chance to see Broadway’s original Pippin, actor John Rubinstein, the very Pippin that Arnaz saw on stage back in 1972, back in the same play, only now in the role of Charles. Arnaz says this came in handy during the four-week rehearsal.
“We got to ask John … what’s this really about? What is that moment supposed to be? What did Bob (Fosse) mean when he choreographed it like that?” Arnaz says.
She says Rubinstein “kept it real,” insisting the young actors play the comedy with a straight face.
“I grew up with folks who played it straight,” Arnaz says. “When you have a really good script … you don’t have to spin it in any direction. All you have to do is play it for real. You look at all the great comics out there — Robin Williams, God bless him — they played it for real.”
It’s a lesson Arnaz learned at a young age from her legendary parents, who pioneered the television sitcom with “I Love Lucy” (1951-1957). Young Lucie got her start acting alongside her mother on the spinoffs, “The Lucy Show” (1962-1968) and “Here’s Lucy” (1968-1974).
“With my mother, with my father and all the people surrounding them, the Vivian Vances, the Gale Gordons … this was a generation of people who generally didn’t come from television, because there was no television,” Arnaz says. “That’s why those shows survive and are still funny today.”
Arnaz says there are still great shows on TV, but she misses the old, three- camera approach.
“I think a lot of people (today) read the lines as if, ‘Wait’ll ya hear this one.’ Wink wink. You can’t wink at comedy,” Arnaz says. “A great show to watch to learn how to do comedy is ‘Friends.’ They have outrageous characters many of times, but they play it for real within that character, just like the best of the old shows used to do.”
Arnaz says she considers “Friends” in the same class as “Frasier,” “Seinfeld,” “Mary Tyler Moore” and “All in the Family” when it comes to shows that understand the art of the sitcom.
“I’ll probably be a very happy director someday because it irks me so much to see it done wrong,” she says. “I want to jump in there and say, ‘No, no. Wait! Stop!'”
Arnaz is directing a brand new Broadway musical comedy based on the old Shirley Booth TV show “Hazel” (1961-1966).
“They asked me to direct the Equity reading in New York, and I actually did that while I was on Broadway with ‘Pippin,’ Arnaz says. “I was juggling both, because we have acrobats and jugglers in our show and I learned how to do that. … If I can do a trapeze, directing shouldn’t scare me!”
Which brings us back to the high-flying “Pippin,” a play that’s sure to wow audiences during its Washington D.C. run at National Theatre through Jan. 4.
“I get goosebumps every night,” Arnaz says. “There’s a place at the end of the show where the leading player says to Pippin, ‘No costumes, no makeup, no music … and no magic.’ And no matter what I do as my player, I can’t go along with that. I just look up at my trapeze hanging there, I look in the wings, I look at all these wonderful people on stage with me … I just look up and go, ‘Thank you God for letting me do what I love to do in one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.'”
Hear the full interview below:
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