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CURTAIN UP: This week, we spotlight the musical Pippin, which opened 54 years ago this week on Broadway. It opened on October 23, 1972, and ran for 1,944 performances. The musical has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed and choreographed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto.

The cast was led by Ben Vereen as Leading Player, John Rubinstein as Pippin, Eric Berry as Charlemagne, Leland Palmer as Fastrada, Irene Ryan as Berthe, and Jill Clayburgh as Catherine.

The first TV commercial that actually showed scenes from a Broadway show was from Pippin. The 60-second commercial showed Ben Vereen and two chorus dancers, Candy Brown and Pamela Sousa, in the instrumental dance sequence from “Glory”. The commercial ended with the tagline, “You can see the other 119 minutes of Pippin live at the Imperial Theatre, without commercial interruption.”

“Curtain Up” is our weekly program playing a complete cast recording from Overture to Finale. It premieres on Friday at 8pm EST with two re-broadcasts – the following Monday at 2am EST and Wednesday at 11am EST. You can listen online here on our website or via apps and devices (Apple iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Echo/Alexa etc.).