Pippin - Hope Mill Manchester / Southwark Playhouse

I loved the production at the Menier a few years ago, although I know it wasn't to everyone's taste. It had a great cast (Harry Hepple, Matt Rawle, Frances Ruffelle, Louise Gold) and a lot of thought and effort had been put into the design, although it just missed the mark. Some of the songs are wonderful (Corner of the Sky, No Time At All, With You) so I'd love to hear them again, and see this different production. (In fact, I'll add it to the Underrated Musical list!)

It's been mentioned in the "underrated musicals" thread that the current US-Tour of Pippin is in Amsterdam right now (until 10 April). While it still isn't London, I believe a hop across the channel may be easier and cheaper for you Brits than a hop across the Atlantic, so you might consider a trip to Amsterdam.

I'm going to see it there tomorrow evening, so I'll report back. I did enjoy the Menier production, by the way, and its computer game concept. I think Pippin just suffers from being a typical product of the 70s, when strong books didn't really matter (see also Godspell or Hair) but it has enough nice songs to tide over the evening and I'm curious about the circus elements of this new production.

This production is now playing at the Carre theatre in Amsterdam for 5 weeks.

I saw both the chocolate factory production and the recent Broadway revival, both were obviously completely different takes on the show.

Whilst I really enjoyed the chocolate factory production, the circus themed revival really worked. Especially Patina, who was just fantastic,

I saw the recent Broadway production and wasn't that impressed. The circus tricks were visually impressive but, barring a few of the musical numbers I thought the book and plot were messy and overall I left disappointed.
I nominated this in the "overrated" thread. I don't think different staging would help me enjoy it more, it's just not for me. I like Forbidden Broadway's take on it though!

It's one of those shows where a brilliant direction can improve an average material.

Been pricing up Amsterdam. Jeez since when did that city get so expensive for hotels? Will have to give it a miss 

The Chocolate Factory production if good could of easily transfer to Broadway, it got bad press, Barry and Fran Weissler were actively looking to bring Pippin to Broadway and worked with the Chocolate Factory with La Cage Aux Follies' realising this production was lame, they turned instead to Harvard, via ART and Diane Paulus.

Thanks for the tip, I was looking at a couple of nights midweek as I have leave to use up. I did find some more reasonable prices on Air BnB but then went to look at the flight again and that had gone up by £50 (it's always more from Manchester). The all-knowing theatre gods are saying "no" so I'll leave it 

Ill make do with YouTube clips. I do love those first two songs 

Well, this is all very useful to know! Glad I stumbled upon this!

I always stay at the Casa400 hotel. This hotel is close to the Amsterdam Amstel train/metro station (about a 5 to 7 minute walk). And just 2 metro stops (about 3 minutes) away from the Carre theatre. Because the hotel is outside the city centre it is not that expensive, and you get al large, clean room with a nice bathroom and a mini fridge (small supermarket at the station).
I stayed there last sunday to see Pippin. Great show, very good cast!

Amsterdam is the final advertised stop of the tour.

Just been looking at the cast and it's interesting that quite a few of the original broadway cast are back for the final leg (but didn't do the North American tour).