“Join us, come and waste an hour or two… We’ve got magic to do, just for you. We’ve got miracle plays to play. We’ve got parts to perform, hearts to warm, Kings and things to take by storm, as we go on our way,” PIPPIN’s Leading Player sang to the audience at Luhrs on Wednesday night during the Broadway musical’s opening number, “Magic to Do.”

Following the brief musical introduction, the curtains parted to unveil a stage packed to the brim with spectacle and wonder — and just like that, the magic began.

Throughout the course of the show, the PIPPIN cast led the audience on a comic and emotional journey through main character, Pippin’s perpetual struggle to find purpose and meaning in his life. After facing various internal and external battles that fogged his path of self-discovery, Pippin came to a valuable conclusion that can be prevalent to the lives of all — it is the simplicities in life rather than the extravagancies in which we find the most meaning.

PIPPIN as a whole sported a sense of ingenuity, as it was casted entirely with quadruple threat performers. Each performer could not only sing, dance and act on the level of professional Broadway performers, but they were also capable of engaging in body contorting tricks, acrobatics and mindboggling illusions.

The athleticism that the musical demanded left the audience in awe and on the literal edge of their seats as they feasted their eyes on tricks that tested the realms of typical human strength and capability. Some of these mind and gravity defying tricks included human jump rope, aerial silk acrobatics, juggling fire and lifting a ‘dead’ man from the ground without touching it.

The amount of time that was invested in perfecting the tricks onstage was obvious as few, if any mistakes at all were visible from the audience.

PIPPIN united the ages with its suspenseful, daring and attention-grabbing circus meets theatre production. With a theme packed storyline and illusions that tricked even the sharpest of eyes, it truly was a family-friendly performance.

And if you are eager to know how it is that the cast accomplished the surrealism of some of the performance’s best tricks and illusions, to them there is no other way real to explain it – aside from magic.

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