The Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department‘s 2023-24 Mainstage Season continues with Pippin, the Tony Award-winning musical by Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson. The production runs April 25 through May 4 in the Courtyard Theatre of the Getz Theatre Center of Columbia College, located at 72 E. 11th St. in Chicago’s South Loop. Student discounts are available. For tickets and more information – including a complete cast and production team list for this LIVE, IN-PERSON production – click here.

The production is directed by Daryl Brooks, the Producing Managing Director of Chicago’s Black Ensemble Theatre and a Columbia College Theatre Department faculty member. The choreographer is Columbia College Theatre Department faculty member Enneréssa LaNette Davis, founder and executive director of Praize Productions, Inc. and artistic director of PPI’s Performing Arts Academy and RIZE professional dance company. The show’s musical director is Columbia College alum Kailey Rockwell ’13, a graduate of the Columbia College Chicago Music Department‘s Bachelor of Music Program with a Concentration in Contemporary, Urban, and Popular Music.

Brooks, Davis, and Rockwell lead an all-student cast and a production team of Columbia College faculty, alumni, and students.

The musical uses the premise of a troupe of traveling players to tell the story of Pippin, a young medieval prince on his search for personal fulfillment. Pippin and his father, the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, are characters derived from two historical figures of the early Middle Ages, though the plot is fictional and presents no historical accuracy.

Pippin premiered on Broadway in 1972 for a five-year run. The original production was directed by Bob Fosse HDR ’73, who won a 1973 Tony Award for his direction. Also in 1973, Fosse received an Oscar for his direction of the movie Cabaret, an Emmy for his direction of the TV special Liza with a Z, and an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Columbia College Chicago.

Pippin features a score by songwriter Stephen Schwartz, whose numerous credits include the stage musicals Wicked, Godspell, Working, and (with Leonard Bernstein) Mass as well as the films Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt.