'Pippin,' 'Kinky Boots' and 'Matilda' on Broadway

Broadway is a three-ring circus this season, when it comes to musicals. Pippin, Kinky Boots and Matilda are all high-flying spectacle and daredevil entertainment, offering instant gratification and plenty of cotton candy.

Diane Paulus, artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre in Boston, has dared to revive Pippin, a musical so sacred that no one has touched it on Broadway since Bob Fosse, the razzle-dazzle king, directed it in 1972 with Ben Vereen. After that, Pippin vanished into theater diaspora, where it has been sustained in high school and college productions.

Frankly, the tale of Pippin isn't much to write home about. A young prince searches for his identity and finds it— not in magic and miracles, but in the arms of a beauteous blond (and her pre-teen son).

But Paulus is a fearless reviver of classics. Her Donkey Show (1999) breathed fiery life into Shakespeare's immortal Midsummer Night's Dream (she set it in a disco, with drugs as her fairy dust). Her smashing 2008 revival of Hair lit the night sky over Central Park and then moved to Broadway (and thereafter to a global tour).

Pippin is set in the Middle Ages, so it's all great fun (knights, armor, battles, etc.). Still, the story is simple enough to survive a high-concept production. And Paulus has certainly given it one— imagine "Candide meets Cirque du Soleil."

The Fosse trademark

Paulus's pastiche consists of a fusion of three distinct styles: First, the inimitable Fosse choreography, whose trademark consists of the silhouette, outstretched hand, straw hat, baton and long-legged stance.

Second, Paulus imposes a circus motif. She's invited Gypsy Snider (of the Canadian troupe 7 Doigts de la Main) to choreograph the astonishing acrobatic acts that made her troupe world-famous (see my BSR review of Traces). She has dancers jumping through hoops, swinging on trapezes, balancing on cylinder towers, leaping through fire— you name it. (You'll be exhausted, just watching it).

Third, Paulus adds her own signature style, made memorable in Hair. No one moves a company of actors around a stage like Paulus "“ they're like one mass of pulsating, throbbing humanity. Her ability to catch whirling, writhing bodies in sudden arresting montages is stunning.

The result is a dazzling circus act, although there's so much going on visually that at times you're overwhelmed. And in the end, after the "tent" is folded, you leave the theater and— poof!— it all fades away.

Still, you might be left with the memory of a single magical moment. It has no tricks, no gimmicks, no special effects"“ only two talented performers (Patina Miller as the narrator and Matthew James Thomas as Pippin), alone on an empty stage in a rapturous Fosse routine…. just dancing.

Feisty cross-dressers

Kinky Boots offers daredevil dancing of a different kind. This high profile, high-kicking musical by Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein tells the improbable story (based on a true one) of Charlie, young heir of a failing provincial English shoe factory. Salvation comes in the unlikely form of Lola"“ a black-skinned cross-dresser in need of a new pair of stilettos.

Inspired, Charlie invites Lola to help him turn the factory around by creating a new niche market: footwear for cross-dressers. This unexpected collaboration (straight and gay, white and black, insider and outcast) provides a story with a heartfelt celebration of friendship, individuality and acceptance. Together, Charlie and Lola struggle against all odds— economic and societal— and triumph in the end.

It sounds sticky-sweet, but on the contrary, Kinky Boots is the feistiest, sassiest show on Broadway, thanks to Lola (the fabulous Billy Porter) and his/her outrageous troupe of drag queens called "The Angels." These plumed, sequined creatures, averaging six to seven feet tall, strut their stuff so sensationally that soon Charlie's macho factory workers join the act, donning red-patent, thigh-high, five-inch-heel stretch boots themselves and dancing up a storm. You too may want to in join them in kicking up your heels in the face of conformity and intolerance.

Headmistress from hell

Matilda, a glorious gift from the Royal Shakespeare Company, offers the ultimate magic trick: the blend of a beautiful book (Roald Dahl's modern-day fable), a lovely score, a captivating company of child actors, and a surprising and sobering theme.

Prepare to enter the world of magical realism. Matilda Wormwood has been born into a family of neglectful, scornful lowlifes whose name lives up to their attributes. The super-precocious Matilda seeks refuge in a world of literature and fantasy, and finds herself, at age five, more erudite than her illiterate parents and inarticulate, TV-addicted brother. Moreover, she's possessed with magical powers.

As for her formal education, Matilda encounters more horrendous obstacles. Her headmistress-from-hell, Miss Trunchbull (played by an outlandish, cross-dressing Bertie Carvel) torments her with ridicule and abuse, punishing Matilda's academic achievements by pulling her pigtails and imprisoning her in the "Chokey" (a dark reference to a troubling reality: child abuse in the school system). The only safe ports in the stormy sea of childhood are a loving librarian and a sweet teacher aptly named Miss Honey.

Thanks to her supernatural powers, Matilda uncovers a dark secret in Miss Trunchbull's past. With the aid of other "revolting children" (the name of this musical's exuberant finale), Matilda leads an army of under-ten-year-olds against the egregious educator and triumphs.

As played by the diminutive Milly Shapiro, Matilda is not picture-perfect, like the cloying tykes in Annie, Oliver or Billy Elliott. This child possesses a weapon that others lack: She can read.

Matilda features an inspired set by Rob Howell, offering every letter of the alphabet plastered all over the theater's proscenium. It reflects the jubilant triumph of knowledge over ignorance, tolerance over cruelty, education over illiteracy, and (you'll love this one) books over TV.