Pippin

"Pippin, who is the heir to the throne of Charlemagne is regularly faced with the opposite of his desires from the world around him. Whilst he desires the likes of beauty, fame, magic and glory, he must settle for lust, religion, sex and politics. But this is not the whole story; in Pippin we are not simply presented with this story but instead we are witnesses to it via an acting troupe attempting to tell his tale. It is based on the real life people who lived in the Middle Ages though the creative minds behind it have utilised their artistic licence to add extra punch to the plot."

So says the on-line copy!

Take medieval classic power struggles, epic journey structure, 70s songs, Tron-like designs and what do you get: a complete incoherent mess. Such was the level of anachronisms at war with the wafer-thin story line, it is no wonder the producers threw everything at this revival in an attempt to create a worthy production for the excellent Chocolate Factory. Alas, no amount of updating and concept-driven-packaging can rescue a musical that, at its core, is bad. I did admire the techno-wizardry and the Fosse-esque choreography, but, at the end of the day, Charlemagne should stay in the past, the 70s glam rock should remain on ipod shuffle and futuristic game-play really should save its spectacle for XBox. Valiant effort. Just did not work.