Only In My Dreamz: The Pippin Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FG Productions Announce Final Casting for Broadway’s 2012-13 Season, Pippin Tumbles into Role of Fangirl Favorite

New York, New York – 16 January 2012 – Fangirl Alliance Productions, LCC (the FGs) has announced that casting for the 2012-13 Broadway season has finally been completed—and not a moment too soon—with Diane Paulus’ production of Pippin filling the role of Obvious Fangirl Favorite when it begins performances March 23^rd at the Music Box Theater.

Pippin’s casting marks the culmination of a grueling—and frankly, often boring-as-fuck—search, which began on the eve of Newsies opening in March of 2012 and spanned nearly ten months. In that time many shows were rumored to be up for the role, from a long-speculated, FGs’ wet-dream production of Regina Spektor’s Beauty—frequently  imagined to star John Gallagher Jr.—to the Stark Sands vehicle Kinky Boots and Cinderella, featuring Santino Fontana. Toward the end of the year Aaron Tveit’s mere presence in the big screen adaptation of Les Miserables distracted the FGs from the search almost entirely. But, with Diner’s early January departure from the 2012-13 season roster, panic set in over the dwindling number of cute boys belting on Broadway and the search heated up once again.

According to the casting call posted last March, the FGs sought a musical starring a “handsome, non-threatening, slightly confused young man in need of affection,” an “ordinary, but beautiful, but ordinary [female] love interest… [with] a dash of gumption” and/or a “fierce, take-charge, modern [female lead] who can sang.” Additional roles required included “Handsome Chorus Boy” and “Comic Relief.” The casting call also detailed the need for a minimum of “three catchy songs that can be belted with friends while waiting in a ticket rush line,” a “sweet, earnest love song you can imagine dancing to at your wedding,” and one scene wherein “either the Cute Boy or Handsome Chorus Boy are shirtless, preferably both.”

While Pippin was a late entrant in the race, upon close inspection its casting as Obvious Fangirl Favorite feels, well, obvious.  Starring the handsome but lost Pippin, a prince searching for an extraordinary life—a journey lead by the fierce-as-fuck female Lead Player—who ultimately finds fulfillment with his ordinary, girl-next-door true love Catherine, Pippin’s primary roles easily hit all the right notes.

Meanwhile, with up-and-comer (and BRIT with a devilishly cute accent) Matthew James Thomas in the role of Pippin, Paulus’ production gives the FGs someone totally new to swoon over and cyber-stalk until their fingertips go numb. As the Lead Player, established Broadway star and Tony/Olivier Nominee Patina Miller belts her damn face off in no uncertain terms. Plus, this production features a particularly attractive and fit chorus full of very bendy, likely fun-in-the-sack dancers and acrobats—the handsomest of all, a British circus boy named Orion Griffiths, is basically shirtless at all times—and the perfect comic relief in the form of Broadway’s beloved, two-time Tony Winner Andrea Martin. This shit is basically FG catnip.

After having auditioned this production of Pippin at the A.R.T. in Boston, where their hearts swelled to the point of exploding with joy, the FGs knew they’d finally found their show. One noted that the production—particularly in big numbers like “Morning Glow” and “Extraordinary”—was so exciting and joyful that she was unable to keep still in her seat. Another told us that she almost tripped over her own two-feet when, after a post-show talkback, handsome circus boy Orion Griffiths smiled at her.

With Pippin staking its corner of the sky at the Music Box Theater on March 23^rd ahead of an April 25^th opening, the FGs finally feel as though the season can begin. They’ve shifted focus from casting to strategizing for the potential ticket rush/lotto system and stalking bootlegs online so they can erase the memories of a particularly lackluster fall and prepare for a truly extraordinary spring.

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Contact:
Fangirl Alliance Productions, LLC
the.tacular@gmail.com
212.555.FANZ

Related: Open Audition – Obvious Fangirl Favorite – Broadway

Photo: A.R.T.