Michael Arden relishes revisiting and reinventing Pippin.

BY LES SPINDLE

Those who saw mid-20s actor-singer Michael Arden in the title role of Reprise's 2005 revival of Stephen Schwartz's musical fable Pippin will undoubtedly remember him. This gifted Texas-born performer combines appealing boyish looks with a character actor's range and a musical theater star's moxie. L.A. audiences will get to see Arden portray this character once again, but under quite different circumstances. Deaf West Theatre and Center Theatre Group, which several years ago collaborated quite fortuitously in director Jeff Calhoun's remarkable reinvention of the musical Big River — first at the Mark Taper Forum and then on Broadway — have joined forces anew to work their special brand of magic on the bittersweet musical fable Pippin.

This show will be a homecoming for Arden in another way. He made his Broadway debut as Huck Finn in Calhoun's Big River, playing alongside acclaimed deaf actor Tyrone Giordano as Tom Sawyer. Arden and Giordano will share the role of Pippin, an opportunity that pleases Arden immensely. He says, “I have to start at the beginning, which is great for me. This will be a completely different Pippin from what people have seen, and not just in a Deaf West way. I think this version will sort of blow everyone away. It's very exciting, more than the sum of its parts. I'm hoping I can take what I've learned before working with Deaf West, and build on it for this show. It's also thrilling to be in a situation in which you are very comfortable with all of the people you are working with—the director, the cast, some of the designers. You don't have to go through the process of getting to know everyone. You can dive right in.” Arden adds that working with CTG for the first time is an additional high for him because the company's artistic director Michael Ritchie gave Arden his Equity card in 2004 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Pennsylvania. “And Jeff gave me my first Broadway show, Big River,“ he says. “All of my worlds seem to be converging in Pippin.” Of working with Deaf West's unique style of orchestrating the efforts of hearing, deaf and hard of hearing performers into a graceful whole, Arden comments, “Doing Big River was definitely life-changing for me. I was able to share something I do with a culture I would have never thought possible. It opened my eyes as to what theater can do and who it can reach.”

In 2004, Arden starred Off-Broadway in Damon Intrabartolo and Jon Hartmere Jr.'s galvanizing gay-themed musical Bare, a Pop Opera, about repressed gay passion and ultimate tragedy in a Catholic school. This show had its world premiere in L.A, in 2000, but Arden was not involved at that point. He remarks, “It was great to be in Bare, being 21 and playing a character close to your own age that has been written as a fully realized character. To this day, people tell me that show really had an effect on them, saying how much it meant to them, and helped them through hard times.” Bare has evolved into a cult hit, and another talent who was associated with it is currently on a career fast track—director Kristin Hanggi helms the current Off-Broadway musical smash Rock of Ages, set on the Sunset Strip, soon headed for Broadway, followed by a pending film adaptation.

Among Arden's other talents is composing musical theater songs and he recently enjoyed his first taste of directing, serving as assistant director for A Tale of Two Cities on Broadway. Last year, he was thrilled to perform with Barbra Streisand. He says, “It was amazing-doing duets with her and touring Europe for two months, with a 60-piece orchestra. It was overwhelming, playing to 40,000 people a night in those arenas. She's an incredible musician—quite stunning. I'm so glad I got to do that.”

What are Arden's hopes for the future? “I'll be happy to keep progressing and be a well-rounded person in the performing arts. I guess I'm sort of like Pippin—searching for what that will be.”

Pippin continues through March 15 at the Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. centertheatregroup.org.