Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

In ‘Pippin,’ Lucie Arnaz has finally run off with the circus

Lucie Arnaz in Pippin

Terry Shapiro

Lucie Arnaz plays the role of Berthe in the musical “Pippin,” which runs from Tuesday through Nov. 30 at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

Lucie Arnaz will always be known and recognized for being the daughter of entertainment legends, the reality of being born to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. But around the production of “Pippin,” the touring musical in which Lucie Arnaz appears, she’s recognized for her acrobatic acumen.

“Sure, yes, absolutely people remember my parents,” Arnaz says during a phone conversation before “Pippin” begins its six-day run at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday night. “But the thing is, the ‘Pippin’ experience has changed things a tiny bit at the stage door. I used to go out and they’d say, ‘Great show! We loved your mom!’ or something like that. I never hear that anymore. Now I hear, ‘How did you do that!?’ ”

“So from now on, I think I need to do justifying acts. I have to put my life at stake in order to have them skip over my heritage. That’s the price I have to pay (laughs), but I’ll gladly pay it!”

Arnaz plays the role of the title character’s grandmother, Berthe, fantastically portrayed by Andrea Martin on Broadway and on tour. Martin helped create the scene in which Berthe rises above the stage on a trapeze and continues singing while dangling in midair and hanging upside down.

“She created this wonderful bit in the show that’s just a jewel for me to perform every night. I’m forever in her debt,” Arnaz says. “When you’re in the beginning stages of a Broadway show, when it’s being created, the people in the show have a lot of input as to how a number is developed. With her, they created something really marvelous. It’s so jaw-dropping every night.”

The run for “Pippin” is brief, and it will be one of the hottest tickets in the current Broadway Series at Reynolds Hall. The show won a Tony Award for Best Musical Revival as an adaptation of the 1972 Bob Fosse-directed original, and Martin was honored for Best Featured Actress.

The story follows a prince in the early stages of manhood attempting to find fulfillment in life, toggling between happiness and the glory found in performing daredevil circus stunts.

“It’s the story of what’s important in life, not wasting your time,” Arnaz says. “Spring turns to fall in no time at all, babe. I have five children. I try to impart on them how precious life is and how you have to enjoy the sunsets and enjoy a picnic every now and then.”

Arnaz is 63, just three years younger than her character’s age. She says, “I really feel, in many respects, that I have run away and joined the circus. I’ve never in my life been on a stage where there’s a body spinning through the air, a man juggling knives, a person up here hanging upside down on a hoop, somebody climbing a silk 35 feet in the air, and it’s all going on simultaneously.”

The artistry of the performers onstage is still astonishing to Arnaz, even after performing in the show for four months.

“You start with the Bob Fosse choreography and that great dancing, and you have this very simple but meaningful story, and it is in this framework of acrobatics with jaw-dropping stunts and magic,” she says. “This is real magic. Not chandeliers falling from the ceiling, but people doing things that make you go, ‘What! How did he do that?’ ”

Arnaz finishes her tour with the production in January. Her focus outside the show has actually been on Las Vegas, as she would love to bring her “Latin Roots” big-band show to the city. The production, which is a show band of 12 pieces backing Arnaz, has performed across the country but was back-burnered as she embarked on her “Pippin” experience.

“I put it together a few years ago as a tribute to the musical heritage I have, and it’s a great show, with the band and a lot of videos and costume changes,” says Arnaz, who two decades ago performed in major Strip hotel-casinos, including Caesars Palace, Desert Inn and the Las Vegas Hilton. “I hearken back because there are a lot of shows onstage in Las Vegas that are huge production numbers, with lots of dazzle and special effects, and that’s great.

“There’s a space for that, but I come from another era, as you know, where a guy like a Wayne Newton or a woman like Lena Horne could come out in front of a band and just kill for two hours. They just sang great songs with tremendous arrangements, and people went nuts. That’s something I’ve always admired.”

It is with great affection that Arnaz mentions Newton, a family friend for six decades and a guest on her mother’s TV shows “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.” Arnaz was a teen in those days and happily concedes that she was smitten with Mr. Las Vegas.

“Aaaah, my first crush. Yes, yes,” Arnaz says, laughing. “We made a record together. He brought me to Las Vegas, we had breakfast at his parents’ house. I mean, I thought, this is it. We’re getting married. I’m marrying Wayne Newton. That’s a done deal, yeah. I always wanted to be Mrs. Las Vegas, though, you know? If you married him, you’d be Mrs. Las Vegas, right?”

Arnaz laughs and adds that she has been married to the actor Larry Luckinbill for 34 years, “So I guess it worked out all right.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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