Video: Josh Kaufman Rehearses for Broadway's Pippin

Indy native Josh Kaufman, strikingly appearing without beard or spectacles (or fedora, for that matter), has taken to New York City’s Music Box Theatre in preparation for his Broadway debut as the titular character in Pippin. “I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free,” his Pippin belts at one point. “Got to find my corner of the sky.”
He’s been in rehearsals for nearly three weeks now. “There’s a lot to it as far as obviously your typicals, the songs and the lines, but also the acrobatics,” Kaufman says. “There’s a lot to get in my head, but it’s getting there.” Of losing his beard, he says, “It was strange because I’ve had the beard for quite a while. So it was kind of a ritual, sort of ‘get rid of it all at once.’ But I’m used to it now.”
Here’s footage of him singing two songs from Pippin, “Morning Glow” and “Corner of the Sky”:

“It’s such a unique show,” he says of Pippin, adding, “It’s a pretty up-and-down sort of journey for Pippin. … Maybe this isn’t something that people who have watched me and seen what I’ve done would have normally come to do, but I hope that maybe it’ll bring some of those people out and they’ll realize, ‘Hey, this is an amazing show.'” Kaufman will inhabit the role of Pippin on Broadway from October 31 (see a “dark” show on Halloween!) through January 4, during Broadway’s lucrative holiday season.
So don’t ask where he’s going, just listen when he’s gone. And far away you’ll hear him singing softly to the dawn.
Video via broadway.com