A Broadway presence for over half a century, Donald Pippin has worked on some of the greatest hits in musical theater as a conductor, music director, arranger, and songwriter. His celebrated collaborations with Jerry Herman, spanning several decades, include Mame and La Cage aux Folles. In 1963, he won a Tony® for his work in Oliver!, and in 1986 he was awarded a Drama Desk Special Award for musical direction and commitment to theater.
Born in Macon, Georgia, in 1931, Pippin notched his first Broadway credit in 1955, when he provided extra dance music for the musical Ankles Aweigh. For the 1960 hit Irma la Douce, which ran for 524 performances, Pippin was assistant conductor.
His breakthrough, however, came in 1963, when he took his place as Music Director and Conductor of Oliver!, the musical after Dickens’s Oliver Twist that proved a huge success on Broadway, with over 774 performances. The show won multiple Tonys®, with Pippin snagging one for Best Conductor and Musical Director. As if that production hadn’t been enough to keep him busy in 1963, Pippin was Musical Director for 110 in the Shade, another hit musical, this one based on N.R. Nash’s play The Rainmaker.