Ha Ha Da Vinci: Music, Magic, Mayhem

Hailed as “Imaginative, intelligent, and strangely mesmerizing” by the San Diego Union Tribune, Phina Pipia brings award-winning solo show to Milan.

A tuba lights the way, beds make music, paintings come to life, and a radio delivers a message from the past in a whimsical production that combines illusion, music, and theater. When a grad student discovers that Leonardo da Vinci and his collaborator, magician and mathematician Luca Pacioli, invented a time machine, she is zapped back to the Renaissance. It’s up to her to decode their notes and solve a 15th-century mystery so that she can return to the present. 

Winner of the San Diego International Fringe Festival’s Outstanding Solo Performance Award, the Vancouver Fringe Festival’s Joanna Maratta Award, the Critic’s Choice Award for Best Solo Show - Musical at Orlando Fringe, Artist Pick and Venue Pick Awards at the Minnesota Fringe, and named a Top Pick at the San Diego Fringe by PBS, Ha Ha Da Vinci invites audiences of all ages into a world where they can safely expect the delightfully unexpected. 

PRESS:

“Terrific” - The New York Times

“Impossible to resist” - Montreal Gazette

“Imaginative, intelligent, and strangely mesmerizing” - The San Diego Union Tribune

“Enchanting” - Pioneer Press

“A celebration of art” - Orlando Sentinel

“Heartwarming, magical, suffused with originality” - Orlando Weekly

Tickets for Ha Ha Da Vinci can be purchased at: https://www.liveticket.it/opera.aspx?Id=586917

Venue 1: Quarta Parete Atelier Teatrale di Anna Ginevra Ongaro

Venue 2: Teatro Officine Puecher

Show runs:

Quarta Parete Atelier Teatrale di Anna Ginevra Ongaro

Mezzanino della stz. P.ta Vittoria del Pass. Ferroviario - ingresso da Viale Molise, Milano, MI

THURS 02 OCT at 7:00 - In Italian

FRI 03 OCT at 9:00 - In English

SAT 04 OCT at 7:00 - In Italian

SUN 05 OCT at 9:00 - In English

Teatro Officine Puecher

Via Castellino da Castello 9, Milano, MI

THURS 09 OCT at 9:00 - In Italian

FRI 10 OCT at 9:00 - In English

SAT 11 OCT at 7:00 - In Italian

SUN 12 OCT at 9:00 - In English

The story behind Ha Ha Da Vinci: 

When Phina Pipia learned that magician Luca Pacioli authored the first book on sleight of hand magic during the Renaissance, and that the book was illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci, she was hooked. “I was lit up with an electric sense of curiosity, driven to find out everything I could about what these two artists made together, what kind of conversations they had, how they came up with ideas,” says Pipia, “the more I learned, the more this show seemed to roll out at my feet like a magic carpet. I simply stepped aboard and went for a ride.”

The daughter of a professional magician, Pipia grew up in a house where the laws of physics were defied on a daily basis. “I sometimes joke that I have a permanent suspension of disbelief,” she says, “as a toddler, I never learned that objects tossed up into the air would come down, or that a coin closed in my hand would be there when I opened it again… illusion was a part of life, and as a result, I still believe that just about anything is possible.” Ha Ha Da Vinci is steeped in that sense of wonder.

Ha Ha Da Vinci was developed in residence at the Centrum Foundation for the Arts in 2020 and in partnership with The Chameleon Theater in Port Townsend, Washington. It toured the US, Canada, and Europe to critical acclaim in 2022, 2023, and 2024. 

A triple threat with a flair for sleight-of-hand: 

As a professional dancer, Pipia worked in New York City with choreographers Merce Cunnhnigham, Julian Barnett and Cori Kresge. There, she co-founded a production company, Generation Goat Rocket, staging original musicals that earned critical acclaim both in the United States and abroad. After moving West, she began performing as one half of the double sousaphone duo The Pipia Sisters, toured with the magic show The Psychic Dynasty, and worked as the bassist and vocalist with several west coast bands including Kozmopolis and the Unexpected Brass Band. Pipia released her first solo album and its companion songbook, Outside of the Movies, in 2020, and her new album, Normal Times – which interweaves electronic beats, brass melodies, and vocals – is scheduled for release in December of 2026.