Patrick Honoré - Page 4

After successful productions of The Sound of Music, Evita, and Sunset Boulevard the three past summers, Festival Bruxellons! is this year presenting Frederick Loewe's and Alan Jay Lerner's musical masterpiece My Fair Lady in a new brilliant French adaptation by Stéphane Laporte, in collaboration with Jack Cooper and Simon Paco, both of whom, as they did Evita and Sunset, directed.

A year after his critically acclaimed Berlin Kabarett in the same Theatre de Poche in the Montparnasse neighborhood, Stephane Druet and his partner in crime Daphne Tesson are paying a well deserved tribute to their idol: The great Michel Legrand.

During her inaugural speech for a square named in honor of Marlene Dietrich in the posh 16th arrondissement in 2003, Ms. Beate Klarsfeld said, 'Though she's yet to be recognized as such, Marlene Dietrich is truly the female celebrity who dominated the 20th century in the domains of anti-hitlerian politics, the cinematic arts, and women's liberation. In all these areas, she was a driving force. What is the stuff of legend? Is it destiny or just life?'

In 1920s Paris, aristocrats, artists, veterans, businessmen, workers, and peasants all gather for drinks and music at The Baron's Tavern. But business is still not good enough for the pair of owners, who plan to close up shop soon and leave the city. Their star singer, and one's former mistress, is sought after by many of the customers, including Charles, a wealthy heir and only child. To help the tavern, whose eclectic clientele is so greatly attached, avoid shutting down and to help her boss seduce the coveted singer, Charles's maid comes up with the idea of transforming it into a big cabaret. But this will require a huge investment. Despite initial resistance from his father, who is reluctant to provide financing, Charles manages to pull the plan off, hiring dancers, musicians, and staff for performances . . . every night.

After several showcases, including one in the actual Eiffel Tower, La Tour de 300 metres, an original musical with books and lyrics by Marc Deren, finally has an extended run at the Theatre des Mathurins. The cast of 7, carried by the magic fingers of musical director extraordinaire John Florencio, takes us on a journey back to the turn of the 19th century with much authenticity and charm.

After Michel Le Grand's Donkeyskin, which gave the genius composer one more chance to see his immortal music on the stage and the intimate Sondheim review Marry Me a Little in the Studio, Theatre Marigny and Jean-Luc Choplin are now getting into the real thing by putting on a full production of classic musical with a entirely British creative team and cast playing and singing in English with subtitles. Though Theatre Marigny is much smaller than the Chatelet, similar productions there such as Kiss Me Kate and the Sondheim cycle were scheduled for only few weekd runs, An American in Paris was a Broadway tryout, so it easily sold out its two-month run, thanks in no small part to visitors from abroad. My Fair Lady, 42nd Street, and Singing in the Rain had already played in Paris before, although in French or on tour but were already part of the general public consciousness as movie favourites. Guys and Dolls, on the other hand, which has never been seen in Paris before or not even on tour, has an intrinsically American subject matter and only a now hardly watchable movie version, only known among French cinephiles as the only musical in which Marlon Brando appeared, teaming up with Frank Sinatra.

Creating a kids' musical based on a tale of the death of a little girl in appalling circumstances is making a risky bet, but in the case of The LittleMatch Girl at the Theatre de la Renaissance in Paris, a successful one. The book, by Anthony Michineau, is a small masterpiece of poetry and imagination. Without betraying Hans Christian Andersen's original tale, Michineau has transformed the story into a fantasy fable, where thelittle match girl, Emma, goes on a quest to save an imaginary kingdom.

After his extensive Stephen Sondheim cycle at Chatelet, which began with A Little Light Music in 2011 and ended with Passion in 2016, Jean-Luc Choplin is now going on with his introduction to the French public of his favorite Broadway composer at the Marigny Theater, presenting a lesser known song catalogue made of cuts from the master's earlier workers, woven under a themed story of a couple who never gets to meet up.

Life is a cabaret in Toulouse thanks to The Moulin des Roches Cabaret in the nearby village of Mauzac.

After Sunset Boulevard last summer and before My Fair Lady next season, both at Karreveld Castle, Brussels is staying alive through the winter with the sound of musicals, this time with a much meatier choice by Tobiarts Productions, the Pulitzer Prize and triple Tony Awards winner Next to Normal.

Jean-Paul Gaultier, the man with the most famous sailor shirt in the world, offers fans a first-time review, halfway between a musical review and a fashion show, as exuberant as it is provocative, based on his many lives.

The best musical theater workshop in Paris!

More than seven years after his first public reading at the now sadly gone 20eme Theater in Paris, the French adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman is still struggling to find a French producer despite the success it met with in the profession at the time and again at subsequent readings at the Alhambra Theater and last week at Bobino Theater. With the new French version of Chicago now successfully playing at Mogador Theater, it might be the right time to discover this underrated and too rarely revived masterpiece of Kander and Ebb, best known as the creator of Cabaret, Chicago and the title song of the movie New York, New York.

After five years of renovations, The Marigny Theater reopens in style, with an enchanted but not always so enchanting musical adaptation of Jacques Demy's popular film Donkeyskin (Peau d'Âne), best remembered for the songs of legendary film composer Michel Legrand.

Four years after treating us to a superb intimate production of Sweeney Todd, La Clef Des Champs is now tackling another Sondheim classic, Into the Woods, with the same talented director Olivier Benezech, giving us a definitely contemporary take on the immortal piece.

We Will Rock You, originally produced by Robert De Niro and written by Ben Elton, who, building on Queen's repertoire, collaborated with the remaining members of the group roger Taylor and Brian May, was one of the first highly successful jukebox musicals.  Opening in 2002 at the huge Dominion Theatrein London, where it run for 12 years, the show traveled to the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.  It was also a big hit in Australia, Japan and Russia.  And in 2006, it was produced in Portugal, Chilie, Argentina, Switzerland and Germany,  followed by long runs in Madrid, Vienna, Singapour and Hong-Kong.  The German language version also met with huge success in both Cologne and Stuttgart, but the Canadian production in Toronto, an obvious try-out, never made it to Broadway.  The reason clearly lies in the book, beyond silly compared to those of the now numerous other juke box musicals that hit the great white way towards the beginning of the millennium. 

The shadows of Kurt Weil, Kander and Ebb, and Bob Fosse are hanging high over the early summer theater season in Paris with two exceptional productions, Berlin Kabarett at the Theatre de Poche Montparnasse, May 24th - July 15th, and the ECM presentation of Willkommen im Cabaret at the Theatre des Varietes, June 24th - 25th.

Innovatively set in the unique Chateau de Karreveld, the greatest attraction of the Bruexellons! Summer Festival is proving to be the very first French version of Sunset Boulevard, flawlessly translated and adapted by Jack Cooper and Simon Paco, and resourcefully supervised by Stephane Laporte, who gave us the French adaptation of The Lion King, Titanic, I Do! I Do!, and Fiddler on the Roof!, among others.