18 years after his successful musical revue Zapping at the Théâtre du Gymnase before transferring to the Olympia and the Trianon, Bruno Agati is back with another off the wall production, this time focusing on gender ambiguity and digging more deeply into the inner psyche of its writer-director-choreographer. Always oscillating between first and second degrees of humor, whereas Zapping stayed exclusively on the latter, Mixity is essentially more of a drag show than a dance show even if every act is thoroughly choreographed, exploring the diversity of drag, man to woman, woman to man, and in between! 
Act 1 caters to French drag show tradition with its lip-synching to famous gay icons such as Dalida, hilariously portrayed by Agati himself, and Céline Dion, hysterically rendered by his assistant Mathieu Morel, while Act 2 contains more live-singing, female impersonation, highlighted with Agati himself as the indomitable Zizi Jeanmaire in a very rare and particularly risqué Serge Gainsbourg song, unfortunately followed by some lip-synching to "Mon Truc en plume." Some original songs add some depth to the thematic, "Mixity Song" and "Chambre 100" by Agati and Matthieu Lecoq, even if they aren't quite as good Laurent Couson's title song. 
The company of 15 multi-talented artists, all of them skilled dancers and singers at one time or another, with standouts such as Hugues Meissel, doubling as the MC, and Marie Régent as the pop icon Michel Polnareff, perhaps one of too rare drag in reverse woman playing a man. Too bad Agati hasn't yet included a number from Victor/Victoria, which he was due to choreograph in a French adaptation by Pierre Palmade, sadly never materialized.
Other outstanding performances are from Tony Fernandes, a real Conchita Wurst look alike live singing, and Tiago Do Nascimento as Freddy Mercury and Prince, unfortunately not done live.
The lighting by Jacques Rouveyrollis is efficient, especially in the Josephine Baker segment, and the costumes, always on point, may well be the highlights of the whole evening.
All in all, the fast paced over two-hour show leaves us with an abundance of images which perhaps a second visit would help put together, to find some unity in the Mixity.
Happily the Sunday-only run at theTheatre Lepic, almost on top of Montmartre, has just been extended to April!
Comments
Videos