Tony nominee Phillipa Soo returns to Broadway in AMELIE, a new musical based on the beloved five-time Oscar-nominated film, and "an enchanting act of theatrical reinvention" (The Los Angeles Times).
Amelie is an extraordinary young woman who lives quietly in the world, but loudly in her mind. She covertly improvises small, but surprising acts of kindness that bring joy to those around her. But when a chance at love comes her way, Amelie realizes that to find happiness she'll have to risk everything and say what's in her heart. Come be inspired by this imaginative dreamer who finds her voice, discovers the power of connection and sees possibility around every corner. In these uncertain times, Amelie is someone to believe in.
Directed by Tony winner Pam MacKinnon (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), with a book by Pulitzer Prize and Tony nominee Craig Lucas (The Light in the Piazza) and an original score by Daniel Messe and Nathan Tysen, AMELIE "proves that the world is better when we're all in it together" (Paste Magazine).
A dubious quote plastered outside the Walter Kerr Theatre declares, 'It's impossible not to be charmed' by Amelie, A New Musical. While reviewers spend their working lives arguing that all critical opinion is by its very nature subjective, I'd call that fake news. Just as Jean-Pierre Jeunet's popular 2001 French film presented an elaborate fantasist's version of modern-day Paris, bursting with quaint eccentrics, this grating stage musical takes the slenderest of romances and drowns it in cartoonish quirks in place of genuine warmth or feeling. And while Phillipa Soo is a creditable stand-in for the movie's uber-gamine Audrey Tautou, as a musical comedy heroine, Amelie Poulain is a dud, a bundle of cutesy affectations in search of a human core.
For a cunning little bauble of an entertainment, the 2001 French film 'Amélie' inspired uncommonly extreme responses. People were usually head over heels about it ('It's so cute!') or violently allergic to it ('But it's so cute!'). The mild-mannered musical adaptation of this movie, which opened on Monday night at the Walter Kerr Theater, is unlikely to stir similar passions. Featuring a book by Craig Lucas and music by Daniel Messé, with the lush-voiced Philippa Soo in the title role, it is pleasant to look at, easy to listen to and oddly recessive. It neither offends nor enthralls. Say what you will about its cinematic prototype, directed with an auteur's flourish by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, it had style to spare, not to mention the courage of its worldly but whimsical convictions. In other words, 'Amélie' the movie was très, très Français. 'Amélie' the musical seems to have no nationality, or sensibility, to call its own.
2015 | Los Angeles |
Berkley Rep World Premiere Production Los Angeles |
2016 | Los Angeles |
Center Theatre Group Pre-Broadway Engagement Los Angeles |
2017 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2021 | West End |
West End Premiere West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway of Off-Broadway Musical | Amélie, A New Musical |
Videos