Nicole schreibt...

As I just couldn't miss out on the 18th anniversary revival of Notre Dame de Paris - a show which I've seen in numerous locations, but never "at home" in Paris - I decided on a weekend outing to the lovely French capital. And with such an enormous choice of shows on offer, it pretty much turned into a typical London-style theatre trip, so here's a corresponding theatre report. I started on the noon Thalys from Cologne straight to Paris Gare du Nord and got a taster for what Paris is (still) like these days with armed policemen patrolling the train itself and LOTS of police awaiting it on arrival at the Gare du Nord (where I saw airport-style security checks had been installed as well). I made my way to the nearby Gare de l'Est, where my hotel awaited me, the lovely 3* Libertel Francais, where I had a room with a typical French balcony and great view across the street towards the station. After a short break I walked into the "city" proper or rather what counts for Paris' version of the West End along the Boulevard Haussmann. I found dinner, had a poke around the famous Galeries Lafayette and the FNAC to kill time, then went to the Casino de Paris for my first theatre outing - the "circospéctacle" Timéo. Where French timekeeping baffled me once more. I'm used to them starting at least 15 minutes late to accommodate the latecomers but when I entered around 8pm (with the starting time on the ticket saying 8.30), I was surprised to see people hurrying into the auditorium - and the show began at 8.10! Must have missed a memo somewhere that they changed the start time, which I didn't mind at all since I find 8.30 terribly late. Timéo was created pretty much a family show for the christmas season, the tale of a boy in a wheel chair who dreams of the circus. When his favorite circus Diabolo is in town, he sneaks off from home to visit them - which is really just the cue for two hours of various circus acts held together by a flimsy story. My main reason for booking this had admittedly been Mikelangelo Loconte, who had enchanted me in the title role of Mozart L'Opèra Rock a few years ago. I remembered him as a weedy little chap but obviously he has been on the quiches since. He now plays the director of the circus, gets to sing two good songs and was overall really funny as the put-upon boss whom everyone runs rings around, so it was quite a departure from Mozart and fun to see. The artists, a mixed bag of proper circus artists, dancers and musical performers were also pretty good. I wonder if the audition notices said "Must be able to sing and do a tightrope act / be awesome on an BMX-bike" and similar. I was also pleasantly surprised that Mathias Raumel, the 16-year old lead guy is really in a wheel chair, making this is a lovely chance for a handicapped guy to shine on stage with a great final number in which he gets to "fly" around the stage with tightrope acrobat Lilou (Florence Peyrard). The stand-out circus acts for me were Sylvain Rigault's contorsionist act and the couple on the trapeze act, while the fake lion tamer act with fake kitties was rather on the naff side. Timéo wasn't amazing bowl-you-over-stuff and the Casino de Paris wasn't filled very well, but I thought it was perfectly nice light entertainment, good for the first evening after travelling and definitely a good one to take the kids to. What I really love best in Paris is to just wander around and admire the wonderful architecture and the general atmosphere of the city, so when the next morning dawned bright and sunny, I was off on a long wander along the Canal Saint Martin and the Seine (photos of the touristy stuff here) before ending back on Boulevard Haussmann, where I was able to enjoy lunch in the sunshine on one of the many terraces. I had been very much looking forward to the first show for today, an "Opèra Rock" adaptation of Stendhal's literary classic "Le Rouge et le Noir" at the small but gorgeous Le Palace. One thing I've admired the French for ever since they cast 19 year old Damien Sargue as Romeo and 15 year old Cecilia Cara as Juliet is their ability to find very young and yet fantastic performers for their shows. This was no different with 19 year old Côme recruited straight off the last season of France's The Voice to play Julien Sorel and they couldn't have found a better one for this tricky part. Contrary pig-headed and over-ambitious Julien, the country boy with a fierce hatred for the bourgeoisie and yet unable to resist the women who employ him, must be a teenager to be believable and he combined incredibly good looks with amazing charisma and a strong rock voice. God, I loved that boy and I hope he'll do more rock musicals in future, I'd be so there for them. Another one off The Voice was rotund Yoann Delaunay, playing Geronimo, an Italian singer in the novel, who functions as a narrator here, delivering snarky social commentary with a fabulous gravelly rock voice. They were joined by Haylen (looking like Kate Winslet ca. Titanic) as Louise de Renal, Julien's amour fou in the first part of the book and Julie Fournier as Mathilde de la Mole, his second amour fou and last before he flips his lid and ends up on the guillotine where he is separated from his pretty head. Catchy tunes and a very modern design using 3D animations to create the sets turned this into a very entertaining afternoon indeed. And while I'm used to French fans getting their phones out to film the finale of big shows, I was slightly stunned to see them openly recording in the middle of the show. Right on cue as Côme launched into his big tune "La gloire à mes genoux" half a dozen ladies lifted their phones and merrily began filming. Still on a high from the show, I took the metro down to Concorde to wander along the Parisian Village de Noël, which was (not surprisingly) crazily crowded and a bit of a disappointment after the nice one in Liège, selling mostly tourist tat, crêpes and saucissons allemands (I kid not). I was glad when I made it out of the mayhem onto the "normal" Champs Elysées and beyond the Arc de Triomphe to the Palais des Congrès for the second highlight of the day - the new version of Notre Dame de Paris. "New" it is not really as it is a perfect clone of the original version which I didn't mind at all. It even brought one of the original cast members back, Daniel Lavoie as Frollo, joined mostly by people who've been doing the show off and on for years on tours. Quasimodo Angelo del Vecchio (who was fantastic, by the way) holds the distinction of having played the role in three languages now, first in his native Italian, then in English on tour in Asia and now in French. A new one was Lebanese star Hiba Tawaji (another one off The Voice!) as Esmeralda, who was finally the truly beautiful dusky-skinny gypsy girl it makes sense for all the men to lose their heads about. With a fine voice to boot, she was truly the highlight of the show. Nothing will ever soften my regret of never having seen Bruno Pelletier as Gringoire but Richard Charest (who I saw as Phoebus years ago) did a fine job, as did the remaining leads, Jay as Clopin, Alizée Lalande as Fleur-de-Lys and Martin Giroux as Phoebus (not quite 'beau comme le soleil', but a fine voice at least). The modern dance choreographies were as breathtaking as ever and it was simply great to revisit this show with all its wonderful songs and scenes. also struck me how wrong the nay-sayers are who claim that all French shows sound alike. Maybe there's a distinctive franco-pop sound to the newer ones, but then isn't that true for either the classic Broadway musical, the weepies of the 80s and 90s or the Austro-German Eurotrash musicals? Richard Cocciante's music for Notre Dame de Paris remains unsurpassed, but Zazie wrote some great catchy tunes for Le Rouge et Le Noir and its rock star leads whereas Timéo enchanted with circus magic and artistry not usually seen on a musical stage. Sunday morning started with a visit to that particular opera ghost, who might or might not have burned the Mogador down. While I would quite like to see a performance at the Palais Garnier, Paris' magnificent old opera, once I get to planning a trip I end up prefering musicals after all. So it's good to know that you can either go on self-guided tours around the building or do a guided tour. I had opted for the latter in the hope it would take me further, which turned out to be a good decision, since guided tours are also allowed to enter the auditorium and see what really matters. Our English-speaking guide was a charming guy called William, so squeaky-clean and enthusiastic, he could have walked out of Book of Mormon. After that I wandered along the Rue Royale and through the Tuileries to my final theatre destination, the Théâtre du Châtelet. This venerable old theatre started to put on old-fashioned classical Broadway musicals a few seasons ago, bringing over an English cast and creative team. "An American in Paris" even originated here before transferring to Broadway and now to London. so I was quite curious to see what the deal was here and luckily their new production happened right when I was in town anyway, so it was easy to extend by a day. Which was even luckier when it turned out that this production of "42nd Street" would not transfer to London, where another (cheaper-sounding) production is due to open at Drury Lane. I was also excited about this cast that included Alexander Hanson as Julian Marsh, Dan Burton as Billy Lawlor, newcomer Monique Young as Peggy Sawyer and Ria Jones as Dorothy Brocks, the latter having had her big moment of fame in spring when Glenn Close fell in and she stepped into her shoes as Norma Desmond in the Sunset Boulevard concerts. After the French-style shows it was strange to suddenly see a very Anglo-American production done in English (with French subtitles). It was fun enough but also very very light-weight in terms of plot and music, so I was quite glad I had only paid 25 Euro for a "restricted view" seat in the side stalls. It hadn't looked too bad on the seating plan but the Chatelet has the mother of all overhangs from the dress circle over the side stalls so I missed pretty much the entire top half of the stage. Although that was only a problem for one scene and a few moments and I didn't really mind much. While I don't mind a light-weight old-fashioned comedy, "42nd Street" just doesn't have a very engaging plot. Young ingenue Peggy Sawyer arrives too late for an audition, but is hired away, knocks over leading lady Dorothy Brock during rehearsals, gets fired, gets re-hired five minutes later to replace Dorothy who's diagnosed with a broken ankle and of course becomes a star. While I don't need drama and woe, I think a bit of conflict would have kept me more engaged with Peggy's story, nor did the flimsy love story between her and co-star Billy Lawlor make much sense. If anything I enjoyed writer Julian Marsh's little crush on her and would have liked to see her choose him instead. Ah well, it was fun entertainment in a very old-fashioned style with great tap dancing numbers and an all-around convincing cast, so I was glad I caught this in Paris now. Though when I do go back to Paris for theatre again (and that's a "when", not an "if") I'd rather stick with the unique French spectacles there which I can't enjoy anywhere else.