Thursday, October 04, 2007
Musicals storm Paris
Guardian Unlimited Arts: "Go to London for the musicals and Paris for the food, the old saying went. While the French capital excelled at dining, museums and new-wave cinema, it didn't care for singalong shows."
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5 comments:
i find it really interesting to see the transformation that is taking place in the theater world. i never would have thought that there would be a shift from where broadway shows re performed. it has always been presupposed that london and new york are the main meccas with the occasionally mention of chicago, new york and toronto. paris? crazy. it seems almost like they wont fit into the high-art culture of opera and visual art. it will be interesting to see how successful this entire operation is and if the shows will last for long and somehow create a shift in the entire theatre word creating new and different opportunities... crazy.
Yes. It is a strange phenomenon the long-running musicals do not exit in Paris. Even The Miserable and Notre Dame de Paris, written by Victor Hugo, only ran a couple of months. Maybe Parisian audience prefers to watch the new production or they may go watch to other kinds of performance, like dance and music. Plus some to Parisian audience like to find out philosophy and spirit in a show. And for those who do not frequent theatre, they just seldom go to show or they cannot offer the ticket. And the tourists definitely will not go to French version of musicals due to language obstacle. If they would like to watch show, they will choose ballet and opera. Then if long-running show does happen, it is big news.
this is freaky. it reminds me a bit of the "malling of America" why exactly does Paris need to have the lion king? and translated? that gives them no incentive to travel. shouldn't Paris be showing its own French musicals? the people of France don't need to see the lion king. I'll be thrilled when the French themselves are writing music more beautiful than the lion king, which will inspire us to travel there to see it.
It's interesting how the Broadway phenomenon happened so late for them. I mean, they have incredible history and culture of musical of their own like Notre Dame de Paris or Les Dix. But it is also sad that those great French musicals cannot make it to mainstream Broadway or West End. English-translated Notre Dame de Paris's major flop at the West End was just sad. I wish the Broadway is more open to new things.
Sure its another example of American culture in Europe or the overall trend of globalization, but by the same token I think this is an amazing artistic opportunity. Why shouldn't the poetry of French that is completely lost in English be explored in musical form? While it may mostly be English translations playing now, perhaps in the future the musical will become a new genre for French writers. I think it would be a really interesting art form, something that the French could adapt completely, so that it has the flair of French culture and becomes less American. I personally would hate to see the musical adopted by french culture the way English/American slang has been by the language, and I have a feeling the French would too.
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