Theater: An American in Paris brings back the 1950s
Its autumn in New York, when some older shows close, and new ones take their place. An American in Paris has been running for 18 months, and is about to move to London and to a US touring production. I saw it without two of the original cast members, most notably NYC Ballet staple Robert Fairchild, who will again star in London but is replaced on Broadway by Aussie Dimitri Kleioris. It's a good show that does not quite soar to Eiffelian heights.
The show is based on the 1951 classic film musical starring Gene Kelly as a US soldier who stays in Paris after the war to pursue his art career and dancer Leslie Caron, competing with his buddies (a singer and a composer) for her attentions. The film was uber-romantic, and won the Oscar that year for best picture. This show is really about dancing, and ballet choreographer (and danseur) Christopher Wheeldon has given a more balletic, less jazz-athletic spin to the dancing, leading to casting of male ballet dancers (who can sing and act decently) in the leading role. The choreography is nice, but an ironic downside is that the style raised my standards and made me expect ballet-level dance grand execution and sweep, which were only occasionally present. This was particularly the case in the ending "An American in Paris" 15 minute ballet. Also, the small pit orchestra of 6 players (with typical synthesized parts) could not create the symphonic ambiance that the style, or the Gershwin score, demanded.
The show benefited from crisp direction and nicely kinetic sets that evoked Paris without wallowing in it. The plot, like the movie's, is ultra-thin, basically a menage a cinq with the alpha male getting the girl at the end. Gay playwright Craig Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss, The Dying Gaul) was surprisingly tame in updating the dated 1950's naivety, inserting only a veiled hint at a possible gay orientation of a character, and one joke involving Uranus. I could have used a little more updated humor and plot twisting around the possibilities of 3 guys and 2 girls. Dimitri Kleioris was appealingly nerdy, and happily none of the men exhibited 1950's faux-dancing-machismo, which is a millennial update of sorts. In reality, An American in Paris is an old style backstage musical whose plot sets up the final climactic ballet, just like the 1930's Warner musicals did. The thing is, the final coup de grace better be great with all that lead-up and thin/non-existent plotting. Busby Berkeley and his 1930's audiences understood this (see this, or this). Wheeldon's climactic ballet does not quite reach that standard, either from a Broadway or a NYC Ballet standard. In it, the sets do not try to reduplicate the film's romantic evocation of Parisian sights, instead choosing a modernist ethic like the Nijinsky-Diaghlev ballets of the 1920s..interesting, but not quite the right sort of climax for this romantic musical. The real hero of this show is the magnificent Gershwin music (e.g. Concerto in F, S'Wonderful); it was refreshing to go to a musical where I actually liked the music, rather than enduring it (Spring Awakening).
Overall I enjoyed An American in Paris, and was glad I went, but was not swept away by it, as I wanted to be based on the topic. I'd see it when it tours (or in London) if you love Gershwin and/or romantic 1950's movies. As for me, I will go to Paris for the real thing next month.
Note: What is it with NYC ushers? They either seem to be young and completely indifferent, or older women who become General Alexander ("I'm In Charge") Haig field marshals over their one-aisle fiefdoms. After taking my seat in an empty row I was scolded by a frumpy loud 5'1" usher with frighteningly dyed red hair for having walked past her and finding my seat via the next aisle. "It's my job to get you to your seat", she ejaculated, then walked back to the line of guests waiting for her services.
The show is based on the 1951 classic film musical starring Gene Kelly as a US soldier who stays in Paris after the war to pursue his art career and dancer Leslie Caron, competing with his buddies (a singer and a composer) for her attentions. The film was uber-romantic, and won the Oscar that year for best picture. This show is really about dancing, and ballet choreographer (and danseur) Christopher Wheeldon has given a more balletic, less jazz-athletic spin to the dancing, leading to casting of male ballet dancers (who can sing and act decently) in the leading role. The choreography is nice, but an ironic downside is that the style raised my standards and made me expect ballet-level dance grand execution and sweep, which were only occasionally present. This was particularly the case in the ending "An American in Paris" 15 minute ballet. Also, the small pit orchestra of 6 players (with typical synthesized parts) could not create the symphonic ambiance that the style, or the Gershwin score, demanded.
The show benefited from crisp direction and nicely kinetic sets that evoked Paris without wallowing in it. The plot, like the movie's, is ultra-thin, basically a menage a cinq with the alpha male getting the girl at the end. Gay playwright Craig Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss, The Dying Gaul) was surprisingly tame in updating the dated 1950's naivety, inserting only a veiled hint at a possible gay orientation of a character, and one joke involving Uranus. I could have used a little more updated humor and plot twisting around the possibilities of 3 guys and 2 girls. Dimitri Kleioris was appealingly nerdy, and happily none of the men exhibited 1950's faux-dancing-machismo, which is a millennial update of sorts. In reality, An American in Paris is an old style backstage musical whose plot sets up the final climactic ballet, just like the 1930's Warner musicals did. The thing is, the final coup de grace better be great with all that lead-up and thin/non-existent plotting. Busby Berkeley and his 1930's audiences understood this (see this, or this). Wheeldon's climactic ballet does not quite reach that standard, either from a Broadway or a NYC Ballet standard. In it, the sets do not try to reduplicate the film's romantic evocation of Parisian sights, instead choosing a modernist ethic like the Nijinsky-Diaghlev ballets of the 1920s..interesting, but not quite the right sort of climax for this romantic musical. The real hero of this show is the magnificent Gershwin music (e.g. Concerto in F, S'Wonderful); it was refreshing to go to a musical where I actually liked the music, rather than enduring it (Spring Awakening).
Overall I enjoyed An American in Paris, and was glad I went, but was not swept away by it, as I wanted to be based on the topic. I'd see it when it tours (or in London) if you love Gershwin and/or romantic 1950's movies. As for me, I will go to Paris for the real thing next month.
Note: What is it with NYC ushers? They either seem to be young and completely indifferent, or older women who become General Alexander ("I'm In Charge") Haig field marshals over their one-aisle fiefdoms. After taking my seat in an empty row I was scolded by a frumpy loud 5'1" usher with frighteningly dyed red hair for having walked past her and finding my seat via the next aisle. "It's my job to get you to your seat", she ejaculated, then walked back to the line of guests waiting for her services.
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