An American in Paris
George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin (Music and Lyrics); Craig
Lucas (Book)
Taking a 1951 film starring the dancing likes of Gene Kelly
and Leslie Carron – a film that is idolized by members of a certain generation
and one hardly if at all known by those known as Millennials – and turning that
film decades later into a stage musical is nothing short of risky and daring,
if not downright foolhardy. But the 2015
transition of An American in Paris
from screen to stage was nothing short of a spectacular success, wooing and
wowing first Paris and then New York and accumulating multiple awards along the
way. And how could it not with the songs
of the brothers Gershwin (George and Ira) – perennial favorites like “I Got
Rhythm,”
“’S Wonderful,” and “The Man I Love” – peppering a storyline
set in post-war Paris and rich in the intrigues of three pals all in love with
the same beautiful girl? Craig Lucas’s
book pays proper homage to the film but ventures into enough new avenues to
make the familiar-to-many story a novel journey for all. But book, music, and lyrics are only part of
the touring version’s magic and wonder now on stage at the SHN Orpheum. This is a musical where dance – specifically
ballet -- is the key narrator of the story; and the dance is gloriously performed
not only by the talented cast but also by the floating and flying scenery,
props, lighting, and projections. The
result is an eye-popping, heart-pounding, and
head-swimming success!
McGee Maddox & Sara Esty |
Paris, 1945, very much plays a starring role in the
musical. The City of Lights that is in
the aftermath of Nazi occupation is introduced to us by a no-dialogue opening
sequence of dance and movement scenes depicting departing GI’s saying their
good-byes to French girlfriends, starving Parisians standing in breadlines, and
citizens taking their revenge on former Nazi sympathizers. We are soon introduced to one street roamer
among the many, Jerry, a GI who tears up his ticket home in order to stay and
pursue both his art career and a beautiful but elusive girl with whom he has
inadvertently locked eyes on the streets of Paris. Also seeing that same girl and immediately
falling for her is Adam, a piano-playing GI who hopes to leave his
plunking-the-keys job in a café to write songs the world will sing. In that café, both of these guys meet each
other and connect with a third young man, a French-born Henri who is
aristocratic by birth but aspiring to be a nightclub song-and-dance man
(something his rich parents would abhor).
Henri is also trying to gain courage to propose to a gal whom his family
has hid during the war. Unbeknownst to
any of the three new pals, Lise is the young, aspiring ballerina for whom all
three are now pining and pursuing.
The triangular tale of romance becomes more complicated with
the introduction of Milo Davenport (Emily Ferranti), a well-meaning but rather
forceful wealthy American woman ready to put her money into reviving Parisian
ballet. By chance she hears Adam play
the piano, sees some sketches of Jerry, and discerns the undiscovered talent of
Lise; and as can only happen in a musical, she quickly picks Adam as composer,
Jerry as designer, and Lise as star of her newly commissioned ballet. With Henri on the side watching it all and
stumbling into an engagement of marriage with Lise (“She accepted a proposal I
didn’t have to make”), the stage is set for many ups and downs, ins and outs
before final resolution – especially when we add that both Lise and Milo find
themselves falling in love with Jerry.
Nick Spangler, Stephen Brower & McGee Maddox |
“The Three Musketeers,” as the new comrades quickly call
themselves, get their friendship off to a rousing start with a an electrifying
“I Got Rhythm,” where Nick Spangler as Henri particularly shines with his
brilliantly trumpeting tenor vocals, a voice that will reign forth time and
again throughout the evening. Café
patrons, waiters and bartenders, and sidewalk passers-by soon join in a
stage-filling number of feet kicking in rapid succession, bodies gyrating and
pulsing in movements fast and furious, and couples dipping and lifting each
other – only one of the evening’s many fantastically performed numbers designed
by Tony-winning choreographer (and also the musical’s director), Christopher
Wheeldon.
Nick Spangler & Cast |
Later, a gleeful and flamboyant Jerry (McGee Maddox) will sing
and dance with flair “I’ve Got Beginner’s Luck,” accompanied by a bevy of umbrella-toting
Parisians, the females of which will suddenly turn into a colorful bouquet of
spring flowers as dancing couples float across the stage. With nervous feet that cannot remain still,
Jerry will begin a series of jazzy steps and taps in “Fidgety Feet” that will
soon erupt into a stage full of bodies performing all sorts of feats with their
feet while sitting, lying, and otherwise using in fantastical ways the
straight-back chairs set out for them to watch a rather silly ballet, “The
Eclipse of Uranus.” And not to be
outdone, Nick Spangler as Henri will use his big-stage voice when he sings
“I’ll Build a Stairway to Heaven,” all the time fantasizing when he might
someday be in New York in top hat and cane among a stage full of
head-feathered, scantily clothed women and tux-wearing men, all tapping and
dancing in kick-lines galore.
As wonderful as these big production numbers are (all enhanced immensely by the stunning costumes of Bob Crowley), the unique beauty and wonder of An American in Paris comes largely from the ballets designed by Mr. Wheeldon. Tapping, kicking, swinging, and swirling give way to the graceful and mesmerizing as well as triumphant and soaring movements of ballet artists on the stage. Those who were in the last number filling the stage with a rousing number that would do any Broadway stage proud return quickly to perform a ballet that could easily grace the stages of the great dance companies of New York, Chicago, or San Francisco. That the plot of the musical advances importantly through the story told in these ballet sequences as long as a quarter-to-third hour is a tribute to the inventiveness and daringness of the musical’s conceivers.
Sara Esty & McGee Maddox |
The peak moment of many ballets is the pas de
deux; and An American in Paris does
not disappoint along those lines. Sara
Esty as Lise joins McGee Maddox (Jerry) in a climatic tour-de-force
demonstration of the two performers’ core skills as professional ballet stars
as they dance together in a number sharing the same title as the musical. The emotion projected by their bodies in
arrestingly beautiful motion and by their eyes in longingly locked gazes is intensely
tangible. While each brings voices that
hold up quite well in their sung numbers, it is their abilities as dancers that
in the end assure much audience appreciation to Ms. Esty and Mr. Maddox during
the final standing ovation.
And as was mentioned earlier, the motion of dance is not
limited to the humans on the stage. Bob
Crowley has created a set that zooms, flies, floats, and waltzes into place –
with panels, banners, and properties of all sorts magically forming alleys and
avenues, cafes and storefronts, the river Seine and the backstage of a grand hall.
The massive eighteenth-century buildings
of Haussman fall into place from the heavens through the astonishing
projections by 59 Projections – just one of dozens of jaw-dropping effects as the
designed videography reminds us just how special and globally unique Paris
really is. Even the lighting of Natasha
Katz finds ways to dance its way onto the stage, changing times of day and
moods of scenes with a painter’s touch.
All is enveloped in a sound design by Jon Weston that brings the aural
parts of Paris to life in ways we feel we are almost there.
Finally, Music Director and Conductor David Andrews Rogers
renders with a magnificent orchestra George Gershwin’s score, providing a
concert worthy of its own symphony hall.
The background played for the long ballet sequences are especially inspiring
and intoxicating in their beauty.
Smiles were worn on every departing face of the audience on
the opening night of the touring An
American in Paris at SHN. Those in
couples were joining hands and/or locking arms as the musical’s romantic airs
had their effects. Those not with that
someone special were perhaps looking around to see if by chance their Else or
Jerry just might be somewhere in the crowded lobby. After all, any thing can happen when it is
the night of a musical as grand and glorious as this.
Rating: 5 E
An American in Paris
continues through October 8, 2017 at the Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market Street, San
Francisco. Tickets are available at https://www.shnsf.com.
Photos by Matthew Murphy
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