Even if you don't know anything about the musical "An American in Paris", just looking at its poster will fascinate it: under the blue galaxy, the backs of a man and a woman snuggling up to each other, and the Eiffel Tower in the distance, "romantic", "beautiful" and many other adjectives are about to come out.
Poster of An American in Paris.
Starring Gene Kelly, the film version won six Oscars in the 1950s, including Best Picture, and became MGM's highest-grossing film at the time. The musical version, re-choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, choreographed by Royal Ballet, premiered in Paris in 2014, 2015 and 2017 on Broadway in New York and the West End in London, winning four awards, including the Tony Award for Best Choreography, which was also a huge success. Now it has come to China and was recently staged at the Poly Theater.
In the movie version of the plot, the down-and-out veteran soldier with painting talent meets the young salesman, falls in love and finds that the other party has a marriage contract with the singer's friend, and finally the friend lets go and the lover finally becomes a family, such a story we have heard too much.
The movie version of the poster is full of retro atmosphere of the times.
The setting of the musical version of An American in Paris is slightly different from the movie version. The background of the story is placed at the end of World War II, the whole drama opens in the fall of the swastika flag, the raising of the French flag, followed by several group dance scenes to outline the face of society: abounding fights, struggles, immersed in the joy of reunion or the sorrow of detachment, "love" has become a good recipe for saving the spiritual world of the people. In terms of character setting and plot, the heroine Lise becomes the ugly duckling eager to be on the ballet stage, and the three main male characters, the painter Jerry, the singer Henri and the composer Adam, are all in love with her. The story still revolves around the emotional entanglement of the core trio, while Adam, who is slightly inferior in feelings, takes on more of the role of the narrator in advancing the plot.
In addition, the musical version also established a new layer of character connections - Lise interviewed the ballet she wanted to star in, which happened to be funded by milo, the second female who admired the male protagonist, and then adopted Jerry and Adam as stage designers and composers. This design incorporates new themes such as how to choose between family wishes and personal ideals, and dedication to dreams, and also makes the context of the whole work clear.
The performance of this musical recreates the streets of Paris at that time.
From the big screen to the stage, the switching of a variety of scenes has become a major challenge, and the musical version of "An American in Paris" has also delivered a very satisfactory answer. From the bars and department stores that first met on the streets of Paris, to the dance classrooms and art salons with secret feelings, to the seine river where the final love was finalized, the simple but textured stage design outlined more than ten scenes in the play, and with the cooperation of group dance, they switched freely on the stage, and also let the exclusive beauty of the romantic city flow naturally, which was overwhelming. The music created by the talented composer Gershwin selected in the film version has also been preserved in the musical version, whether it is "I Got Rhythm" that closes the relationship between the three male protagonists, or "But Not For Me" sung by the two supporting characters alone when they are sentimental, which continues an exclusive flavor of Broadway in the last century.
The biggest sparkle of the musical version is the Whieldon's stunning choreography, many of which even make people trance-like, which should be called a ballet. Instead of blindly pursuing the grandeur of the scene or the superb technical movements, in the play we see more is the use of dance design to promote the plot and capture the delicate emotions, whether it is the mountain roar of the crowd in the tavern, or the twisting posture when sitting in difficulty, it has been cleverly and organically integrated into the dancers' dance steps, and this design also invisibly adds a bit of humor and novelty. Most of the actors who starred in the play were excellent singers and dancers, especially Leanne Cope, who played the heroine, was the principal ballet star of the Royal Ballet. She grasped Lise's wanderings in the face of feelings very well, and many of her unspoken intentions were well conveyed through the expression of her body, and she mastered this wonderful ballet show in the final play-in-play part.
A beautiful stage.
At the beginning of the play, Lise said to Jerry, "Life is not like your American movies." This line is also hinting at the audience, which represents the optimistic, romantic American spirit and the reality represented by paris that is being rebuilt after the war. However, in the end, romance triumphed over reality, and the embrace and kiss on the banks of the Seine still fascinated us. As an audience, we don't have to be too harsh on the uniformity of the plot of "An American in Paris", in the face of this best recollection of Broadway's glory, the fiery enthusiasm that flows between those dance steps is worth opening our hearts to savor.
□ Choi Hao (drama worker)
Beijing News Editor Wu Longzhen Proofreader Zhai Yongjun