An American in Paris

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An American in Paris

Palace Theatre, NYC, April 16, 2015

Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes

Leanne Cope and Robert Fairchild Photo: Angela Sterling
Leanne Cope and Robert Fairchild
Photo: Angela Sterling

“‘S Wonderful!”  George & Ira Gershwin’s extraordinary An American in Paris is wowing audiences at Broadway’s Palace Theatre.  It’s got rhythm, it’s got music and a fistful of gold stars for director/choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s magical ballet sequences between Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope.  In short, “‘S paradise!”

With Craig Lucas’s book adaptation, there is now more story and subtext than there was in the classic 1951 Vincente Minnelli film.  In Paris at the end of World War II, the Nazis are leaving and the city is coming to life again, illustrated brilliantly by Bob Crowley’s gliding panels and slickly moving sets creating pastel views of the city.  The ambiance of Paris steps up the adventures of two GIs who decide not to return to the USA.  Adam Hochberg (Brandon Uranowitz) is a droll, hopeful composer, and Jerry Mulligan, is an aspiring artist, played by Robert Fairchild from the New York City Ballet.  Inspired by the romance of the city, they plan to write a ballet together.

Fairchild is a graceful, muscular dancer with a breezy style reminiscent of Gene Kelly in the film.  He is also a fine singer and actor. As he makes his way around the city, Jerry spots the lithe Lise Dassin, played by the London’s Royal Ballet’s Leanne Cope with an elfin resemblance to Leslie Caron.
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  It’s love at first sight, but with complications.  Lise, Jewish, is unofficially engaged to Henri Barrel (Max von Essen), a wealthy Frenchman whose family helped her during the war and she feels obligated to marry him.  She does not know that Henri is gay and really wants to be a song-and-dance man.  Adding to this complexity, Jerry’s pal Adam is also attracted to Lise.  Yet, there is no doubt that serious sparks fly between Lise and Jerry with a climactic pas de due that is magnetic.

Lise, a shopgirl, is an aspiring ballerina and Jerry decides she will be perfect for their new show.  Financing the ballet, however, can be difficult.  They persuade Henri and also his parents, (Veanne Cox and Scott Willis), who are fond of Lise and her desire to follow her mother’s ballet career.  Jerry meets an American art patron, sophisticated Milo Davenport (Jill Plaice), who has her eye on him and does not try to hide it.  This puts Jerry in a bind, balancing his love for Lise with his ambition for an art career.
The Gershwins’ songbook is glorious, including the theatrically jazz-flavored street sounds of “An American in Paris.”  Although a top song in the film, “Love Is Here to Stay,” was cut, delightful tunes are neatly spliced into key niches.  When Jerry rejoices in finding the girl of his dreams and his jaunty “I’ve Got Beginner’s Luck” proves it.  One of the most fanciful segments features Jerry and the company performing “Fidgety Feet,” and Lise endearingly proves her feelings for Jerry with “The Man I Love.
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”  Adam and Milo admit the hopelessness of their yearnings of romance with Lise and Jerry and deliver “But Not for Me.”

Weaving through the show is the expressiveness of dance with dreamy ballet and the animation of swingy good spirits.  Von Essen’s tenor Henri has a shining fantasy performing “I’ll Build a Staircase to Paradise” without any staircase but a build up to an MGM-calibre high-kicking, colorful extravagance.

Bob Crowley designed eye-catching post-war shapely and colorful costumes, including a delicious hint of Dior’s New Look for Milo.
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  He puts Jerry in tight, Gene Kelly type tee shirts.  Lighting by Natasha Katz, projection design by 59 Productions, and music adaptation, arrangement and supervision by Rob Fisher (founding music director of Encores! series) further lift the delightful spirit.

The three pals, Jerry, Adam and Henri, musically sum it all up the in the final number of this memorable show with “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.”

Elizabeth Ahlfors

Born and raised in New York, Elizabeth graduated from NYU with a degree in Journalism. She has lived in various cities and countries and now is back in NYC. She has written magazine articles and published three books: A Housewife’s Guide to Women’s Liberation, Twelve American Women, and Heroines of ’76 (for children). A great love was always music and theater—in the audience, not performing. A Philadelphia correspondent for Theatre.com and InTheatre Magazine, she has reviewed theater and cabaret for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia City News. She writes for Cabaret Scenes and other cabaret/theater sites. She is a judge for Nightlife Awards and a voting member of Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle.