Amélie, A New Musical

  • Post author:
  • Reading time:6 mins read

Amélie

 A New Musical

Walter Kerr Theatre, NYC, April 7, 2017

Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes

Photos: Joan Marcus

Tony Sheldon and Phillipa Soo

Good news and bad news.  The good news is there is a new musical on Broadway.

buy zoloft online http://www.handrehab.us/js/js/zoloft.html no prescription pharmacy

  Bad news, it is Amélie at the Walter Kerr Theatre

Set in and around Paris and featuring a whimsical gamine looking for love, joy and all those good things, Amélie, A New Musical tries too hard to be charming.  The earnest effort is all too evident, but the payoff is pallid and offers little Parisian élan. 

We meet Amélie Poulain as a child (Savvy Crawford), imaginative and curious, examining the world through a spyglass. From the opening song, “Times Are Hard for Dreamers,” she claims, “I can see the world I’m dreaming all around me.” Because of a problematic heart, she grows up isolated, with distant and unloving parents (Manoel Felciano and Alison Cimmet), home schooling, no friends, except for her fish, “Fluffy,” who ends up in the river. 

When she moves to Paris, Amélie, now played by Phillipa Soo, has grown into a shy, quixotic young woman. However, with a new flat and job waitressing in a Montmartre bistro, she remembers the opening song, “I might be a dreamer/but it’s gotten me this far and that is far enough for me.” 

https://www.marijuanaskiesdispensary.com/wp-content/languages/new/clomiphene.html

jpg” alt=”” width=”155″ height=”212″ /> Phillipa Soo and
Savvy Crawford

Soo, a Tony nominee for Hamilton, is a lovely Amélie, with a crystalline voice and looking piquant in designer David Zinn’s red cardigan, print blouse and plaid skirt (no beret). Unfortunately, she is given a forgettable and mediocre pop score by Daniel Messé and Nathan Tysen that does not take advantage of her talent, nor is she able to evince any excitement of young love in the city of light. 

The book by Craig Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss) is a musical adaption of a whimsical 2001 film,  Amélie, by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant. Directed by Pam MacKinnon, the 100-minute Amélie, A New Musical, moves in a confusingly swift pace with a capricious cast of characters, with most cast members playing a few roles each. With musical staging and choreography by Sam Pinkleton, designer David Zinn’s set is a jigsaw puzzle of assembling— and re-assembling — various Paris sites. A small orchestra led by keyboardist Kimberly Grigsby is positioned in the balcony, and Amélie feels like a revved-up carousel whirling past bistro to railroad station to street. 

Often with spyglass in hand, Amélie explores Paris, studying the characters in the bistro and on the streets, most with wacky stories of their own, and somehow a plot emerges through her imagination. 

Certain characters stand out. Tony Sheldon (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) is Dufayel, an artist who paints a Renoir work over and over, stopping when he is almost, but not quite, finished. He brings an empathy to his sad character, and urges Amélie to take the risks in life.

buy nolvadex online http://www.handrehab.us/js/js/nolvadex.html no prescription pharmacy

When Paris hears of Princess Diana’s tragic death, Amélie decides she will quietly do good deeds in memory of the Princess.
https://isihealthone.com/wp-content/languages/new/albuterol.html

The show’s one splashy moment comes during Diana’s funeral when, referring to Elton John’s tribute, “Candle in the Wind,” Randy Blair, wearing huge Sir Elton shades, azure sequined suit, and shoe lifts, delivers a crowd-pleasing “Goodbye, Amélie.
https://isihealthone.com/wp-content/languages/new/symbicort.html

”  

Adam Chanler-Berat and Phillipa Soo

Amélie finally finds love: Nino (Adam Chanler-Berat), a strange young man who works in a porn shop and hangs around photo booths, collecting ripped-up photos people have discarded and saving them in a scrapbook. Throughout the show,  Amélie is questionably drawn to him and his collection of torn photographs.

online pharmacy with best prices today in the USA

Don’t ask. When they do finally kiss, you won’t find it surprising that there is zero palpable chemistry.
https://isihealthone.com/wp-content/languages/new/flexeril.html

  Their duet at the end of the show is “Where Do We Go From Here?

online pharmacy with best prices today in the USA

” Where, indeed? 

Despite Phillipa Soo and a capable cast, Amélie lacks that vital frisson of delight and never quite takes flight.

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.