Le monde des musicals

Musical (2002)

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Musique: Michel Legrand •
Paroles: Didier van Cauwelaert •
Livret: Marcel Aymé •
Production à la création:

Adapted from the 1943 short story Le Passe-Muraille by Marcel Aymé, it is set in Paris shortly after World War II and centers on a shy, unassuming clerk who develops the ability to walk through walls, and who challenges himself to stick to his moral center and change others' lives, and his own, as a result.

"Dutilleul, petit employé de bureau sans avenir, découvre qu'il passe à travers les murs, et devient Garou-Garou le gentleman cambrioleur, qui la nuit dévalise les banques et les bijouteries de son quartier.
Du bureau des fonctionnaires tristes en blouses grises, à l'appartement de la Butte Montmartre, avec ses rues commerçantes, les marchands de quatre-saisons, les agents à bicyclettes, le docteur un peu fou, c'est tout l'univers de Marcel Aymé."

Un de très grands flops de Broadway: seulement 17 représentations. La chose est d'autant plus surprenante puisqu'il s'agissait de l'adaptation en anglais du musical "Le passe-muraille" qui avait été un grand succès à Paris (Molière de la meilleure comédie musicale en 1997),

1 Amour peut-être considéré comme un Flop musical

Adapted from the 1943 short story Le Passe-Muraille by Marcel Aymé

In 1997, Legrand, a noted film composer and jazz musician, but a newcomer to stage musicals at age 65, brought the musical (under its original title, Le Passe Muraille) to Paris where it won the Prix Molière for Best Musical.
The Broadway production, directed by James Lapine and presented without intermission, opened on October 20, 2002 at the Music Box Theatre. The show closed after 17 performances and 31 previews. The cast included Malcolm Gets and Melissa Errico.
The musical received mostly negative reviews in America, although Errico, Gets and the score were praised. Ben Brantley, in his review for The New York Times, wrote: "Even charming is too weighty a word to describe the wispy appeal of Amour" The Talkin' Broadway reviewer, however, wrote: "Broadway's Music Box Theatre may have found its most ideal tenant in quite a while. The delightful little jewel box of a musical, Amour, ...deserves a lengthy stay there, where it may enchant audiences for a long time to come." Cary Wong in filmscoremonthly wrote: "The lyrics are mostly pedestrian and uninvolving, and they make the already stock characters even more one-dimensional."
A "reconceived production" was produced by Goodspeed Musicals from August 11, 2005 through September 4.

Le passe-murail (titre original français)

Overture – Company
Office Life – Dusoleil, Madeleine, Claire, Bertrand and Charles
Going Home Alone – Dusoleil
Other People's Stories – Isabelle and Dusoleil
Street Vendors' Waltz – Whore, Painter, Newsvendor, Policemen, Prosecutor, Isabelle and Dusoleil
Dusoleil Walks Through the Wall – Dusoleil
The Doctor – Doctor and Dusoleil
Ordinary Guy – Dusoleil
Dusoleil's Revenge – Boss, Dusoleil, Madeleine, Claire, Bertrand and Charles
Somebody – Isabelle
Prosecutor's Song – Prosecutor
Whore's Lament – Whore and Dusoleil
Monsieur Passepartout – Newsvendor, Painter, Whore, Madeleine and Policemen
Special Time of Day – Isabelle and Dusoleil
Waiting – Dusoleil
Latest News – Newsvendor, Whore and Painter
Dusoleil in Jail – Dusoleil, Madeleine and Claire
Painter's Song – Painter
Isabelle on Her Balcony – Isabelle, Dusoleil and Prosecutor
Transformation – Company
The Advocate's Plea – Advocate
The Trial – Monsieur le President, Madeleine, Whore, Painter, Prosecutor, Dusoleil and Isabelle
Duet for Dusoleil and Isabelle – Dusoleil and Isabelle
Whistling Ballet – Dusoleil, Painter, Whore, Newsvendor, Madeleine and Policemen
Amour – Isabelle and Dusoleil
Dusoleil Meets the Press – Dusoleil, Newsvendor, Doctor and Company
Serenade – Dusoleil, Isabelle and Company

Dusoleil: a self-proclaimed "ordinary guy" who discovers he can walk through walls
Isabelle: an unhappily married woman and the object of Dusoleil's affections
Whore, Painter, Newsvendor: three street workers who support Dusoleil
Prosecutor: Isabelle's husband, a man with more than a few skeletons in his closet
Boss: Dusoleil's nasty boss
Doctor Roucefort: Dusoleil's doctor, who gives him the eventual cure to his intangibility
Madeleine, Claire, Charles, Bertrand: Dusoleil's co-workers. The women reveal feelings for Dusoleil when they discover he is the elusive "Monsieur Passepartout"
Policemen: "henchmen" hired by the prosecutor to keep the people of Montmartre in check
Monsieur le President: President of the tribunal that tries Dusoleil
Advocate: Dusoleil's lawyer, who appears on behalf of Dusoleil on his very first day in court

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