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US-style musicals burst onto French stages
2006-10-26
American-style musicals are high on the bill in France this autumn, despite the genre in which stage characters burst into song mid-dialogue being little known to French audiences. "Cabaret", the 1966 Broadway musical set in early 1930s Berlin, opens at the Folies Bergere in Paris on Friday, and "Bagdad Cafe", inspired by Percy Adlon's movie, opened in the French capital earlier in the week and goes on to tour nine French towns until early December. "One could see musicals in New York, London or Amsterdam," said Stephane Huard, general manager of Stage Entertainment France, a subsidiary of the Dutch-based company producing the musical here. "But in Paris, we did not benefit from these popular shows in which song really takes the plot on," he added. British director Sam Mendes brings the story of night club singer Sally Bowles -- played in the 1972 Oscar-winning film version by Liza Minnelli -- to the Paris stage. And it will be performed in the language of Moliere by French performers to help win over the Parisian audience which tends to be less familiar with musicals, known in French as "comedie musicale". The production has already played in Madrid and elsewhere in Spain, as well as in Amsterdam. The French branch of Stage Entertainment also owns the Mogador Theatre which is staging "Bagdad Cafe" until November 5.
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