Review | An American In Paris at London’s Dominion Theatre
By Will Stroude
The plot of An American In Paris is as light as a souffle: An American soldier turned painter, a fellow veteran turned composer and a French wannabe performer all fall for the same girl, a French ballerina, in the post-war French capital. Who will get the girl?
Based on the 1951 Oscar-winning Gene Kelly star vehicle, the stage version (which premiered on Broadway a couple of years ago with a book by Craig Lucas) fleshes things out a bit by exploring the aftershocks of the Second World War but the storyline is still as thin as a crepe and it doesn’t really engage us emotionally the way great romantic musicals like, say, West Side Story or My Fair Lady do.
But the ace up this show’s sleeve is how it combines the music of Gershwin with the most beautiful choreography I have ever witnessed on any stage on either side of the Atlantic and a sublime visual palette that incorporates sets and projections and costumes that run the gamut from Parisian chic to harlequin attire via masked balls and Cuban influences.
This gorgeous, intoxicating mix is down to director-choreographer Christopher Wheeldon (who was born in Yeovil and moved to the States to join the New York City Ballet), set and costume designer Bob Crowley, lighting designer Natasha Katz and sound designer Jon Weston. They’re a dream team, as are Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope – the two leads imported from the Broadway production.
He’s Jerry Mulligan, nailing that Gene Kelly combination of masculinity and finesse, as funny in his exchanges with his pals as he is nimble and graceful when wooing his would-be paramour. She’s Lise, who is meant to be a stunning ballerina and my god, Leanne Cope is a stunner – a pretty ingenue who expresses herself through dances that take your breath away. Their routines, both solo and combined and with an ensemble that never puts a foot wrong, are so elegant and passionate they’re enough to silence a cavernous venue like the Dominion into dropped-jaw disbelief.
Let’s not forget the supporting players: Haydn Oakley as Henri, the wannabe song and dance man who gets to realise his ambitions in a wonderful ‘I’ll Build A Stairway To Paradise’ dream sequence; David Seadon-Young as Adam, the gauche composer who does marvellous things with ‘I Got Rhythm’; and Jane Asher, convincingly French and glamorous as all get-out as Henri’s socialite mother Madam Baurel.
There’s so much great music here – ‘Fidgety Feet’, ‘S Wonderful’, ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’ – that you don’t leave the theatre singing the signature tune, you’re singing the whole lot. It may also take a while for your feet to touch the ground. An American In Paris is a show that transcends its source material and truly soars. S wonderful indeed.
Rating: 5/5
An American In Paris is at the Dominion Theatre, London, and is currently booking until 30 September. For more information and tickets visit nederlander.co.uk
For more great deals on tickets and events visit tickets.attitude.co.uk
Words by Simon Button
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