Irma La Douce – Encores! – New York City Center

Jennifer Bowles and Rob McClure in the Encores! production of Irma La Douce

Irma La Douce, an Encores! Production, continues at New York City Center until 11 May.

The Encores! series at New York City Center winds up its three-show season with a sprightly rendering of a Broadway hit from 1960, Irma La Douce. This tale of a Parisian streetwalker and the poor law student who becomes her lover still registers with a saucy charm, even if its blasé attitude toward sex-for-pay isn’t quite as outrageous as it was half a century ago.

Irma La Douce originated in Paris, where it ran for four years. A London production, directed by Peter Brook, was also a success and was brought to New York by the legendary producer David Merrick. On Broadway, Irma racked up more than 500 performances. This current staging marks the first time Encores! in its two decades of celebrating musicals from the past has presented a show that did not originate in the United States. “It’s unlikely to become a habit for Encores!,” artistic director Jack Viertel writes in the programme, but, he continues: “it’s a good thing to break the rules once in a while and see what transpires.”

What transpires is not exactly a seismic event, but it’s an affable soufflé of tunes redolent of scintillating Parisian lowlife elevating a lot of farcical comings and goings. Director John Doyle has staged the work with imaginative minimalist touches and the Encores! orchestra conducted by musical director Rob Berman, cut back from its usual impressive size to ten pieces, captures the seductive cabaret flavour of the music by Marguerite Monnot, a long-time collaborator of Edith Piaf. The score’s most celebrated number was the ballad ‘Our Language of Love’, but there are several other ingratiatingly lovely melodies and frisky novelty numbers. The original French lyrics are by Alexandre Breffort, who also wrote the book, and the English versions are by Julian More, David Heneker and Monty Newman.

As is usually the case at Encores!, an astoundingly talented cast has been assembled for this brief run of seven performances. Jennifer Bowles brings an unflappable sweetness to Irma that’s even there when she’s socking guys who offend her. Her singing does passionate justice to the Monnot music, and as the only woman in the cast, she brings to the two big dance routines all the energy of a whole corps of Moulin Rouge can-canners. Chase Brock did the lively choreography.

As her harried lover, who must assume a double identity to assuage his jealousy, Rob McClure gives an epic performance, going from farcical contortions into musical numbers with ease. The role adds to the laurels McClure has already gained from his portrayals of the title role in Chaplin: The Musical on Broadway last season as well as the title role in the Encores! 2011 production of Where’s Charley?, under the direction of Doyle.

Also prominent is Malcolm Gets, as the bar owner, who serves as a handy narrator, moving along the twists and turns of the plot.

If anything wears a little thin in Irma, it is its dedication to Gallic farce. The preposterous plotting, which eventually involves an imaginary murder and the young law student travelling from Paris to Devil’s Island and back, becomes a bit wearing. The strain, I think, begins to show on the cast as well as the audience.

But then, almost all can be forgiven, when the company takes on one of those grand Monnot melodies or expends its energy in merrily dancing around Montmartre.

Ron Cohen

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