24 Hours in the Life of a Woman at La Bruyère Theatre, Paris. Picture: Grégoire Zibell
24 Hours in the Life of a Woman continues at La Bruyère Theatre, Paris until 1 August.
Rating: 4 stars ★ ★ ★ ★
After numerous successful cabaret one-woman shows in Paris, but also at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (where she is bound with her new show, Oh La La!), the wonderful triple-threat Isabelle Georges stars in this original French-language first ever musical version of the often performed 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman, based on the novella story by Stefan Zweig and playing at the La Bruyère Theatre.
Although Zweig’s book has already been adapted several times for film and TV, it is the first time that it has been done as a musical, splendidly written by Christine Khandjian and Stéphane Ly-Cuong, with original music by the Russian movie composer Sergeï Dreznin, who previously worked with Georges on the unforgettable Cabaret Terezin at Théâtre Marigny.
The story centres around the tragic love that a widow develops for a gambler after they have a one-night stand—basically the plot of Funny Girl without the funny! This one-act musical is a classy affair, with an atmosphere reminiscent of the recent doomed West End musical, Marguerite, written by Alain Boublil, Herbert Kretzmer and Michel Legrand, whose work is echoed in this equally poignant sung-through musical tragedy.
Georges, playing Mrs C, gives a power-house performance. Though we might miss the tap dancing she excels at, it is good to see her maturing into a complex and demanding part. Her last soliloquy is particularly tear-wrenching. Frederick Steenbrink as the young Polish aristocrat she falls in love with is fully convincing and vocally impressive, while Olivier Ruidavet as the narrator has the best song in the score, the promising opening number, though his role lacks depth at times.
The staging by Franck Berthier is very clever and succeeds in conjuring up an atmosphere of graceful refinement. The minimalist stage design, also by Berthier, is subtly informed by a background of sumptuous tableaux representing the rooms where the action takes place.
All in all, 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman is a moving musical adaptation of a somewhat difficult work that doesn’t naturally lend itself to this genre. Having premiered in Thonon Les Bains at Théâtre Maurice Novarina, it will continue to play at La Bruyère Theatre for the rest of July. It should lend itself easily to translation into English.
Patrick Honoré
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.