Musical theatre is bustin’ out all over in Paris

Musical theatre is bustin’ out all over in Paris these autumn days and American actress-impersonator Christina Bianco opens tonight (Thursday) in Funny Girl at the gloriously refurbished Marigny just off the Champs Elysees.

Bianco plays old-time Broadway comedienne Fanny Brice in the only part Barbra Streisand ever performed on the West End stage back in 1966. Streisand became pregnant and had to leave the show, her understudy Lisa Shane taking over for the remainder of the run.

Sheridan Smith starred in a sell-out London revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory and in the West End at the Savoy in 2015-16 with understudy Natasha J Barnes taking over when personal problems forced Smith to take a break.

Ashley Day plays Nick Arnstein, Brice’s gambler husband, in the Paris revival of the Jule Styne-Bob Merrill musical which is being directed and choreographed by Stephen Mear. Other name parts are taken by Rachel Stanley, Matthew Jeans, Mark Inscoe and Shirley Jameson.

It is only in the last decade that Paris, educated by former Theatre du Chatelet supremo Jean-Luc Choplin, has warmed to Broadway and West End musicals performed in English with French surtitles. “You know, we never had a single complaint about the shows being in English,” he said.

Sondheim fanatic Choplin brought A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, West Side Story, Sunday in the Park With George and Passion to his Seine-side theatre before it closed for a two-year makeover and he moved on to the Marigny.

But it was far from being just Sondheim. The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, The King and I and, most popular of all, Singin’ in the Rain, which had two runs there, were thrillingly staged with lavish sets, full orchestra and star casting at the Chatelet.

And An American in Paris, known only as a 1951 Gene Kelly movie before, was moved a year or two away from the Second World War and turned into a Gershwin musical extravaganza by director-choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.

Where else to  launch it but Paris itself which it did, starring Broadway ballet star Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope, from the Royal Ballet, at the end of 2014 as a trial run for long runs on Broadway and later London.

Now it comes full circle, returning to the reopened Chatelet for its Christmas show, opening 28 November for a month, with Leanne Cope back as Lise Dassin (but sharing the role with her West End understudy Kirsten McGarrity) and American Ryan Steele as Jerry Mulligan. Steele played the part on the 2016 US national tour.

By coincidence, Ashley Day who took over from Fairchild in the West End, will be working up the road in Funny Girl at the Marigny when An American in Paris opens at the end of the month. Funny Girl is scheduled for a two-month run to 5 January, 2020.

Also recently seen in Paris is the UK tour version of Mamma Mia! which made a popular two-week detour to La Seine Musicale in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt last month.

Yes, Paris has gone musical-crazy and with a Eurostar return fare available from £58 in midweek, why not give yourself a treat. Book a matinee and you can even do it in a day!

Jeremy Chapman