When Americans are asked to name a French musical, they rely on “Les Miserables.” It opened in Paris in 1980, and a few years later a heavily remodeled English version conquered the world.
It, or some of Jacques Demy’s 1960s films, such as “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and “The Young Girls of Rochefort.”
The very popular homemade stage musicals that appeared in France in the late 1990s are usually not mentioned on our beaches.But now the most famous “Notre Dame Cathedral” New York premiere at David H. Koch Theater It will run at the Lincoln Center on Wednesday until July 24th.
However, one of its creators has a problem with the terminology used to describe his work.
“I don’t think of’Notre Dame de Paris’as a musical theater,” composer Richard Cosiante said in a video from Rome preparing for a concert tour in Italy. “For me, it’s people’s opera, because it’s completely sung, but I don’t call the numbers arias. “Bell” Or “Le temps de scathédrales” is independent as a song, “he added, referring to two of the show’s many radical ballads and their biggest hits.
Based on a spectacular 19th-century novel by Victor Hugo, such as “Les Miserables,” which also influenced Disney’s animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was just one of many adaptations. Notre Dame de Paris successfully used a unique French approach to contemporary stage musicals.
The lyricist Luc Plamondon is the hometown of Quebec (belt player who released his song album “Dionchante Plamondon” in 1992) and the musical “Starmania” in the late 1970s in France. (That longtime favorite is back at November Paris Stage.. )
Looking for another long-term project 20 years from now, Pramondon thought that “Notre Dame de Paris” would be a good source of information, and called Cosiante, who happened to have a tape of odds and end melody.
“The first song started with him singing’Time … da-da-da’,” 80-year-old Pramondon hummed on the phone. In the 1956 movie version, he was thinking about the scene where Anthony Quinn, as Quasimodo, asks Esmeralda of Gina Lollobrigida, who is the focus of all men’s attention, for water. “He’s chained to a wheel and he goes to’Bell … Bell …'” Pramondon went on to quote the French word for beauty. “So I came up with the idea of replacing” time “with” bell “in the song. “
And they were off. “Since then, it has spurted from both of us,” said 76-year-old Cosiante. “We wrote’Notre Dame de Paris’with a kind of transformer.”
In France’s response to the sponsor’s audition, he played the score on the piano and sang all the parts for producer Charles Taller, who signed on and booked a run at the Palais des Sports in Paris in the fall of 1998. I did.
Taller came from the music industry, so it was a good fit to get the venue, a cave-like concert hall, rather than a traditional theater. He wanted to release the album first and then sell the stage show based on it. This is the approach Andrew Lloyd Webber used successfully for “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Evita,” but overall, it’s not common in the United States and the United Kingdom, where the show precedes recording.
“He assumed that he could activate the network he built and use some of the same strategies he used to sell records,” Nicolas Talar recalled in Zoom, recalling his father’s game plan. I did. (Charles Talar died in 2020.) “The purpose was to get the audience familiar with the music before the show started. A characteristic of French musicals is to promote them in a way that promotes pop records. If one or two songs become popular, you’ll be the star of the moment, you’ll be on TV, and people will want to see you, “he added. “The only way to hear’Bell’live was to watch a musical.”
A trio for three men who love Esmeralda, the song was released in the spring of 1998, months before the show’s opening, making it France’s best-selling single of the year.
“There was this miracle in’Bell’. I don’t know how else to explain it,” said Daniel Lavois, who played Archdeacon Fluoro in the original work and returned to Cassock in New York. 73) said. “I didn’t play anything for more than 3 minutes, so it was close to 5 minutes, which was unthinkable on the radio at the time. On our first TV appearance, we remember being asked to sing again. At that time, we knew we were working on something. “
Another number, “Le temps de scathédrales”, was about as popular. Many Americans may have discovered it in 2015. Josh Groban’s album “Stage— Consolidates the status of “Notre Dame” to indicate the year. And unlike the United States, where the stage’s personality doesn’t tend to dent the Billboard Hot 100, it turned cast members Garou, Patrick Fiori, and Elene Segara into pop stars. (Lavoie had already established a career as a singer by that time.)
“Notre Dame” was so huge that other producers followed in the footsteps of Taller. The most famous is Dove Atia, who was behind the popularity. “Les Dix Commandements” (2000), “Luroisoreille” (2005) and “Mozart, Lopera Rock” (2009). At the end, it was actually one of the few rocks. This is a tolerance for high proportions of power ballads in France, Russia or South Korea.
The decisive move by the “Notre Dame” team was to sing live on the track where the cast was recorded, although New York engagement complemented them with a complete orchestra. “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” Lavoie said in English before returning to French. “‘Notre Dame Cathedral’ was conceived as an overtime show.”
Although “Notre Dame” has been translated into eight languages and performed in 23 countries, producers now prefer to screen in the original French. This will result in a cast of 30 performers in New York (with an English super title). Still, musicals like this face a difficult battle to beat reviewers at home.
“Musical theaters haven’t received much critical support in France,” said Laurent Barriere, producer and host of the weekly program. “42eRue” Author of a book on French public radio and musicals. “The press pans it-sometimes for good reason, sometimes not.” (Full Disclosure: I’m the guest commentator for the show.)
The French hit factory seems to have run into problems in recent years as it is nervous about finding a successor to the 2000s blockbuster.There’s something weird like a bio musical “Bernadetta de Lourdes” This is based on the true story of a girl who claims to have seen the Virgin Mary and plays in Lourdes, the town where it all happened.
In another vein “Resystem” A jukebox musical based on the French Gall pop songbook, the live band benefited from playing original arrangements and dynamic movements. Music video choreographer Marion Motin.
Still, the “Notre Dame Cathedral” will continue to exist. “Another feature is that it’s performed the same no matter where you play,” said Nicholas Taller, who is currently producing and co-starring the show in New York. (He also makes credits for Broadway’s “Funny Girl” and “Moulin Rouge! Musical.”)
“Sometimes I think the show is out of date, but the theme is evergreens and the music is deliberately arranged for a timeless sound, so we continue to postpone the changes,” he said. Added. “So far, the audience hasn’t complained and the show is going well, so we’re continuing the course.”
