hey! i've been looking on tumblr for stuff about an american in paris bc I just started to get interested in it but there's like... nowhere to see it so, idk, could you give me a rundown or an introduction to it and what's it all about (i know a bit of the plot through the movie bc i know the general synopsis but the musical seems more complex, kinda?) you seem to be pretty into it!
hello hello hello! indeed, it is i, ur resident aaip nerd. actually there’s a few places to see it, namely the us tour, the upcoming london production, inside my head, on repeat and… some less legal others. oh and u can listen to the cast recording. but ! plot wise ! lemme get to it, lemme go at it.
it is, indeed, a bit similar to the movie - overall, the framing is done differently though - it is not ‘a while after the war’, but directly after the libération. lise and jerry still have that romance, though the age difference is not the same, not as creepy, etc etc. adam, cook in the movie, hochberg in the musical, is given a much more prominent spot in the plot. jewish composer lost his leg during the war, and meets jerry as the show starts. oh and he’s our narrator. technically. the american in paris is him, not jerry but oh well. lise is still betrothed to henri, but he’s not that fancy singer you see in the movie - more of an aspiring song and dance man, with a storyline around him, his parents, wanting to make art and queer-coding ( tbh, the theme of art, artists and why to make it is pretty important in the show ). his parents are actually present in the show - especially his mother who stays a pretty important secondary character. i’m rambling already - i could ramble on more. milo davenport is also a bit more developped than in the movie - even if some of it was taken away between the chatelet and the us. but - really, while lise and jerry’s love story stay our ‘main plot’, the big difference is this time frame, which changes a lot historically, and how france is more… culturally and historically nailed, unlike in the movie which i love but is one big walking cliché. my french ass really enjoys how the show feels like modern french theatre mixed with my favorite bits of golden age and broadway. but the big difference plot-wise is the art, and the depth given to those secondary characters that stayed a lot more shallow (or an excuse to have a lot of oscar levant, which no one would ever say no to), in the movie. there’s a lot more to ramble around - namely how those secondary characters are necessary to the show, technically, as they have most of the singing, while lise and jerry tend to be more dancing ( even if they sing a bit - most peeps who played them were originally, first and foremost dancers ) but i won’t get onto that! oh and and yeah. lise is made explicitely jewish. same for adam ( which i’ve said already ). henri was involved in the résistance, so were his parents. historically it just - has a much bigger impact than the movie, and this show means the world to me.
and woop, i rambled. i’m really bad at being organized in my thoughts when i talk about things, so if you have??? any more questions feel free to direct them my way??? i’d be glad to reply. sorry if this is messy as heck i’m just exhausted.
EDIT: frick meant to reply privately. oh well // ignore thiiiis.
