Here's my (lateee) submission for the first week of @stmsnowflakechallenge: "Share something about your favorite part of Starmania canon." It's a very simple idea that I've been thinking about for a while now and that I tried putting into words!
One thing I find very interesting about the changes between different Starmania productions is how the opening song frames the setting and story, as well as the play itself.
In 79, the first song was Il se passe quelque chose à Monopolis, in which Roger-Roger introduces the city in utopian terms: “Cette ville qui semblait faite pour le bonheur des hommes”, “Cette ville modèle”, etc. It also describes some of its futuristic urban features (“Souterrains à l’air conditionné”/“Buildings de verre qui filtrent la lumière" /“Banlieues chauffées à l’énergie solaire”).
The song creates anticipation (even from a muscial perspective!) as it leads up to the first Communiqué and to Quand On Arrive En Ville, which frames the Zonards as the disruptive element (and coincidentally as villains). At this point in the story you have no reason not to believe what Roger-Roger says.
BUT THEN!!! In the 1988 production, they placed Monopolis BEFORE Il se passe quelque chose! Meaning that the capital is now introduced primarily through its negative features with a song about the monotony of the alienating metropolis (while the song only appeared late in the second act in 79)!
Beyond what changes this implies about Cristal's character, it also radically changes how the audience receives the rest of the story. In 88, Roger-Roger's claims in Il se passe quelque chose (sung right after Monopolis) are already discredited. The audience knows from the beginning that the media isn't a reliable narrator, while it's something you figure out a lot more progressively in the 79 album.
AND most importantly and what I think is the coolest about this change is how it represents a shift surrounding Starmania as a cultural object. The use of Monopolis throughout the 2022 production especially highlights how the show has become a topic of nostalgia for many people.
To me this is best exemplified by the change in lyrics about "l'an 2000" ("Dans les villes de l'an deux-mille, la vie sera/était bien plus facile"), which used to be an anxiety-inducing future (almost a deadline?) and is now an idealized past (almost a missed mark!). Having Monopolis open the show gives the audience a double shot of nostalgia, both about like, whatever memories they have associated with the song outside of the musical AND about a time when year 2000 was still the future. And the hologram of France Gall singing Monopolis in her 79 outfit crystallizes (haha) these two layers of reception!
Overall, I'd say that replacing Il Se Passe Quelque Chose with Monopolis as the opening song shifts the tone of the play. In 1979, Starmania was anticipation; today it's also... nostalgia for how the 70s imagined the future ?
Starmania has basically become retro-retrofuturism. And yet it's definitely (and always has been!) a story about the present.
