Review: Kokandy Productions resurrects the dreamy 'Amélie the Musical'
It depends on the nature of your preferred definition and some go back as far as Katharine Hepburn. But a case surely could be made for the pointy-haired French star Audrey Tautou in 'Amélie,' the whimsical 2001 French fable from Jean-Pierre Jeunet about a melancholy but lovable Montmartre waitress who decides that the best cure for her own feelings of loneliness is throwing herself into improving the lives of the clutch of Parisian eccentrics who surround her. 'Amélie' was one of the most internationally successful French movies ever made, and those of us who fell under its witty, sweet, intermittently acerbic spell at the time surely recall it with great fondness. Ah, when quirkiness and whimsy still felt fresh and new.
Until, that is, some of us walked into Broadway's Walter Kerr Theater in 2017 for the disastrous musical version.
Not many folk had that dubious pleasure, given that 'Amélie,' which has a book by Craig Lucas and music by Daniel Messé, lasted only 57 regular performances. I hadn't seen it since before this weekend and was not sure I ever would before Kokandy Productions, the indisputable current leader in edgy, off-Loop musicals, announced its summer project.
'Amélie,' the musical yin to 'Lupin's' Netflix yang. Interesting, I thought. Everything gets licensed.
I should first note why I think 'Amélie' had such a rough go of it on Broadway in 2017. Many reasons: The source movie was so organically and distinctly beautiful as to resist brand extension. A chilly vibe couldn't compete with the warmth and vulnerability of Tautou's film performance. The show struggled to translate so fundamental a cinematic narrative into the language of a Broadway musical. And, frankly, time had just . Daring originality had become a familiar trope.
Kokandy's hugely inventive production, which is a must-see for anyone interested in the long Chicago tradition of fresh and intimate takes on failed Broadway musicals, goes a long way toward giving Amélie back her crucial sense of self and worth. You might say it de-tropifies her. Most specifically, that is achieved by the delightful Aurora Penepacker, who plays the central character here and makes Amélie entirely her own, even though she comes with a Tautou-like Parisian bob and a day-glo vivacity that put me most in mind of Jasmine Amy Rogers in 'Boop! The Musical.'
The gifted director and choregrapher Derek Van Barham, who has been doing for musicals these last few summers what David Cromer once did for straight plays in the basement of the Chopin Theatre in Wicker Park, has created an eye-poppingly immersive production that draws on the cabaret-style implications of the material (Amélie is, after all, a waitress in a Parisian cafe) and features a cast that switches, 'Once'-style, back and forth between playing instruments (playing them well, too) and performing the show's wacky lost urban souls. The tone of the production is admirable diverse: Mizha Lee Overn, for example, brings warmth to her little clutch of characters while Quinn Rigg, between stints playing the violin, adds a delicious soupçon of cynicism to his denizens. I did think Joe Giovannetti, who plays Amélie's love interest, Nino, could warm up some more toward the end, but then the production's problems mostly are in the second act.
Act 1 is pretty knockout but post-intermission (an intermission that did not exist on Broadway) the show gets less specific and it just pops off the boil a tad. Penepacker's vocals are simply fabulous all the way through to her big Act 2 number, 'Sister's Pickle' (I know; what a title for an 11 o'clock number) and then she suddenly seems less tonally assured. I suspect that the show ran out of rehearsal time, which is not uncommon. I also think the problems within the material finally start to overwhelm the plethora of creative staging ideas here, all shrewdly designed and lit by G. 'Max' Maxin IV. Caper-driven films invariably have too much plot for Act 2 and that's surely the case here, when all the audience really wants is to spend more time inside the head of the heroine.
So I can't report that Kokandy solves about 'Amélie.' But the score is worth hearing, when this well sung. Indeed, I'll wager you won't regret going for a second, not with this much passion and creativity and sheer talent running around what long has been the most artistically satisfying basement in the city.
Review: 'Amélie' (3.5 stars)
When: Through Sept. 28
Where: Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St.
Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Tickets: $45-55 at kokandyproductions.com
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