Post Crescent Reviews of an American in Paris

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You can hands autumn into like with 'An American in Paris'

McGee Maddox and Allison Walsh star in Christopher Wheeldon's "An American in Paris." (Matthew Potato)

'Tis the flavour to hear Gershwin. Between Signature Theatre's "Crazy for You lot," a remake of George and Ira Gershwin'due south "Girl Crazy," and now, the Kennedy Eye's hosting of an exhilaratingly danced national tour of "An American in Paris," standards such equally "I Got Rhythm," "Just Non for Me," "Shall We Dance?" and "They Can't Take That Away From Me" are available to the region'southward theatergoers this holiday flavor in something like stereo.

Fa la la la la, indeed. The "An American in Paris" renditions of these and thirteen other flossy Gershwin tunes are contained in a mostly commendable new phase version that embellishes the 1951 movie musical that starred Cistron Kelly and Leslie Caron and won vi Academy Awards, including best picture. Director-choreographer Christopher Wheeldon shepherded this ballet-centric accommodation in 2022 from a Paris tryout engagement to Broadway, where it ran for more than 600 performances and won four Tony Awards.

The touring version, directed once again by Wheeldon, boasts two strongly able-bodied dancers, Allison Walsh and McGee Maddox, in the roles charismatically created on Broadway past ballet stars Leanne Cope and Robert Fairchild. But if the original of ii years agone evoked the drama of postwar France with some romantic ability, the actors on tour have drained some of the passion out of the story of a struggling ex-G. I. who wants to paint in the Urban center of Low-cal and sweep the girl of his dreams off her feet at that place, too.

Diminished besides by a few wacky-sounding accents — which sometimes leave you feeling the show might exist called "An American Somewhere in Scandinavia" — the production in the Kennedy Center Opera House tends to circulate too evidently some of the blander conceits of playwright Craig Lucas's book. There'southward a fine line, information technology seems, betwixt timelessness and cliché; some of the devices employed here are just as well transparently designed to trigger a song, every bit in a cabaret scene that becomes a vehicle for Henri Baurel (Ben Michael) to sing "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" equally a glittery Gotham fantasy.

American in Paris Touring Visitor at the John F. Kennedy Middle (Matthew Potato)

Some of the old-school narrative probably is unavoidable, given the musical's deep roots in the Hollywood musical of yore. Wheeldon's own extensive knowledge of story ballets — in which plot and character most always take back seats to exquisite physical technique — also accounts for some of the inattentiveness to expository subtlety. Nonetheless, Wheeldon'due south choreography is indeed infrequent, especially in the extended "An American in Paris" ballet, accessorized by Bob Crowley'southward inventive costumes, that ends the evening and that seems intended equally an homage both to the picture show and the groovy New York City Ballet choreographers like Jerome Robbins, who have inspired Wheeldon.

Crowley's set pattern is besides quite wonderful, though appearing slightly scaled down from Broadway. Cityscapes materialize on backdrops in means that indicate both the dreamlike landscapes of Monet likewise as the Tinseltown innovation of picture show colorization. The classic midcentury looks Crowley comes upwards with for the women — especially for the fine Kirsten Scott, as a soigne American benefactress who falls for Maddox's Jerry Mulligan — add touches of European chic, and the orchestra, conducted by David Andrews Rogers, richly supports a score that'southward been augmented since the motion picture with additional Gershwin songs.

Matthew Scott offers an engaging portrayal of Adam Hochberg, the evening's narrator and a composer who befriends both Jerry and Henri, and like them, is besotted by Walsh's Lise Dassin. (The character, so called Adam Cook, was played in the moving-picture show by Oscar Levant, who aficionados volition annotation is affectionately proper noun-checked in the musical).

Though Walsh makes for an endearing Lise, a budding ballet star trying to put her tragic past behind her, Maddox is more commanding as a dancer than as a musical-comedy leading man. Fortunately, when this American in Paris puts his best feet forward, it's his feet that we are actually talking about — allowing him to assist do justice to the lovely duets Wheeldon has worked out for a storybook tale in a city of storybook flirtation.

An American in Paris , music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, book by Craig Lucas. Directed and choreographed past Christopher Wheeldon. Sets and costumes, Bob Crowley; score adaptation, Rob Fisher; lighting, Natasha Katz; sound, Jon Weston; projections, 59 Productions; orchestrations, Neb Elliott and Christopher Austin, music supervision, Todd Ellison. With Teri Hansen, Don Noble, Kyle Vaughn. About ii hours 45 minutes. $59-$149. Through Jan. seven at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Visit kennedy-eye.org or telephone call 202-467-4600.

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Peter Marks Peter Marks joined The Washington Mail as its master theater critic in 2002. Previously, he worked for nine years at the New York Times, on the culture, metropolitan and national desks, and spent about four years as its off-Broadway drama critic. Follow

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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/you-can-easily-fall-into-like-withan-american-in-paris/2017/12/14/c4f7ed58-e0ec-11e7-9eb6-e3c7ecfb4638_story.html