[NEohioPAL] Review of "Amelie" at Mercury Theatre Company

[Bob Abelman]

Mercury delights in the small pleasures found in ‘Amelie’



Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal





Based on Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 2001 French fairytale of a movie, the musical “Amelie” follows a reclusive young Parisian waitress who bestows random acts of kindness on strangers, engineers opportunities for happiness and romance for acquaintances, and eventually finds love herself. 

                             

With a melodic score by Daniel Messe and Nathan Tysen, and a clever, unconventional book by Craig Lucas, the show premiered at Berkeley Rep in 2015 and opened on Broadway in 2017.  It quickly closed and was nominated for no Tony Awards.



The reason, according to the Chicago Tribune, is that the musical “dances on a tightrope stretched between quirk and charm.”  Newsday called the work “weird.”  “Surreal” and “too precious” were Variety’s critical takeaways.  And every major review compared the stage production with the Academy Award-nominated cult film, found it wanting, and called out the disappointing discrepancies.



Mercury Theatre’s artistic director Pierre-Jacques Brault knows full well that the stage is a different medium than the screen, and welcomes the differences.  And his company thrives on all things quirky, charming, weird, surreal, and precious. 



For more of this review, go to:  https://www.news-herald.com/things-to-do/mercury-delights-in-the-small-pleasures-found-in-amelie-theater-review/article_df45872c-e892-11eb-9e47-abc345af4ee5.html
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