| Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris | |
|---|---|
 Original Cast Recording | |
| Music | Jacques Brel |
| Lyrics | Jacques Brel (French version) Eric Blau (English version) Mort Shuman (English version) |
| Book | Eric Blau (English version) Mort Shuman (English version) |
| Basis | The original French lyrics and French commentary by Jacques Brel |
| Productions | 1968Off-Broadway Regional productions |
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris is amusicalrevue of the songs ofJacques Brel. Brel's songs were translated into English byEric Blau andMort Shuman, who also provided the story. The original 1968Off-Broadway production ran for four years and spawned international and regional productions, as well as aWest End production and Off-Broadway revival, among others. Afilm adaptation was released in 1975.
In 2003,David Bowie included the cast recording in a list of 25 of his favourite albums, "Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie".[1]
The revue debutedOff-Broadway on January 22, 1968[2] atThe Village Gate Theater inGreenwich Village and ran for more than four years. Its original performers wereElly Stone,Mort Shuman,Shawn Elliott, and Alice Whitfield. The production was directed by Moni Yakim. The revue, consisting of around 25 songs, is performed by four vocalists, two male and two female. Brel contributed most of the music and French lyrics; English translations were provided byEric Blau, Stone's husband, andMort Shuman, aBrill Building songwriter.[3]
On September 12, 1968, the show opened at the Happy Medium Theater on Rush Street in Chicago. It would run until February 15, 1970 and was perhaps the cabaret theater's most successful production.Robert Guillaume, George Ball, Joe Masiell, Denise Le Brun, Alice Whitfield, and Aileen Fitzpatrick made up the original Chicago cast.[4]
The show enjoyed considerable international success. In 1968 Yakim directed a Canadian production in Toronto featuring Robert Jeffrey, Judy Lander, Arlene Meadows, and Stan Porter. In 1972, a production byTaubie Kushlick inJohannesburg, South Africa became the longest-running musical production in that country's theatrical history. A cast recording was released and is regarded as containing the definitive English-language versions of some of the songs. During that decade the show also enjoyed successful runs in Sydney, Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen.
In 1973, Ray Shepardson producedJacques Brel in the lobby of theState Theatre inCleveland, Ohio. It was intended to play for two weeks, but continued through 1975, with a 522-performance run that became the longest theatrical run in the city's history to that point. The production is credited as a major factor in the rescue and restoration of the theater and its adjacent venues, which are nowPlayhouse Square Center. In 1974, the revue was revived at theAstor Place Theatre for a limited run. In 1975, afilm adaptation of the original production was released as part of theAmerican Film Theatre series. The film included a few new songs.
Despite Brel's death in 1978, and his last years having been spent sailing around the world and living inPolynesia, the name of the show has remained unchanged.
A production was presented at the original company ofEquity Library Theater in New York City in 1985. It starred Louise Edeiken, Richard Hilton,Jan Horvath, and J.C. Sheets[5]
A 1988 revival served as the 20th anniversary production of the show atThe Town Hall in Manhattan (and one night atThe Kennedy Center inWashington, D.C.). It was produced by Blau and Reuben Hoppenstein and was directed by Stone, starringKaren Akers,Shelley Ackerman, Elmore James and Kenny Morris.
In 1994 the show was performed in Dublin's Andrew's Lane Theatre and featured Irish actress and singerCamille O'Sullivan.[6]
In 1995 the show was revived in theWest End, starring Michael Cahill, Alison Egan, Liz Greenaway, andStuart Pendred. A cast recording of this production was released on August 12, 1997 with Jay Records.
In 2006, a production openedOff-Broadway at the Zipper Theater in New York City. While this revival used most of the Blau-Shuman translations, there were also significant changes: the order of songs was rearranged, numbers were reorchestrated, and some songs were dropped or added. The revival also included expanded staging and choreography. The production ran for more than a year. It was nominated for several awards including the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle. It was directed byGordon Greenberg and starredRobert Cuccioli, Natascia Diaz,Rodney Hicks and Gay Marshall. The role played by Hicks was later done byDrew Sarich,Jim Stanek andConstantine Maroulis.Ann Mandrella, the wife of Sarich, was an understudy. A cast recording by Ghostlight Records was released in 2006.
In 2008, a production starring Leigh McDonald, Tony McGill, Emma Yong and George Chan, ran at the DBS Theatre in Singapore. In 2010, a production ran at theStratford Festival in Canada. It starred Jewelle Blackman,Brent Carver, Mike Nadajewski, and Nathalie Nadon. In 2014, the show opened for a limited run in London at Off-West End Charing Cross Theatre withGina Beck,Daniel Boys,David Burt andEve Polycarpou.[7] This production had a song list similar to the 2006 New York revival.[8]
In 2017, a new production opened at the Gate Theatre in Dublin directed by Alan Stanford and featuring music direction by Cathal Synnott, with a cast featuring Karen McCartney, Risteard Cooper, Stephanie McKeown and Rory Nolan.[9]
Songs added for the 1975 film version:[10]
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