A Parisian cabaret gives way to "Cabaret"

The 1966 American musical began in a location that for decades was home to one of the city's most famous revue troupes.< /p>

For decades, the Lido was one of the most glitzy cabarets in Paris, home to extravagant, acrobatic acts and the Bluebell Girls, a renowned choir. Last July, the curtain fell on their feathered headpieces for the last time and the ensemble disbanded. Their replacement at the theater this winter? "Cabaret" - the 1966 American musical.

On a recent evening, with jeweled Bluebell outfits still glistening in the windows at the entrance from the room, Lido patrons seemed ready for a show. When the emcee of "Cabaret," directed by Robert Carsen, introduced the musical's own ensemble, the Kit Kat Girls and Kit Kat Boys, there were enthusiastic cheers, but the lack of topless dancing, without talk about the dark conspiracy of the Nazi era, may have surprised some viewers.

Yet the Lido's shift from Cabaret to "Cabaret" is not a coincidence. This signals a bigger change in Paris, where American-style musicals have increased just as historical revues have struggled to stay relevant.

La pandemic has only accelerated the decline of mainstream French cabaret, long a tourist attraction at venues like the Lido and Moulin Rouge: without the foreigners, there simply weren't enough Parisians interested in the dances nostalgic cancan to support expensive journals. Add to this the increasingly gendered objectification of women's near-naked bodies, and cabaret seems out of step with the times.

The reinvention of Lido as a musical theater venue - under new ownership, hotel conglomerate Accor, and a somewhat silly new name, Lido2Paris - is clearly an attempt to attract local crowds. To spearhead the transition, Accor has hired Jean-Luc Choplin, whose tenure at the Théâtre du Châtelet from 2006 to 2017 saw a string of hits with English-language musicals, including "My Fair Lady" and "42nd Street." /p>

This winter, the Châtelet once again filled to the rafters, this time for a revival of Stephen Mear's 2016 production of "42nd Street". And other venues listened to the "Lullaby of Broadway," as one number on "42nd Street" puts it. At the Théâtre de Paris, a French-language adaptation of Mel Brooks' "The Producers" by director Alexis Michalik has become a runaway success since its premiere in late 2021 and is currently slated to run through April.

ImageThe narration in the "42nd Street" of the Théâtre du Châtelet is bright and Broadway-style. Credit...Thomas Amouroux

Although interpreted in different languages ​​— "42nd Street" is in English — "42nd Street" and "The Producers" do not leave Broadway habits. “42nd Street” opens with the curtain rising a few feet, so all we see are the ensemble's legs, patting and garnering enthusiastic applause. The narration in both productions is brilliant, with an almost odd interpretation in French, in "The Producers", of the breakneck pace of American-style dialogue.

"The Producers" hasn't pleased all critics - the French newspaper Liberation lambasted its "discriminatory" stereotypes - but as theaters in France struggle to return to pre-pandemic ticket sales...