THEATRE REVIEW: JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS
14 Jun'10

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 4 out of 5

STRATFORD -- Even if one has never seen it before, one's first reaction to JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS is likely to be: "Where have I heard this music before?" And, as Stratford Shakespeare Festival audiences will discover this summer, thanks to an intimate new production of the iconic musical, that's a complex question indeed.

The work of the legendary French singer/songwriter of title (who is no longer alive or well or living in Paris) has been widely and liberally imitated and cannibalized. As a result, anyone exposed to popular music during the past half century is certain to have heard musical phrases, even entire tunes, that flowed originally from Brel's imagination. But our familiarity with Brel's music runs deeper than that, for Brel's music represents a sort of pan-European musical confluence blending the rich troubadour traditions of France, the cabaret traditions of Germany and the fado traditions of Portugal with touches of American jazz and a host of other musical influences. The music of Jacques Brel is implanted in our genes.

And as the new Stratford Festival production that opened on the Tom Patterson stage Friday proves, that creates a pretty powerful theatrical effect. Under the direction of Stafford Arima, the musical, co-conceived and translated by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman, has been deconstructed and rebuilt to showcase Brel's talents for a new generation, while remaining true to the show's roots.

It also showcases the talents of a four-member cast -- Jewelle Blackman, Brent Carver, Mike Nadajewski and Nathalie Nadon -- each playing themselves in a show that is devoid of plot and character, yet completely awash in both. It's a milieu in which the hugely talented Carver is completely at home, something he demonstrates with understated elegance every time lighting designer Steven Hawkins and director Arima train the spotlight on him. As a result, however, one wishes the rest of the casting had been done to complement Carver's extraordinary and unique skill, rather than to merely showcase it.

While Blackman, Nadajewski and Nadon are talented performers, they are, by dint of a certain paucity in life and stage experience, simply not in Carver's league and replacing even just one of them with a more seasoned performer would have added untold depth to this production.

Where Carver has the ability to seemingly get himself out of the way and channel haunting songs such as Amsterdam and My Childhood, the other three players seem driven to perform them. As a result, Carver's skill has to balance not just Blackman's over-embroidered vocal style and Nadajewski's tendency to hide behind a clown, but Nadon's evocation of a banked fire that never really bursts into flame, as well.

Backed by a strong four-piece orchestra that is occasionally co-opted into the action, the performers work all aspects of the Patterson's thrust stage on a simple set created by Katherine Lubienski -- but under Arima's self-conscious direction, they only rarely seem completely at home as they work through 26 of Brel's more enduring tunes. And finally, it is those tunes that make the show a triumph for, even though he has been gone for more than 30 years, they prove that the music Jacques Brel wrote is alive and well and living in our hearts.