Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
The year was 1968. I had been out of college only a few months and had moved into the East Village in New York with friends. The village was full of hippies, war protesters, and a lost generation trying to find their way through the haze of drugs and sexual experimentation. One of my roommates got a job at the Village Gate, an upscale (for the village) cabaret stage that usually had jazz but instead premiered a show called Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. It ran for six years followed by a tribute in year seven to Jacques Brel himself at Carnegie Hall. I saw the show more than 7 times and have fond and deeply engrained memories of the show. especially one of the performers, Elly Stone who reminded me of Julie Harris but with a haunting voice. I love this show.
The Colony Theatre is reviving the show as part of its current season. It is directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera who just directed one of the best shows of this or any other season, Oedipus El Rey, and features some wonderful performers, Eileen Barnett, Zachary Ford, Gregory Franklin, and Jennifer Shelton. As a group and individually they tackled these iconic songs with great skill and powerful emotions. Gregory moved us with his rendition of Fanette. Zachary scored with Next, Jennifer sang a lovely I Loved, and the talented Eileen Barnet wowed us with Sons Of, Ne Me Quitte Pas, and with the rest of the cast the anthem and major hit from the show, If We Only Have Love. So why did I feel the show really missed the mark.
The problem was the “Concept” put upon this material by Jon Lawrence Rivera. He placed a coffin onstage and referenced almost all the songs to it or the death of someone. Rivera felt compelled to move people around so they ended up racing from side to side, it’s a wide stage, and acting out the songs. The songs were best when felt and not acted. French cabaret as exemplified by Piaf, Aznavour, and Brel himself, was by definition static and deeply personal. So the original Jacques Brel worked. The singers sang for us, shared their own experience in the songs, and let the songs speak for themselves. There were times during this production I actively hated what was going on. None of this was the performers but rather this arbitrary “Concept” tacked on for the sake of finding a “New” way to present the show. In fairness they have gotten, for the most part, rave reviews but I overheard one audience member comment that it was too depressing. This is not the reaction you want but rather a feeling of having heard about love, betrayal, war, death in war, and the overall message of love. Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris . will play at the Colony until May 9th. Actually Brel is no longer with us but the themes of his songs are as powerful as ever.