Review - Amelie

Well, hello there!  Have you missed me?  I know it's been a while - there's a reason.  I was supposed to head to the Humana Festival of New American Plays, where I would be seeing six new plays, alongside panel discussions and a one-act festival.  I figured I needed to stay home a few nights beforehand, to make sure I was in peak play-watching form.  I was REALLY looking forward to going.  And as with all plans I make lately, things went awry. When I got to the airport last Thursday, our flight to Louisville was delayed. It kept getting delayed in half-hour increments, and I kept emailing people in Louisville, to change our dinner plans and other meetings.  The weather kept going from raining to sunny to raining to sunny.  It was a bit crazy.  Suddenly, our flight just disappeared from the electronic board at the gate.  No warning, no announcement.  My work pal and I knew that our flight had finally been canceled (we'd been at the airport for about six hours), so we jumped up to get in the line to talk to a service representative.

At this point, our phones stopped working, as did the internet and the airline's app.  It was nuts. Finally, when we hadn't moved in line at all after standing there for a good while, a representative told us to just go home and try to make new plans from there. Sounded like a plan, since we couldn't use the phones or internet.  We went downstairs to get my work pal's suitcase (he had checked it when he arrived) and, of course, they couldn't find it.  That took another good long while.  We found out that there were massive problems across this particular airline's routes and that there was no way we could even rebook for a later time over the weekend.  Instead of enjoying theater, I spent most of the weekend on hold, trying to get refunds for our hotel and airfare.  It was unfun, to say the least.  Plus, there was a hole in my life about six plays wide...

While I was on hold on my cellphone over the weekend, I got onto my tablet and bought a bunch of tickets through TDF.  I just couldn't resist any longer, I had to see SOMETHING. My next scheduled tickets aren't until May and that was too far away.  The first ticket I purchased was for the new Broadway musical Amelie, which I saw last night.  I'm seeing two other shows this week.  I may live to regret it... : )

I saw the film on which the musical is based a few times, but I certainly haven't seen it for a lot of years, so I went into the musical pretty open-minded.  I vaguely knew that the show didn't get stellar reviews, so maybe my expectations weren't sky-high, but I had a lovely time at Amelie.  I remember the movie as being charming and quirky and romantic and gentle and light.  The musical is all that, with maybe a little bit of rueful resignation. I definitely had a smile on my face throughout most of the evening, and was in tears quite a few times as well.

We all already know about how much I love the work of playwright/librettist Craig Lucas and he works his magic here as well.  I was also quite taken, again, with Nathan Tysen's smart and quirky lyrics (I enjoyed his lyrics in Tuck Everlasting as well).  If I wished the music by Daniel Messe had a little more French verve to it, ok.  Not a deal-breaker for me, but just a little bit would've been nice.  I do look forward to getting the cast album, though, so I can hear the songs again.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

The story of a painfully shy girl who is looking for love, but is too afraid to go after it, is done, like in the film, in a very whimsical way.  In the first few minutes alone, we're treated to a dancing fish, a nun with a dinosaur head, and a big balloon representation of a Belgian tourist.  I guess if your tolerance for quirk and whimsy is low, Amelie might not be the show for you.  I was in the mood for it, apparently, because I actually wanted more.  The first few songs of the show, when Amelie is a child (and that child actress was terrific), I just fell completely in love with the world of the show, with the idea that this kid was so starved for love and life that she made up wacky shit in her head.  The show got less wacky as it went on, which makes total sense as Amelie changes her life, but I found myself missing it.  A bit. But I was also terribly moved in several places, as I frequently am when watching something written by Craig Lucas, by the chasms people put in their own way while trying to find love and acceptance.  

There was one song that I could've done completely without, and there was one song that I didn't understand at all, but mainly, I just let myself go with the gentle charms of Amelie. The audience around me seemed to be having a good time as well, there were chuckles and nods of recognition throughout the show.  I think the audience was also just eating up Phillipa Soo as Amelie.  I hope you'll excuse me when I admit that I haven't seen her on stage before.  I've heard a lot about her, of course, but I had yet to experience her.  She is simply delightful in the show, going headlong into this rather oddball character, but also making her totally lovable and relatable.  The show could easily have gone off the rails and been so twee that no one could stand it, but as far as I'm concerned, that didn't happen.  It was sweet, wistful, and charming.  But it maybe could've been more French. Un peu.