SAXTONS RIVER — Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris is a celebration of the life and art of one of the greatest French singer-songwriters of the 20th century.
While Brel is not a household name in America, he is considered the songwriter/poet of his generation in the French-speaking world. Embodying the restlessness of the European youth in the 1950s and 1960s, Brel became famous for both the range of his music and his constant travel, believing that “one must go and see” the world.
Then in 1967, at the height of his fame, Brel quit the stage and all but disappeared from the public eye to “be an adventurer.” In French culture, it was as if Frank Sinatra and the Beatles suddenly vanished.
Brel's songs were translated into English in the late 1960's and incorporated into a long-running musical review that became an off-Broadway standard, running on London's West End, Paris, and Toronto for many years.
According to Main Street Arts (MSA) Artistic Director David Stern, those who are new to Brel's world will find much to enjoy.
“ Jacques Brel ... is a unique musical revue that surpasses the genre with meaning beyond the sum of its parts. There was a reason he was so famous. His music connects us with the deepest level of human experience. The translations by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman are brilliant. This is a night you will not soon forget.”
MSA Managing Director Margo Ghia said that “Jacques Brel has enjoyed a long and honored life in American regional theater.”
She noted that in 1973, an itinerant regional theater promoter named Ray Shepardson produced the show for Cleveland's State Theater in an effort to revive interest in the arts in Ohio's largest city. Intended to run for two weeks, Brel ran for 522 consecutive performances, the longest run of any show in the city's history and led to the revival and expansion of Cleveland's theater district.
“Main Street Arts has had its own revitalization and expansion,” Ghia said. “It only seems right for us to take Jacques Brel on the road to celebrate that achievement and to celebrate several of the other wonderful area organizations and businesses that do so much for arts and culture in our area.“
Like Brel himself, this Main Street Arts production will travel widely. Performances begin on Oct. 23 and 24 at Popolo restaurant in Bellows Falls, and continue on Oct. 30 at Main Street Arts in Saxtons River, Nov. 6 at the Hooker-Dunham Theater in Brattleboro, Nov. 8 and 9 at Fireworks in Keene, N.H., and Nov. 12 at MacLaomainn's Scottish Pub in Chester.