An American In Paris

Sunday afternoon Zoe and Brandon came over to hang out with the kids while Tony and I went to the Hippodrome to see An American In Paris. I had never heard of the show and had no idea what it was about but was eager to see it nonetheless. (One of my all time favorite shows, My Fair Lady, was one I knew nothing about and ended up LOVING.)

Zoe took a few pictures of us before we left and can you believe I'm wearing a dress!? Dakota was super impressed! :)

So, the film  An American In Paris was inspired by the orchestral composition of the same name by George Gershwin in 1928. The film was made in 1951 and included dancing sensations of the time, Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. 

You can read about the musical here if you're interested in learning more. 

Things I loved about the show:

• the way they moved the background to change the way the city appeared. They had these giant panels on wheels that they moved about the stage to create really awesome city scapes. They used these same panels for the mirrors in the dance audition scenes as well as others. 
• the ballet. I won't pretend to know anything about ballet but I will say that I found the dancing romantic and beautiful. There were several dance sequences and one really long one towards the middle of the show. (I read that it was a 17 minutes! That's a LONG dance!) I imagined Dakota enjoying that part of the show and wanting to try to dance as they did.
• the song, 'S Wonderful. I knew it before the show but hadn't realized it was from this musical. It's a cute song!
• the plight of Lise, the female lead, in which she tries to decide which is more important, following her dreams or doing what is expected. She chooses doing what is expected (boo!!!!) but at least finds true love in the end. But still, she totally should have followed her dreams!

Things I didn't love about the show:

• the scene in the perfume shop where Jerry is all but forcing himself on Lise. I realize he is in love with her but she is not in love with him at this point and it's just too much, especially in this day and age of  #metoo. I know the time period made things different, but harassment is hard to ignore no matter the date stamp. (Yes, this is just a show, but art imitates life, and harassment of that sort needs to end.) 
• the three men vying for and certain of Lise's love for them. It's as though she doesn't have any choice in the matter. There's Henry who believes she loves him because she should after his family hid her and kept her safe from the Nazi's during the war. He feels it's the least she could do to repay him and his family. Then Jerry who fell in love with her at first sight and feels that it is his duty to make her fall in love with him and then Adam, the composer who falls in love with her while she dances to the music he writes. There is all this talk about why they love her but little talk about who she may love, if any of them. It's so outdated. 

All said and done, I really did enjoy the show. I enjoyed the dancing with the highlighted ballet/jazz numbers which I'd never really seen before. I'd absolutely recommend this show if you're ever given the chance to see it! 

Oh, and this is what we walked in on when we got home:

 

They were all (even Landon!!) sitting at the table playing Uno. The two kids said they'd had such a good time and Zoe and Brandon certainly kept them busy and they're already asking when the next time they'll come to "kidsit" them. :)