December 10, 2014 – AN AMERICAN IN PARIS opens their out-of-town pre-Broadway engagement, appropriately, at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, France.
The Broadway production was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, and won 4, including Best Choreography, in a VERY crowded year for monumentally wonderful new musicals (including Something Rotten! and Fun Home). IMHO, all three shows were worthy of the Tony for best musical that year, and it should have been a 3-way tie, but, MY favorite was AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. Loosely following the story from the Gene Kelly movie, with a score of George Gershwin masterpieces, the dancing of Robert Fairchild (a principal dancer for the NY City Ballet, making his Broadway musical debut) and Leanne Cope (a First Artist for England’s Royal Ballet, also making her Broadway musical debut) was so beautiful, it could make you weep – well, it made ME and everyone nearby in the theatre weep!
Hoping that my love for musical theatre, Gershwin and dance will transfer to my young granddaughter, I made AMERICAN IN PARIS the “first” Broadway musical she will ever have seen. Although only 6 years old, she loved it (well, she loved dressing up in a velvet dress with silver character shoes, and going out on a very special ‘date’ with her Nonna and Papa – and hardly blinked through the entire performance!).
This snippet is from the Tony Award show performance in 2015. Enjoy, swoon, and fall in love!
