![]() The set and costumes by David Zinn and lighting by Jane Cox and Mark Barton are best described as distracting. That aforementioned background they faded into, however, was far from monotone or boring. However, to be to the rest of the cast, it is worth mentioning that there are the only actors other than Soo that were given songs, so it is logical that everyone else faded into the background. Maybe Adam Chandler-Berat as Nino, her love interest, and Tony Sheldon as Dufayel, the elderly neighbor, are worthy of some praise. The lack of wow-factor from Soo here will be dangerous for the show because the only thing drawing in audiences to this odd musical is her name on the marquis. However, she deserves a much better show that “Amelie.” After wowing audiences as Eliza in “Hamilton,” this is certainly a disappointment. The same cannot be said of the lead, Phillipa Soo, who was certainly given the stage time and songs to prove that she is a talented actress. It’s hard to even provide accolades to any of the actors, because their characters made no sense, were only briefly in the show, had almost no characterization, and were given no chance to show off their vocal talents. Her ex-circus performer boss, hypochondriac coworker, and brittle-bone diseased Renoir-painting elderly neighbor (you can’t make this stuff up, where else could you get characters so unrealistic and annoyingly “quirky”) are the only recurring roles other than her love interest, Nino. Almost no one other than Amelie has a solo song. Most of the characters appear briefly and never return. Both the original film and the new musical have basically no plot events or structure. ![]() If you don’t remember or never saw the bizarre, childlike film the musical is based on, there is probably little chance you’ll enjoy this musical.Īssuming you have never heard of the film (which most of us haven’t) here’s a quick synopsis: an imaginative woman with hypochondriac and distant parents grows up and decides she wants to help strangers but is too shy to talk to them. She leaves pictures of herself disguised as Zorro in the photo booths Nino frequents, or writes clues all over Montmartre for Nino to piece together so that he can discover her identity.Do you remember that odd 2001 French film “Amelie” with the quirky characters, lack of plot, memorable music, Parisian setting, and awkwardly bright colors? If you do, maybe you’ll like the new “Amelie” musical, directed by Pam MacKinnon and opening at the Walter Kerr on April 3rd. Since Amélie is so introverted, a great part of the movie's fun lies in watching the imaginative strategies she invents to seduce Nino. Then Amélie falls in love with Nino Quincampoix, a dreamy and absent-minded young man who works in a sex shop and in his spare time collects pictures from railway stations' photo booths. The plot jumps from one crazy intrigue to another. She writes love letters to her caretaker to remind her that her husband still loves her. She matchmakes a hypochondriac waitress with an obsessively jealous customer. She kidnaps her father's favourite garden gnome and has him photographed in exotic destinations to encourage her father to travel. The movie's appeal has a lot to do with its absurd and fantastical tone as Amélie tries to improve the lives of the people around her in increasingly bizarre ways. The heroine is a painfully shy waitress who relates best to the imaginary characters who live with her in her flat. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's latest movie, Amélie, is a wonderful movie about a young woman's fantasy world.
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