'American in Paris' delights with dance, deeper stage script
“An American in Paris” delivers everything you would want from a stage adaptation of the 1951 Academy Award-winning film: glorious Gershwin music, beautiful bursts of ballet and animated scenery celebrating the romance of that beloved French city.
But audiences catching the Chicago touring premiere at the Oriental Theatre are in for a few jolts of seriousness, too. Compared to the escapist Hollywood screenplay, the new book by Craig Lucas (“Prelude to a Kiss,” “The Light in the Piazza”) adds dramatic weight by pushing back the 2015 Broadway musical's timeline to the end of World War II.
As the narrator, a fictional battle-wounded American composer named Adam Hochberg (Etai Benson) poetically sets the scene before a danced and pantomimed prologue. Post-Occupation Paris is illustrated by rampant purse snatchers, fights breaking out over rationed food and Nazi collaborators being violently attacked in the street.
Despite the trying times, an infatuation blossoms between the American soldier/artist Jerry Mulligan (McGee Maddox) and the aspiring French ballet dancer Lise (Sara Esty).
Coincidental complications ensue as new friends Jerry and Adam get pulled into the orbits of wealthy arts patrons who are keen to revive the Paris ballet scene. There's the sophisticated Monsieur and Madame Baurel (Don Noble and Gayton Scott), whose son, Henri (Nick Spangler), cares more about show business than the family's textiles empire. There's also the ambitious American socialite, Milo Davenport (Emily Ferranti), who has designs on making her philanthropic name in Paris and turning Jerry into her love interest.
Amid shifting love triangles and painful revelations about the war, director/choreographer Christopher Wheeldon masterfully balances shades of light and darkness with a dreamy and dance-filled production. The ballet elegance of numbers like “Liza” and the “Second Prelude” comfortably co-exist with the Broadway brashness of “I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise.” Meanwhile, the scenic shifts in locales are cleverly choreographed by lighting designer Natasha Katz and production designer Bob Crowley (with a big shout-out to the painterly projection designs of 59 Productions).
The athletic ensemble is ideal, particularly the beautifully limber pairing of Maddox and Esty in the central romantic roles of Jerry and Lise. Their singing could be a tad more full-voiced, but their dancing and acting wow.
For comic relief, Benson is great as the neurotic Adam. His gloomy brusqueness is hilariously contrasted by the suave sophistication (and occasionally mispronounced English) of Spangler as Henri. Scott is also a lot of fun as snooty Madame Baurel.
While there is no escaping the cut-and-paste feel of the shoehorned Gershwin standards in “An American in Paris” - a feature of the original film - Lucas' more serious script deepens the romance as duty battles with love amid choreographic flights of fancy.
“An American in Paris”
★ ★ ★ ½
Location: Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St., Chicago, (800) 775-2000 or
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday (also Sunday, July 30), 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday (also Wednesday, Aug. 2 and 9); through Aug. 13
Running time: About 2 hours, 35 minutes with intermission
Tickets: $24-$87; $127 premium seating
Parking: Area pay garages and limited metered street parking
Rating: Largely for general audiences