MUSICAL REVIEW: An American in Paris ★★★

An American In Paris

Dominion Theatre, London

Monday 17th April 2017

I wanted to like this musical adaptation from the 1951 Gene Kelly movie, which tells the story of Jerry Mulligan, a painter who decides to stay in Paris after the war and falls in love with Lise, where he believes that she's the one, until he finds that that she is also the exact same woman that his friend Adam has to been trying to set up with their friend Henri, but ultimately I just couldn't find any love for this production, which is a bold statement, because there were moments of stunning visuals and beautiful dances, but I didn't find myself captivated by the action on stage.

There are a few factors to which this may be, from going into the show with complete high expectations as a result of 28 five star reviews for the show, feeling quite detached from the action due to my seat being up in the circle within this huge auditorium, or maybe it's because I have a very niche taste when it comes to theatre, but as usually I walked into the show almost unknown of what I was going to be in for, and this time I believe that strategy backfired, so much that I did watch a video the other week with a mediocre review of the production, and I now wish that I had taken this on-board when booking my ticket.

I have said above that there were moments that did make me feel engaged, and these moments were due to the projections throughout the production, courtesy of 59 Productions, the stunning lighting which just managed to capture each scene beautifully, designed by Natasha Katz, and finally the only memorable song in the production, to which was the most visually stunning segment of the whole production, with the number 'I'll Build a Stairway to Heaven'. The scene changes as a whole were slick and sharp, which especially links in with 'Stairway' to which I found eased in time with the music and lights, ultimately becoming a big and bright spectacle!

Overall, I appreciated the talent that was bestowed on us on stage because I know how much time and commitment everyone would have put in to pull off a massive production like 'An American in Paris' takes itself as, but just the movie, I feel like personally this musical was long before my time and will make me choose more wisely over the productions I see in the future.