It’s not always easy to keep this shows section up to date because some of them don’t stay in theaters long enough for me to find the time to see them and tell you about them before the performances end. So, I have decided to tell you about certain shows in advance and add the reviews later, once I have seen them.
I have still managed to gather a small selection of shows for you to see right now in this article, with a nice variety of themes as usual: dance, fashion, musicals, theater…
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Table of Contents
La Goulue takes the stage
It has been 90 years since Louise Weber left us. La Goulue, of course! Almost a century already, and the memory of this famous Moulin Rouge Cancan dancer remains vivid. The Théâtre Essaïon breathes new life into her legend by hosting the musical show “La Goulue,” revisiting the passionate and fascinating journey of this artist, a colorful symbol of the Belle Époque.
The stage is intimate, and the audience participates in the story of Louise Weber with warm and sensitive proximity. Delphine Grandsart lends her features to this popular and scandalous figure with great empathy and emotion. Funny and sad at the same time, graceful and vulgar, all the palettes of La Goulue’s extraordinary personality appear as if by magic on the incredibly expressive face of this beautiful actress.
We travel back in time, winding backward from lonely, penniless old age to a hopeful youth that dazzled Victor Hugo, passing through the famous sketch by Toulouse-Lautrec and the memoirs of a laundress. A life of madness, encounters, and scandals that we savor with poetry, drama, and humor.
It is a lovely musical fresco presented by the Essaïon, which, with a note from an accordion impeccably played by Matthieu Michard, sends us back to that not-so-distant era of bohemian artists in a Paris intoxicated by absinthe and charmed by cancan dancers.
Just a few notes, some lovely songs with nostalgic choruses, and the capital reconnects with a sultry and romantic past that we enjoy rediscovering. That is where you recognize the potential of great shows: those that move you with almost nothing—a table, a perfume, a lace petticoat, an accordion.
It makes you want to take a trip to Montmartre and dive back into the story of this fascinating woman who turned more than a few heads and hearts. A true feminist who deserves, now more than ever, to be celebrated.
La Goulue by Delphine Gustau Until Sunday, March 30, 2019, Fridays and Saturdays at 9:30 PM duration: 1 hour Théâtre Essaïon 6, rue Pierre au Lard 75004 Paris Prices: between €15 and €25
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The warmth of Tropical Lab
It’s winter, it’s cold, the setting is monotonous, and the gloomy weather is stubborn. That’s why we recommend you head to La Cigale this Thursday, January 31, for a colorful, sunny, and rhythmic evening with the first edition of the Tropical Lab Festival.
If you love to groove to tropical sounds, then this evening is made for you. Tropical Lab invites you into the heart of a genuine musical experience that brings cultures together. For one night, Paris becomes the theater of a gigantic party where cultural blending, diverse inspirations, and aspirations will express themselves.
Come celebrate musical richness with a 5-star lineup: the Jazz Funk of Bibi Tanga and the Selenites and Samy Thiebault, Emile Omar, the prince of tropical parties, and a summit meeting between Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca and New York DJ Joe Claussell.
A “musical laboratory” that appears as a dialogue between artists from everywhere, who will nonetheless be united in one great musical celebration. Travel to New York, Cuba, or even Africa! Pure pleasure, a love song to freedom and exoticism in one of the most legendary venues in Paris!
Tropical Lab
Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 7 PM
La Cigale
120 boulevard Rochechouart, 75018 Paris
Price: from €33_
Che Malambo
No pun intended, but when you leave a show by the Argentine troupe Che Malambo (who practice the Malambo, a physical and sensual male national dance), you think to yourself, “that hits hard.” And believe me, it hits. Between beautifully synchronized tap-dance numbers, we discover the art of the “boleadora,” a type of lasso that, in the hands of virtuoso dancers, proves most impressive when it spins at full speed and strikes the floor in rhythm.
Watching such a physical performance for 70 minutes, you wonder how the dancers hold out the whole time. Each number provides a technical challenge, an artistic vision, and a test of strength and endurance. While the staging is limited to the bare essentials—lighting with warm colors and a stage without sets—it only serves to better highlight the performers’ craft.
As such, I highly recommend this show to discover at the Bobino theater (the steps resonate well in this venue!). After Che Malambo, you’ll want to try the same thing with your jump rope in the garage (but you won’t do it to avoid a hospital trip).
Che Malambo from January 30 to April 21, 2019 Bobino 14/20 rue de la Gaité 75014 Paris Prices: from €19 to €45 on weekdays and from €23 to €53 on weekends
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The Fashion Freak Show by Jean Paul Gaultier!
Welcome to the fascinating world of the most “So Frenchy” of couturiers, Jean Paul Gaultier! With the “Fashion Freak Show,” he leaves the runways to tread the stage of the Folies Bergères, paying homage in his own way to the revues that made the reputation of sultry Paris.
Focusing on himself, the show could have been a caricatural, vulgar portrait of the fashion world, staged in a narcissistic and “too Parisian” way. Well, no, the show is a real surprise, a love song to fashion, life, difference, and creativity!
While he already wowed us at the Grand Palais with an exhibition dedicated to his fascinating body of work, the “Fashion Freak Show” extends the experience with disconcerting inventiveness that could serve as an example for many “cabaret-style” shows, which, often being too “flashy,” lack originality and a unique point of view.
But Jean Paul Gaultier has intelligently brought his entire universe together in one show. A kind of diary and projection of his deepest “self,” made of glitter, androgynous artists, humor, drama, men and women who love each other and live life intensely!
Little Jean Paul was already dressing his teddy bear in corsets; he was creating and drawing on his school desk, and his imagination was already unique. Jean Paul Gaultier retraces his journey, from Parisian nights to the discovery of London madness and its glam/rock side!
We witness his first romantic thrills, the love for a man that would haunt him until the end, cruelly separated by AIDS. Talking about Jean Paul Gaultier without staging fabulous fashion shows would have been a waste! The beauty of bodies—all bodies—hugs the fabric and the couturier’s creations in perfect harmony.
All set to music and experienced as a show where everyone has a place, where fashion diktats are shattered, swept away, and where “everyone is beautiful.” It’s creative, sexy, glamorous, funny, sad, eccentric, chic, and intelligent. The show of his life!
You realize the influence Jean Paul Gaultier has in all artistic and media circles; the number of guests is impressive and brings a special dimension to the show. It’s a meeting between cinema, cabaret, music hall, TV, and the press—without being a hodgepodge, but rather a reflection of a life where all the arts have influenced “his” art!
This is what you call a total show for an artist who has just proven to us that he has a great open mind, a big heart, and genius! To be savored without hesitation…
Fashion Freak Show
duration: 2h20 with intermission
Until June 16, 2019
Folies Bergère
32 rue Richer 75009 Paris
Prices: from €30 to €120_
Holiday on Ice, Showtime
I am a fan of figure skating, and yet I saw an Holiday On Ice show for the first time only last year… That fault has been fixed, as I went for the second time to see a new Holiday On Ice show at the premiere in France on February 28 at the Dôme de Paris (Palais des Sports).
This year, the famous show celebrates its 75th anniversary with Showtime, which takes us on a journey into the early days of Holiday on Ice.
Verdict: I was very pleasantly surprised by the show, which offers some very beautiful group skating moments in particular, so I recommend it to all fans of this discipline.
Holiday on Ice Palais des Sports de Paris Until March 5, 2019, in Paris, and then on tour throughout France Prices: from €29 to €99
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Le Petit Manuel D’engagement Politique
How to address politics in theater? Through humor, of course! And it is in the Contrescarpe theater in Paris that the author and actor Yves Cusset took up the challenge—well, he tried!
As the people of France, who are in the midst of weekly political demonstrations, will we find a solution to our problems by listening to our author? Not really, because he isn’t the type to get noticed at a march organized to protest an opinion.
And there, I’ve just set you on the path. The path of absurdity, subtlety, and wordplay. In short, the path of questioning the real meaning of engagement and activism, without forgetting a re-reading of Karl Marx. Don’t worry, it’s a show, and like many of us, he asks himself a thousand and one questions, which makes him a funny and melancholic character.
For my part, I appreciated the wordplay, but comparing him to Raymond Devos, as I read elsewhere, I don’t agree. Yves Cusset is very likable, but precisely for that reason, I would have liked him to be more “in-your-face.” To return to the play, the small manual turns out to be an anti-manual in the end. I wasn’t bored, but it wasn’t a theatrical love at first sight either.
To summarize the play best, I would say that the author addresses the question of politics, and we follow the wild trajectory of an individual who, upon the recommendation of one of his friends, starts writing a committed show, only to later abandon his project to get himself committed to an asylum that bears strong resemblances to the free world that is ours…
Petit Manuel D'engagement Politique Théâtre de la Contrescarpe 5, rue Blainville 75005 Paris Until March 03, 2019 duration: 1h10 Ticket prices from €12 to €26
