Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

In Your Face entertainment

Company website

(Une description française suivra)

In Your Face entertainment’s production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris marks the show’s bilingual premiere in Montreal. Consisting of around 25 songs, it originally debuted Off-Broadway on January 22, 1968 at The Village Gate Theater in Greenwich Village and ran for more than four years.

Jacques Brel was the premier French folk writer/singer during the 1950s-1970s; his songs explored facets of love, life, human foibles, war and death. Born in Belgium but later making Paris his home (thus explaining the show’s title), Brel was considered by many to be the master of the French Chanson.

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris is a collection of Brel’s work, but it is more than a revue. There is no plot, there are no characters; rather, it is four singers, two men and two women, portraying one character: Jacques Brel. His profound songs are brought to vivid theatrical life in this intense musical experience, featuring some of Brel’s most passionate works sung in both English and French.

Cast & Crew:
NADIA VERRUCCI (Co-Director/Woman #2): Recent musical credits – Anytime Annie, 42nd Street (HMC); Mary Dale, The Jazz Singer (Segal Centre)
JACQUELINE VAN DE GEER (Co-Director): Recent staging credits – Movement Coach, Equus (VSP); Solo Piece, La Somnambule/The Sleepwalker
DAVID TERRIAULT (Musical Director): Recent musical direction credits – Songs for a New World (Players’ Theatre); The Wild Party (In Your Face entertainment)
SERGE TURCOTTE (Man #1): Recent credits – Wallace Hartley, Titanic (Opera de Rimouski); Andy Lee, 42nd Street (HMC)
MARTIN PROVOST (Man #2): Recent credits – Benji, Bathhouse: The Musical/Sauna: Le Musical (VSP); lead singer of The Love Deluxe Band
ALISHA RUISS (Woman #1): Recent credits – Sally Bowles, Cabaret (MTM); Featured Singer, Broadway Gals
ALEX SMITH (Lighting Designer): Recent design credits – A Promise to the Sun (BTW); Hamlet (Persephone Productions)

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JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS produit par In Your Face entertainment marque la création de la première production bilingue de ce spectacle à Montréal. Constitué de près de 25 chansons, JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS fut originalement présenté «off-Broadway» le 22 janvier 1968 au Village Gate Theater, à Greenwich Village (NY) et s’est poursuivi durant plus de quatre ans.

Jacques Brel fut le plus important auteur-compositeur-interprète des années 50 à 70. Ses chansons explorent multiples aspects de la vie, de l’amour, des faiblesses humaines, de la guerre et de la mort. Il est considéré par plusieurs comme le maître de la chanson Française.

JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS est un collage de plusieurs des oeuvres de Brel mais est bien plus qu’une simple revue musicale. Il n’y a pas d’histoire, pas de personnage si ce n’est que quatre chanteurs, deux hommes et deux femmes, nous présentant qu’un seul et unique personnage Jacques Brel. Ses oeuvres nous sont ici livrées avec une expression théâtrale vive dans cette intense expérience musicale, mettant en vedette quelques-unes des plus marquantes de ses créations chantées en français ainsi que dans leurs traductions anglaises.

Mise en scène: Jacqueline Van de Geer et Nadia Verrucci
Direction musicale: David Thériault
Avec: Martin Provost, Alisha Ruiss, Serge Turcotte, Nadia Verrucci

100 minutes
Pas de retardataires / No latecomers