Review: TUTS Delivers the Perfect Recipe in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

Take a score by George and Ira Gershwin, a motion picture from the Golden Age of MGM, add lighting, design and choreography by some of the best of contemporary Broadway, stir in a superbly talented cast, and voila - a frothy soufflé of a musical that walked away with the Tonys in the 2014/15 Broadway season.

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The only real surprise is that it took so long to bring it to the stage.

Adapting film to Broadway musical is always fraught with peril, and the real successes can be counted on one hand. Most don't make it. I'm thinking SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, 110 IN THE SHADE, et al. Some manage a decent run; others bomb, big time.

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS had a lot going for it. For one thing, it was theatrical onscreen. It had a theater feel. Its use of ballet was ahead of its time. The story was timely then, and is timely now, with its undercurrent of war and anti-Semitism.

The book, by Craig Lucas, alters the original in telling ways, making it a little darker and more edgy. The underlying plot is brought more sharply into focus, and changing the love story from two suitors to three adds poignancy. There's also a touch of gay innuendo that the film, naturally, didn't have. Modern audiences will get it, but I'm not sure it's really necessary.

The basics are the same. Jerry Mulligan (played on Press Night by Ryan Steele), is an American GI who stays in Paris after the war to paint. Adam Hochberg (Etai Benson) is an expat composer who befriends Jerry. Henri Baurel (Nick Spangler) is the son of French bourgeois parents who wants to be a singing star. This departs from the original, where he was already a star. He is in love with Lise Dassin (Sara Esty), a shop girl who wants to be a dancer. In another departure from the film, not only Jerry, but Adam as well, falls for the lovely Lise. For further romantic complications, add wealthy American patroness Milo Davenport (Emily Ferranti), in Paris to promote the arts, Jerry, and herself, though not necessarily in that order.

The musical numbers include most of those from the film, with the addition of several from the Gershwin catalog filling in. The dances are beautifully executed, particularly the American in Paris ballet, completely re-designed in a striking avant-garde setting. All the sets and visual effects are especially effective, with the painterly backdrops and mobile set pieces. Here the stage turns the tables and becomes cinematic.

There is one stand-out omission that I never understood. The iconic pas de deux of Jerry and Lise to the haunting "Our Love is Here to Stay" is replaced with the upbeat and decidedly less romantic "Liza," a play on Lise's name. Steele and Esty dance it beautifully, as they do all their numbers. In fact, they make you forget Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, no small feat, but I couldn't help feeling it was a missed opportunity. I didn't get it. Similarly, the shoe-horning of "Fidgety Feet" into a party scene seems jarring and out of character. They are performed with expertise, but I don't understand the rationale here.

Don't get me wrong. The show is a delight, and I whole-heartedly recommend it. You will leave humming the tunes. You may even dance a little.

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AN AMERICAN IN PARIS continues through March 5 at Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby. Call 713-315-2525 or visit thehobbycenter.org for more information.

Photo courtesy of Theatre Under the Stars

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