An American In Paris

Last evening we attended the last in the 2016-2017 season of our Broadway Series in Cleveland. The musical was An American In Paris. The story line is about a soldier just after WWII ends who decides not to cash in on his ticket home but rather stay in Paris and become an artist. He meets up with another soldier who is a pianist/composer and a Frenchman who is a wannabe cabaret star. All three fall in love with a Jewish ballerina who becomes the lead ballerina in a new ballet with music composed by the pianist. It is a love story and one that is fairly predictable but the Gershwin music is pleasurable and as my husband and I both agreed, the staging was amazing.

There are a lot of pieces that move around the stage and have projections on them but the main backdrop in most of the scenes features buildings and monuments of Paris. I recognized a few of those less popular than the usual Arc de Triumphe and the Eiffel Tower and placed myself from memory back on the streets of Paris. It was like revisiting the city.

One of my favorite scenes takes place on a bridge over the river Seine. Two fishermen come into the scene and sit on the bridge wall with fishing poles. It was the only thing I couldn't recall from any of our visits to Paris. I don't remember anyone fishing from any bridge. But then it was taking place in the late 1940s. Maybe the river had plenty of fish back then and not so many tourists.