![\"The](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_6928.jpg\")
<\/a>The set and musicians. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n
Going by the old rule, \u201cIf you have nothing nice to say, don\u2019t say anything,\u201d this is going to be a very short review. I was actually going to pass on writing it, because there is nothing good to say about this production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris<\/em>, outside of the musicians and some plastic decorations hanging down on the set. Well, actually there is<\/em> one other good thing\u2014Jacques Brel is really not<\/em> alive, because seeing his work performed like this might have killed him!!!<\/p>\n I decided to go ahead with this review because I\u2019ve been running into several people who\u2019ve also seen the show, and they\u2019ve begged me to warn away other potential audiences. A couple of men I sat next to at a different show opening in LA recently, told me they feel that Jacques Brel…<\/em>, in general, is a show that every theatre student must see. But they emphatically stated that this Odyssey Theatre production is so awful that they had to leave at intermission.\u00a0 And this duo sees almost every<\/em> show Los Angeles has to offer!<\/p>\n I really don’t like to hurt anyone’s<\/em> feelings, but nor do I want my readers to spend their hard-earned money on a less than fabulous theatre experience.\u00a0 So, let\u2019s dive in. (I\u2019ll try to make it quick. But I can\u2019t promise painless.)<\/p>\n Photo by Enci Box.<\/p><\/div>\n First of all, the entire show is just a musical revue, with no story, which I knew going in, and would not have minded, had it been even a little bit entertaining.\u00a0 I was familiar with several of the songs, and was interested to hear the others. Jacques Brel\u2019s style is supposed to be something to behold.<\/p>\n I don’t know exactly where the blame lies for the weakness of\u00a0this production. Probably not with the quartet of performers, who, while not very good, are just doing as instructed, even though they all seem to embrace the gooniness.\u00a0 It must lie with the director, Dan Fishbach, and the producer, Ron Sossi.<\/p>\n The entire production is totally devoid of charm, although Jacques Brel is said to have had that in spades! The four performers sing in all combos\u2014sometimes alone, sometimes as a duo, and sometimes as a group. But their voices are mediocre at best, and don’t blend very well, until the very last song, the gorgeous If We Only Have Love<\/em>, most of which they sing lying flat on their backs.\u00a0 On the unadorned floor.<\/p>\n Which brings us to the awful movement. I can\u2019t even call it \u201cchoreography.\u201d I felt like I was watching either a singing class recital\u2014a bad one\u2014or, more aptly, a group of people in some small town who got together and decided to put on a show.<\/p>\n Photo by Enci Box.<\/p><\/div>\n There are no special voices in this group, or even particularly good ones. These songs are not the kind that need someone like the amazing Adam Lambert to make them great, but they deserve at least the performance quality of Bernadette Peters! I was so frustrated by the whole thing that I had to go home and play Jacques Brel\u2019s songs by people like Johnny Mathis, and even Jaques Brel himself, just to know what I was supposed to have heard that night.<\/p>\n Jaques Brel did not have the greatest voice himself, but he had a soul<\/em>, which came through in everything I\u2019ve now seen of his. And the songs themselves are supposed to be the stars, which did not happen at the Odyssey. All the people involved need to trust their audience, and not rely on dumb gimmicks and superfluous movements to convey the message here.<\/p>\n I was already familiar with several of the songs, and they\u2019re beautiful, but these performances are so frustrating that it ruined even those<\/em> numbers for me. And many of the songs are over abruptly, with no real endings! That\u2019s so annoying.<\/p>\n I’ve heard that this theatre often does quality work, but, so far, in the few shows I\u2019ve seen there in the past year or so, they cannot prove it by me.<\/p>\n Photo by Enci Box.<\/p><\/div>\n The direction of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris<\/em> is brutal.\u00a0 And the stupid movements are sort-of creepy.\u00a0 For instance, on\u00a0a few occasions, the ones who aren’t singing at the moment are doing silent little scenes in the background, such as looking into each other\u2019s eyes, or fawning over another cast member.\u00a0 (Or two! Oysh.) Those bits reminded me of high school kids doing a show, who think they’re so cool to be doing it.\u00a0 And at one point, it\u2019s the young guy and the older woman hanging all over each other, and all I could think about was Mary Kay Letourneau and Villi Fualaau, (when they were first<\/em> together, because they\u2019ve normalized now,) but this scene was so much worse. (It\u2019s about a forty-year<\/em> age gap here. Trust me–no one wants to see that in a singing revue! Nor most other places, either!)<\/p>\n Of course, if you\u2019re desperate to hear the songs of Jacques Brel, perhaps you should still see it. But for no other reason. That\u2019s actually the only redeeming quality of the show–getting to hear the songs of long-gone Jacques Brel sung live. And since, as I believe, the lyrics are supposed to be the attractions here, at least we can understand them, so that\u2019s a positive. And the younger woman has fabulous tight upper arms, which I would kill for! (But I would not see this show again for them.)<\/p>\n I do semi<\/em>-thank the Odyssey Theatre, though, because this production made me finally stop feeling bad to have missed this show when I was a teen-ager. I only wish that I had missed it this<\/em> time, as well!<\/p>\n Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris<\/em>\u00a0running through August 27, 2017<\/strong> JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS When I was a high school theatre student in Brooklyn, I was so excited that our teacher was taking us to the city to see an off-Broadway production of the musical revue, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. My much older<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
\n Odyssey Theatre 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. 310-477-2055\u00a0www.OdysseyTheatre.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"