JS Tendresse, the show | The nostalgic have fun

There was love in the air Sunday evening at the Théâtre Maisonneuve as Jean-Sébastien Girard – a great nostalgic for Quebec pop song of the 1980s and 1990s – was surrounded by his muses for the show JS Tenderness.

Stephanie Morin
The Press

For this concert inspired by the radio program he hosts at ICI Première, Jean-Sébastien Girard invited on stage the most beautiful voices of French-speaking song of the time. Thus, Johanne Blouin, Martine St-Clair, Marie Carmen, Marie Denise Pelletier and Joe Bocan, in particular, have succeeded on the boards to push the note, which they still have powerful and very right.

The spectators, already conquered, reserved for the five women a surge of love, multiplying the ovations (we stopped counting at ten…). It must be said that there was something enjoyable and moving to see these experienced singers inhabit the stage with intensity, each in her own way. Marie Carmen in her black lace, Joe Bocan adorned with her theatricality, Martine St-Clair with her crystalline voice and her eternal eyes of a wondering child…

Jean-Sébastien Girard, who acted as master of ceremonies, multiplied the personal anecdotes with the suave self-mockery that we know him. It was easy to imagine him at 14 gorging himself on love songs, his “yellow Sony Walkman” in his ears. His uninhibited passion for popular song is contagious and succeeded on Sunday in breaking down the last barriers of the spectators, who did not hesitate to sing Sleep Caroline Where Wash, wash as if their life depended on it.

A real communion that turned into a party when the Creole company came to set the room on fire with It makes the birds laugh. When Léandre came out of retirement to resume Goodbye My Love. Or when actor Benoît McGinnis delivered a very sensual version of the play In the actby Herbert Leonard.

“You can’t know the feeling that I have at the moment”, launched Johanne Blouin during the evening. The public must have guessed it, since the discharge of love also went from the stage to the hall. And the moments to give goosebumps were not lacking…

The great successes are missing

The only problem with this evening, but it is significant: Marie Denise Pelletier, Marie Carmen and Joe Bocan have chosen little-known songs from their repertoire rather than interpreting the essentials of their discography. The public was thus deprived of All cries the SOS, Between shadow and light or We’re talking about the eyes.

Asked about this, producer Martin Leclerc denies having wanted to keep these anthology pieces for another occasion, namely for the show. For a one night stand, which brings together the three singers and which is still on tour across Quebec. “It’s a decision that was made by the director [Michel Poirier] and the team of artists, who did not want to offer reheated to the spectators. »

It’s too bad. Audiences who paid to see these great performers in action would have been entitled to the big hits. We rather had the impression of being condemned to the B side of the LPs, as we said in 1983.

Admittedly, this B-side was skillfully performed and gave some sweet moments. But we sincerely believe that this already very pleasant evening would have become downright memorable if the production team of the show had chosen to give the public what they had come for: to hear the most beautiful – and the most famous – songs of the repertoire. of each and everyone.

JS Tendresse, the show continues its tour (Brossard, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke and Quebec), until September 5.

JS Tendresse, the show

With Jean-Sébastien Girard, Johanne Blouin, Martine St-Clair, Marie Carmen and more

Until September 5

★★★½