The new production of Starmania, created in Paris in November 2022, will stop at Place Bell from August 6. A blockbuster bringing together around forty artists and musicians on stage.
The news was announced in Montreal on Thursday by the evenko team and La Tribu, in the presence of French producer Aurélien Binder, among others, who spoke of a “ show extremely demanding technique” and the Quebec singer and actor David Latulippe, who plays the role of the billionaire Zéro Janvier, aspiring president of the West!
This new production of Starmania was to be launched in fall 2020, after a year and a half of work, but the pandemic meant that the show was first postponed to fall 2021, then to fall 2022. It is of the fourth version of the rock opera since its creation in 1979 by Michel Berger and Luc Plamondon.
Remember that the action takes place in Monopolis, the capital of the West, which has become a state, terrorized by a gang, the Black Stars, led by Johnny Rockfort and his friend Sadia. An election pitting billionaire Zéro Janvier against Gourou Marabout will turn sour following a series of twists and turns.
According to Aurélien Binder, it was at the request of Luc Plamondon and France Gall that his production company Fimalac Entertainment created a new version of this legendary rock opera “the greatest of all time”, according to Binder, who contacted the director Thomas Jolly (Richard III) to give it a new lease of life.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Director Thomas Jolly and Starmania co-creator Luc Plamondon recorded a message which was broadcast by video. On the left, we recognize David Latulippe, and just to his left the producer Aurélien Binder.
Since its creation at the Scène musicale de Paris, a venue with more than 4,000 seats, more than a million French people have seen the show.
What sets this production apart from others? “It’s a show that has never been done,” Aurélien Binder tells us. Direction, lighting, scenography, the stage was built for the show with technological patents that are unique” the producer limited himself to saying. We’ll have to see what it’s all about.
In a video broadcast during the press meeting, the director Thomas Jolly and the co-creator and lyricist of the rock opera, Luc Plamondon, recorded a short note which was broadcast. Thomas Jolly, who teamed up with choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, praised the timeless work of the Berger-Plamondon tandem, where “humans wonder what they are doing in a world that does not resemble them”.
The world is stoned, The lament of the automaton waitress, Need for love, A boy like no other, The businessman’s bluesthe pieces of the futuristic rock opera no longer need presentations.
David Latulippe, who is part of the Quebec cast of the show – with Gabrielle Lapointe (Cristal), Miriam Baghdassarian (Sadia) and William Cloutier (Johnny Rockfort) – spoke briefly about his role as Zéro Janvier and the emotion he feels night after night when he sings The businessman’s blues.
“It’s a very difficult song to sing, very emotionally demanding, in a period where he is very vulnerable, I always feel a lot of stress, but that’s what keeps me in the adrenaline, there is a bet in danger every time,” he said.
Starmania, which is co-produced in Quebec by evenko, La Tribu and Les 2 Belges, will be presented for at least one week at Place Bell, in a configuration of approximately 6,000 seats.