“I was able to reveal myself in writing”

Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Tuesday March 5, 2024: The author, composer, singer and actor, Marc Lavoine. His musical show co-written with Fabrice Aboulker, “Les Souliers Rouges” is on tour throughout France.

Marc Lavoine is an author, composer, performer, singer and writer who has been with us for over 40 years. What stands out is his sensitivity and his voice. This voice has become familiar, comforting, which for years has been able to speak to us about love, about relationships, about life. Today, Marc Lavoine is at the heart of the musical show he created with Fabrice Aboulker, The Red Shoes, a free adaptation of Andersen’s tale. This is the story of Isabelle, a young woman with a pure heart who goes to Paris to realize her dream: to become a prima ballerina. And she will put on a pair of red ballerinas with an adage that will stand out to her: “The one who wears them will know fame, but will have to give up love“.

franceinfo: Are you not above all a storyteller?

Marc Lavoine: I try to tell stories, to put words on paper. Let’s say that songs are little stories. And it’s true that the novel allowed me to go further, I’m going to release another one in January. But musical theater is an instrument that I didn’t really like at first. Fabrice Aboulker was a big fan of Donkey Skin and all that, he introduced me to this art of musical comedy. He took me to Broadway, showed me things that I really liked. And so Fabrice gave me a taste for musical comedies. It’s true that at the start it wasn’t obvious to me. He is so constructed, so stubborn, he helped me a lot to write it and I took a liking to it.

We talk about dreams through The Red Shoes, through the story of this young woman who wants to become a prima ballerina. I wondered what your childhood dream was.

My childhood dream was to write. Because in writing, I was able to reveal myself. I couldn’t really make myself heard outside, I was a little off. My brother and I were a little apart because we had different upbringings. My mother knitted the sweaters, we wore kachabias, we really weren’t the norm, we had long hair, we were a little off the mark. Writing determined me elsewhere.

“I could, through writing, through poetry, be a cat, I could climb on roofs.”

With writing, I could stand in the middle of my room and imagine I was in the middle of the ocean. I wrote all the time. And that really gave me a reason to live.

In the schoolyard, you were really subject to a lot of teasing, you experienced harassment, it lasted a very long time. Did it develop your sensitivity?

Yes. It wasn’t harassment, it was mockery. At the time, we didn’t call it harassment. My brother suffered more than me. Let’s say that it allowed me to love people, that is to say that I immediately noticed that the people who made fun were in the minority, hurtful, of course, but in the minority. And each time, there were more girls from elsewhere who came to see me, who were happy with my company, who liked talking with me. It opened up another world for me, it opened me to the world of acceptance, to the real world. In fact, it helped me open up to others.

I have the impression that you take more time for yourself, to enjoy, to tell yourself that it feels good to create this kind of thing. Do you feel that you are becoming more and more serene?

I don’t know. In any case, when I am at work, I am more and more serene. In life, it’s different. We all have problems. But I never leave the world of work because it’s an obligation today, I have to be at work, I have to work, I draw, I write, I plan.

“I’m always working because I’m a little afraid of life without it.”

Marc Lavoine

at franceinfo

There are a lot of dates announced for the tour. Does it touch you that the public was there and that they adopted this show?

It touches me because I didn’t believe it, well, I didn’t believe it anymore. It’s touching to realize that not everything is immediately recognized, that not everything is immediately loved. And at the end, when I see the success that the show is having, in all the cities, it touches me a lot because people come to see Fabrice at the end of the show or come to see me, go to see the actors, the dancers and the singers and say very important words to them. They tell us what we really did and what it made them feel, and that is very important. I find that it’s rare to have such an immediate response… well, immediate, it takes a little time to come because we’ve been at it for 15 years, but it’s really starting to take hold and the people like the show, it’s surprising, it’s pleasant.

We feel amazed, touched.

I cry on three songs. By the second act, I’m overwhelmed by what they’re doing. The songs are no longer mine. The music is so crazy. It’s so impressive how they manage to master this show, take it in hand and offer it to us. It’s really very nice.

The Red Shoes will be March 9, 2024 in Toulouse, March 27 in Nantes, April 6 in Lyon and January 24 to 26, 2025 at the Casino de Paris.