And here is another delicious show offered by all of the Folies Parisiennes at the Théâtre de l’Athénée, its Parisian refuge: “Là-Haut”, wacky operetta from 1923 to music by Maurice Yvain but written by two masters of the genre, Yves Mirande on the libretto – as much as telling the story – and Albert Willemetz on the lyrics of the songs, lyrics so chiseled that we will dare to call it (we assume it) the La Fontaine of the Roaring Twenties. With many more puns than big John…
“The Devil in Paris”, “Not on the mouth”, “Three naked young girls”
What drives us to go see one show rather than another – apart from some professional obligations? Three reasons: fidelity, memory, experience. Let’s clarify. Loyalty: Parisian frivolities is a troupe which, in line with the Robbers, has often seduced us in recent years by putting the spotlight back on the operetta repertoire of the 1920s and 30s. Of Normandy (chronicle of 22/10/2020) to Devil in Paris (14/1/2021) through more famous authors, Albert Roussel and his Testate of Aunt Caroline (11/6/2019) The memory: the name of Maurice Yvain, one of the most famous of that time, is linked to Alain Resnais and his Not on the mouth (one of Yvain’s great successes) Ah! Sabine Azéma and Audrey Tautou, Lambert Wilson (so funny) and Pierre Arditi, Jalil Lespert, Isabelle Nanty, the delicious 23 Quai Quai Quai Malaquais, and again Daniel Prévost and the marvelous Darry Cowl as Madame Foin, the concierge.
Frisotin (Richard Delestre) C) Parisian Frivolities
The brilliant rhymes of Willemetz, the “Roaring Twenties” tunes of Yvain
And then the experience: booklet of up there by Yves Mirande, songs by Albert Willemetz, this genius of rhyme (easy, but not so easy to invent) and the memory (it was 15 years ago) of the happiness we had, under the leadership of ‘Olivier Minne and Francis Perrin, we the animators of France 2, to play and sing Three naked young girls from the same Willemetz and Mirande, for the pleasure of you, spectators, so many to watch us…
Willemetz therefore, the inexhaustible Willemetz, of which one of the joys of up there is due to the brilliance of the rhymes, the cock-a-donkey, of this apparently simple writing and such humor, which makes us laugh with frank laughter without malice, that we would like to repeat all the finds. But it is not necessary, for you who will discover Up there…
Certainly there is also the quality of Yvain’s music, whose tunes are similar (the mark of an era, the swing, the “Roaring Twenties” rhythms) while being different each time; and Mirande’s libretto, skilfully knitted and unknit. On a wacky idea that immediately made us run to the Athénée and share the real, enthusiastic and… noisy joy of a large audience.
The “angels of paradise” at rest (Faustine de Monès, Stéphanie Guérin, Mathilde Ortscheidt, Marion Vergez-Pascal) C) Parisian frivolities
Paradise, how long, how wise!
Judge for yourself: in the (unfortunately contemporary and graceless) decor of a bourgeois house, Evariste Chanterelle (beautiful presence and velvety voice of Mathieu Dubroca) is awaited by his wife and his friends who have reserved a surprise birthday for him. Chanterelle, a boastful seducer, who cheerfully deceives Madame (Emma, Judith Fa) feigns astonishment (poorly): cake, candles (33, like Another…), champagne, but a “wrong way” due to a peanut unfortunate sends him to… Paradise.
In Paradise where we are very bored because, as Woody Allen says, eternity is a long time, especially towards the end. where we are greeted by the angels of the Lord who endlessly sing the same songs, the same words (amazing group of lovely young women… when they are in dress, Faustine de Monès, Stéphanie Guérin, Mathilde Ortscheidt, Marion Vergez-Pascal, who spend their (long) time smoking) but also by Saint Pierre, overexcited, on the nervous, depressed, especially when, seeing Chanterelle arrive who has no reason to be there, he guesses of course that this seducer with an open shirt like BHL’s (Virtue is dead. Close the door… will disturb the mortally boring tranquility of the divine abode.
Again Frisotin (Richard Delestre) C) Parisian Frivolities
Midnight permission for the guardian angel Frisotin
In another operetta of the same period the Devil descended on Paris. Here the Parisians go up to heaven… only to come back down immediately because, as soon as we turn our backs, Madame is hit on by her cousin and Chanterelle’s jealousy explodes. Saint Peter, by a generosity imposed on him by the librettist, accepts, for this dead man who has already understood where he had set foot (Is there gas and water / Up there? / Are there sinks / Up there?), a midnight leave, on condition that he be accompanied by his guardian angel (who is also that of his wife, but we are no longer close to that), Frisotin (unspeakable Richard Delestre) who, in a yellow suit, watches over suspend adulteries with a trumpet out of tune)
“Up There”, deliciously wacky
It’s crazy, very rhythmic, sometimes absurd, very “20s” (where we made fun of everything and wanted to party at all costs), gently anticlerical, not really “metoo” -Emma is still madly in love with the one who cheated on her who better (Because I still love him / With a love so strong) and if it is very sad to be a widow it is because How gloomy! You can’t wear pink dresses anymore.
Obviously one must not be too rational: why, in this paradise of boredom where emotions, for 2000 years, no longer exist (dixit Saint Pierre), does Evariste continue to experience them, not to mention Frisotin? who, although a guardian angel, will also be turned upside down by feelings (it is true, by setting foot back on earth. And worse: in Paris)? We rather listen to the slightest formula (Do not go to hit you / When we come to hit), to deliciously tricked-out games (Love me, Emma / My Emma see my emotion) like the advice given to a certain nun, Anna, shy: Dare, Anna. We are ashamed when we think about it but, on the spot, it makes us laugh.
Saint Peter overwhelmed (relying on the Most High) (Jean-Baptiste Dumora) C) Parisian frivolities
Pastiche of Houellebecq and homage to Paris
There are also, in the music, moments of real lyricism where Yvain passes from jazz to large-scale phrases (imitated from a Gounod or a Saint-Saëns), perhaps parodic or perhaps not, with a variety of tones from a real little master. We are also sensitive to repartitions: But finally, Saint Peter, remember your youth – Oh! you know, my career as a saint started so early; as in the delirious couplets of Frisotin who, having parodied La Fontaine and Verlaine (it is in Willemetz and Mirande) continues with Houellebecq (Neuroleptics…/ Anxiolytics…) and Renaud.
Judith Fa is a charming Emma, with well-placed but slightly strident highs. Jean-Baptiste Dumora a grumbling Saint Pierre in a tracksuit as disillusioned as grumpy. Olivier Podesta’s cousin Marcel and Clarisse Dalles’ Maud (a secret lover of Evariste, of whom Mirande doesn’t do much!) complete the cast with talent, driven by a dynamic staging by Pascal Neyron and a direction full of sap by Nicolas Chesneau (all the winds are always of good quality)
Of course, we won’t tell you how it all falls… on its feet or on the ground. But Willemetz and Yvain are convinced of it, and these will be the final words: The first, the only, the real paradise / It’s Paris / Where the sky is blue / In gray weather.
Is that still true?
Up there, music by Maurice Yvain, libretto by Yves Mirande, lyrics by Albert Willemetz, direction by Pascal Neyron, with the Frivolités Parisiennes troupe, musical direction by Nicolas Chesneau. Théâtre de l’Athénée, Paris, March 22, 24, 29 and 31 at 8 p.m., March 27 at 4 p.m.
Show created at the Royal Theater of Compiègne where the Frivolités Parisiennes are in residence. They are very lucky, the Compiègnois…