Musical comedy | Serge Denoncourt: bet taken with I will love you

(Lille) It took courage to cross the Atlantic and offer the French a musical based on one of the last sacred monsters of song: Michel Sardou.

Stephanie Morin
Press

However, the nerve, Serge Denoncourt has never lacked. With I will love you, a show inspired by the work of Michel Sardou, the Quebec director also proves that he has, in addition to his familiar flair, a formidable talent as a storyteller.

The task was not easy: to knit by drawing from the immense work of Sardou (267 songs, nothing less!) A coherent story, which goes beyond the simple string of successes. Serge Denoncourt, who wears here the double hat of librettist and director, rose to the challenge hands down. Last Saturday, he and his team (including scenographer Stéphane Roy) won over the public at the Zénith in Lille, north of Paris.

The approximately 3,300 spectators laughed, cried, sang and clapped their hands while, on stage, a troupe of 17 dancers and performers sang the songs of “the man with 100 million records sold”, as he is nicknamed in France.

A welcome of which Serge Denoncourt is not a little proud. “On the night of the premiere, people didn’t know what to expect. They quickly understood that it would not be a biopic, but a real story, with characters that we follow and to which we become attached. They almost forgot about Sardou himself. It works ! All this in a culture that is not mine! ”

Twenty-five songs for a story

I will love you tells the story of six friends who embark on the liner France for a crossing to America, each bringing in their luggage their ideals, their dreams of a better life, but also their prejudices about this America which considers itself the navel of the world. For nearly two and a half hours, we will follow the fate of these six protagonists who, from Le Havre to Algiers via New York and Paris, will meet and leave each other to better meet each other over the decades. Because between Mike the lover of music, Thomas the revolutionary, Louise the free spirit and the others, it’s life, death.

And there will be death, because this musical also hides its share of dramas… Eyes wet when Mike, draped in a tattered American flag, sings I fly. But the feet also begin to dance in front of the energetic collective interpretation of the Connemara Lakes.

In total, some 25 songs are performed by singers unknown in Quebec, but many of which have been on reality TV shows such as The Voice in France. Michel Sardou is recognized for his impressive range, and the singers are all up to the task.

It is also a show where the director and librettist is not afraid to tackle subjects such as homosexuality, social inequalities, trade unionism, the place of women… “It surprises them, the French, that I speak on such topics in a musical.

The dancers, beautifully directed by the Canadian choreographer Wynn Holmes, assisted by Nico Archambault, also add a lot to the happiness of the spectator, especially during very successful group acts. Each number is bathed in a different dance atmosphere, which required a great deal of research, according to Wynn Holmes.

Sardou, singer-storyteller

This success is all the more impressive as Serge Denoncourt was not a specialist in Sardou before embarking on this somewhat crazy project. “Michel Sardou did not represent anything to me,” he says with the frankness that we know him. Of course I knew a few songs, like Love sickness Where The old bride and groom, but I had no good or bad opinion about the man. In any case, in Quebec, little is known about Sardou’s position, which has often created controversy. ”

It was by listening to his repertoire that the Quebecer understood to what extent Sardou distilled tremendous theatricality in his songs. Everything was, so to speak, already in place to build a musical… “He knows how to write songs that are very cinematographic, like theater scenes! This is why it is easier for me to make a musical from his work than from that of Brel or Aznavour. ”

The narrative framework behind the show has also sprouted from a single song until then completely unknown to Serge Denoncourt, The price of a man, which tells the story of a man who is kidnapped.

“When I heard this song, I immediately wanted to know who this man was. I wrote two pages on a possible story based on this song, pages which were sent to Michel Sardou. It was after having read them that he accepted that the show should take place, he who had long refused any form of tribute show. ”

The singer gave the creators carte blanche. And if he wasn’t there the night of the premiere, he sent a word of encouragement to the troupe, with the promise of attending the show one night.

What he will see is a spectacle like little else in France, believes Serge Denoncourt. “I ask the singers to dance, the dancers to sing, which is rare here. It’s an American show, West End style. ”

I will love you is currently touring the provinces and is due to settle in the musical Seine, near Paris, in March 2022. Will it pass through Quebec? Serge Denoncourt is optimistic that it does, even if nothing has been confirmed for the moment.