Starmania | Plamondon and its multiple peaks

A few minutes before going on stage, the artists of the new production of Starmaniawhich will be presented in Quebec starting August 6, sometimes hear a cheer coming from the audience. “Ah! Luc is here tonight,” they say. Indeed, every time the most famous lyricist of the French-speaking world attends the show, he is cheered by the audience.

If Zero January, the businessman, still dreams of being an artist, Luc Plamondon, the lyricist, has long since become a superstar. He is even part of the category that does not use a first name. We say Plamondon, as we say Brando or Dietrich, Dufresne or Filiatrault.

“Of course it makes me happy to have such a welcome,” he told me during a long and pleasant meeting in a café on Avenue Bernard. “When I go on stage at the end of the show to join the artists, I always have a moment of emotion.”

One evening, a spectator tapped him on the shoulder. “She told me that Starmania was the gift his daughter gave him for his 100th birthday.^e birthday. And next to me, there was a little boy of 9 years old. It’s really extraordinary.”

This new production of StarmaniaLuc Plamondon ardently wished for it. He wanted to offer the public again this musical work created at the end of the 1970s with his friend Michel Berger.

Among the elements that allowed Luc Plamondon to achieve his goal was the arrival of Thomas Jolly, one of the most gifted French directors of his generation and the author of the grandiose opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games. Despite the age difference between the two men, the mayonnaise took. “I didn’t know him,” says Plamondon. “We arranged to meet in a restaurant. He told me he was going to surprise me with his proposition. He wasn’t wrong.”

Indeed, the man of the theatre dazzles the spectators with a stage space of exceptional size on which he creates sets that take us into the famous Monopolis, imagined by Plamondon almost 45 years ago.

Fabulous! Grandiose! Three hours of great happiness! Spectacular! That’s what they’ve been saying in France for 18 months about this show.

Since the release of this version, journalists and observers have drawn all sorts of parallels between the themes of Starmania and contemporary news. Rise of terrorism, collapse of towers, excesses of capitalism, dangerously ambitious president, power couple, transsexuality, obsession with celebrity, ravages of social networks… reality embraces fiction.

Luc Plamondon explains things with disarming humility. “I saw things in a certain way at the time of writing and the public perceives it differently today. So much the better.”

The Berger-Plamondon duo

When we bring Luc Plamondon back to the origin of Starmaniamemories come flooding back from all sides. He clearly enjoys telling them. First of all, the first contacts with Michel Berger, who wanted to work with the Quebec lyricist after listening to Diane Dufresne’s first records. He liked his frank and urban poetry.

Plamondon remembers the stay he had with Michel Berger at Cap d’Antibes in 1977. That’s where the first songs were born. “There was a basement and a piano. We were working there. One evening, after dinner, Michel tore out a sheet of paper on which was written ‘we sleep against each other’. He said: ‘What’s that?’ He went to the piano and the song was born in a few minutes.”

Luc Plamondon also remembers how the structure of the Businessman’s Blues appeared. “I had written the first part, the one where Zero Janvier describes himself as he is. And then, nothing. The second part, the one where he says who he would like to be, came to me. It gave Michel the idea to go elsewhere musically. It was quite a moment.”

As the writing progressed, the characters took their place, the plot became clearer. The genius of this work undoubtedly lies in the framework that Plamondon created, a universe both very far away and very close to us.

The first production of Starmania was born in April 1979 at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. Even though the two creators had promised each other not to recruit “their singer”, they went back on their decision. “France Gall was the wife of Michel and Diane [Dufresne] was sort of my wife at that time, he said with a smile. Without us talking about it, at the same time, I wrote for Diane Mom, if you saw me… and Michel composed Yes mom Yes for France. »

It was not easy to convince Diane Dufresne to take part in this adventure. Michel Berger took drastic measures by going to her home in Outremont. “He was embarrassed,” remembers Plamondon. “He played her Farewell of a sex symbol once, twice, three times. She was dazzled. He also played her Against each otherThe next day, his secretary announced that Diane Dufresne was not a slow singer. »he says with a laugh.

Berger would like this production

When Luc Plamondon tells the story of Starmaniait is by evoking the many artists who have donned the costumes and the distress of the characters. “About twenty performers have become very well-known,” he says. “But deep down, the real star of this show is Michel’s music and my lyrics. That’s what the public wants to find first.”

Luc Plamondon is convinced that Michel Berger, if he were still alive, would love the new production of their work. “He would be very happy. He liked that it was modern, that this rock opera was evolving. He would be proud.”

Before leaving him, I wanted to know what place this work occupies in his immense journey. Plamondon is the author of 400 songs, of which nearly 80 have been great successes. “Yes, of course, it changed my life. But you shouldn’t think that it happened instantly.”

This is how the first Quebec production was created in 1980 at the Comédie Nationale (located in postal station C, rue Sainte-Catherine). And it will be a triumph. Even Nathalie Petrowski, who had demolished the French production a year earlier, will be dithyrambic.

What Plamondon wanted to tell me, basically, is that a creator can sow as much as he sows, if he does not maintain his work, it will not grow. The author, who is now 82 years old, has seen in recent months Starmania And Notre Dame de Paris vibrate at the same time on stage. Unheard of for a songwriter.

We thought that Luc Plamondon had reached all the summits. We didn’t know that the mountains hid other peaks. And that he could still reach them.

Starmaniafrom August 6 to 18 at Place Bell, in Laval

Check out the show page

Also read “A constellation named Starmania »