The producers | Serge Postigo triumphs in Paris

The producersa show in which Serge Postigo plays the main role, won two Molières on Monday evening in Paris. The Press took the opportunity to hear from the actor “exiled” temporarily in France for almost two years.

Luc Boulanger
The Press

To use an expression of the French cousins, Serge Postigo is currently a hit in Paris!

Since last November, the comedian has been starring in The producersa French adaptation of the work of Mel Brooks, which remains to this day the most awarded musical comedy in the history of Broadway (with 12 Tony awards).

Still playing at the Théâtre de Paris, rue Blanche, the production won two Molières on Monday evening, including the prize for musical show of the year, and has already sold 150,000 tickets.

Defended by a troupe of 16 actors and 7 musicians, the show will no doubt be back next fall in Paris. After a summer break. Serge Postigo shares the spotlight with, among others, Benoit Cauden, winner of the Molière for male revelation.

The Quebec actor plays the Jewish producer Max Bialystock, a character with whom Nathan Lane triumphed on stage and in the cinema.

“It’s a golden role for an actor of my age. [53 ans] “says Postigo, joined by The Press in Paris, Tuesday. The show was a finalist in four categories. And the actor sang an excerpt from the show during the Molières evening. “Max is full of flaws. It is both touching and laughable. We learn to love it over the performance. I love playing this kind of character with multiple layers,” the actor says.

It is also a very physically demanding role. With singing, dancing and other pirouettes. “I play seven times a week, six nights a week. I only go off stage three times. I have lost nine kilos since the premiere,” he explains.

A career on two continents

Singing The King of Broadway, Serge Postigo experienced many emotions on the stage of the Folies Bergère on Monday evening. After the cancellation, in March 2020, of the production of Kinky Boots by Just for Laughs, the director no longer had a job in Quebec.

He “took advantage” of the pandemic to go and do two shows in Paris: before diving into The producershe performed and directed the play Grandpa resistslast year.

Born in France, Serge Postigo had never played in his native country. He familiarized himself with the theater scene in France, “very different from the scene in Quebec”. Is it a new career abroad? Far from Quebec?

However, the success of Producers of course gives a boost to his career across the Atlantic. Adaptation of the film by Mel Brooks made in 1967, The producers tells the story of a bankrupt producer who decides to set up a “theatrical flop” to enrich himself with his insurer.

Max comes up with the idea of ​​making a musical to celebrate the Nazis, titled… Flowers for Hitler. A guaranteed flop, he believes. However, the play will be a huge success!

An argument that made Postigo think about the notion of success in his profession. The producers is a work in the pure tradition of musicals of London and Broadway; a genre prized by the actor since the success of greasedirected by Denis Bouchard, with among others Marina Orsini, in 1998.

“The musical does not appeal to everyone. In The producers, we multiply the stereotypes about gays, Jews, women… Which is not obvious in our not very second-degree era. However, it is the ovation every evening! Something rare in Paris. I savor my happiness with the whole team. I love my job and my colleagues so much. In France and Quebec. There are many people in the shadows who put their talent at the service of musical comedy. This success is also for them. »