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Notre-Dame goes bilingual
The Hit French Musical en anglais!
Paris
01/02/2000 -
A young Australian singer by the name of Tina Arena has been chosen to lead the international cast of Notre Dame de Paris. Drafted in to replace the French Esmerelda, Hélène Ségara, Tina is already familiar with "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", her mother having read her Victor Hugo's French classic when she was a child. Rehearsing to take over the role of the bohemian dancer who entrances Phœbus, Quasimodo and Frollo, Tina is confident of following in the French Esmerelda's footsteps. "I've never taken acting lessons in my life," she says, "but Esmerelda is actually quite like me in some respects!" .
Tina, who is currently aiming high with her new single Aller plus haut, finally accepted the role of Esmerelda after much gentle persuasion from the show's lyricist Luc Plamondon, despite the fact that she has a burgeoning solo career on her hands. Asked whether taking time off to tour with a musical could be potentially risky for her own career, Tina gives a disarming shrug of her shoulders and declares "Well, that's life!" However, Ms. Arena's career looks to be in no danger of taking a dive right now. Following in the footsteps of Hélène Ségara, who scooped the award for Best New French Singer of the Year at the recent NRJ Music Awards, Ms. Arena walked off with the award for Best New International Singer!
As for Richard Cocciante and Luc Plamondon, the composer and songwriter behind Notre Dame de Paris, they too are enjoying the phenomenal success generated by their 'baby'. Facing a press room packed to the rafters with international journalists brandishing microphones and film cameras, Franco-Italian star Cocciante (who up until now was enjoying luxury retirement in Miami!) explained the concept behind the Anglo-Saxon adaptation of the musical. "The English version of the show started off in Las Vegas so we could prepare the singers one by one. The musical part of the show is profoundly European, so that needed a few adaptations because the Anglo-Saxon approach to music is very different." With this new Anglo-Saxon version under his belt, what next? Perhaps Cocciante and Plamondon are now planning to adapt their show for German or Spanish audiences, or who knows... perhaps NDDP will even end up touring Japan?
When the "Notre Dame" team appeared at MIDEM they performed ten of the sixteen songs on the album without the aid of costumes or stage choreography, focusing attention on their (admittedly superb) vocals. The English adaptation of Cocciante and Plamondon's musical has certainly not been left to chance, the pair enlisting the help of Will Jennings - aka author of the "Titanic" soundtrack and Céline Dion's smash hit My Heart Will Go On! As for the cast of the show, many of the original Canadian stars - being completely bilingual - have retained their roles so fans will find Garou, Daniel Lavoie, Bruno Pelletier and Luck Mervil back on stage singing in English. The four male leads are joined by a new Phœbus played by English singer Steve Balsamo (famous for his performance as Jesus in "Jesus Christ Superstar" in London last season).
Apart from that, changes to the successful "Notre Dame" formula have been kept to a minimum. Thus like its French counterpart, the English album of the musical will be brought out well in advance of the stage show. (In fact, the English NDDP album is due for release on February 21st, three months before "Notre Dame de Paris" hits the London stage). Cocciante and Plamondon also insisted that the singers who feature on the album play the same roles on stage. This has caused a few upsets. For example, Patrick Fiori (the French Phœbus) was keen on recording the English album, but refused to commit himself to the show long term - and thus ended up being replaced on both. However, Cocciante claims Fiori was dropped from the English version of "Notre Dame de Paris" because his English was not up to scratch!
Meanwhile, rumours continue to circulate that Quebecois diva Céline Dion is interested in playing Esmerelda when "Notre Dame" hits Broadway. For the moment, these are just rumours and neither Cocciante or Plamondon are saying anything. But Ms. Dion has proved herself more than capable of belting the hits out in English!
The phenomenal success of Notre Dame de Paris has also sparked a new craze for French musicals and at least half a dozen shows are currently in preparation. So watch out for Gérard Presgurvic's "Roméo et Juliette" (due to hit the stage in 2001), Pascal Obispo's Dix Commandements (September 2000) and les Mille et une vies d'Ali Baba (also set to première in September 2000). However, with this overload of French musicals about to hit the stage, not all of them can hope to imitate the phenomenal success of Notre Dame. As Charles Talar, NDDP's beaming producer, points out "With all those musicals out there, there's bound to be a few corpses!" .
We met Luck Mervil - aka Clopin - as night fell on the beach at The Carlton and asked him six questions about his role in Notre Dame de Paris. For the benefit of visitors to the RFI Musique website, Luck began by recapping his career to date:
L.M. : When you live in a place like Quebec you need to see people you can identify with in the media and on TV. When you live in Montreal, you know, you soon notice you're not the same colour as everyone else! When I was growing up in Quebec there was no-one who looked like me. And, like a lot of other young people, I was searching for a black hero, someone I could identify with and inevitably we ended up looking to America. There were lots of black heroes over there - Magic Johnson, Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson etc. I was able to identify myself with them on a linguistic level too. My parents ended up moving to the States and I lived there for four years. Having said that, however, it is possible to live in Montreal and speak both French and English.
P.H. : You weren't actually too keen on accepting the role of Clopin to begin with, were you?
Yes, that's true. The way I saw it, musicals have never really worked in French-speaking countries. They're just not part of the collective psyche. I mean, there's only ever been one real hit musical in 20 years - Starmania - which isn't exactly a track record!
And then I have a pretty busy life, you know. I have my own group, Rudeluck. I also work as a TV presenter in Quebec and I'm always singing and playing. In Quebec you're encouraged to have several different careers, you have to be an all-round entertainer. And because of this I think it's easier for us to get involved with musicals than it is for French singers. In France, it's the opposite, people are encouraged to specialise in just one thing.
It's true that I turned down a role in Notre Dame de Paris when Luc first approached me. But when I performed at the special Plamondon evening at 'Les Francofolies' in Montreal, I got up on stage and sang "Besoin d'amour" with a gospel choir. And then Luc came to see me and said "What do you think about the idea of a black singer playing the role of Clopin, the leader of the sans-papiers (immigrants without identity papers). That would make the story really topical, don't you think?" Around that period racism, social exclusion and the 'sans-papiers' were very much in the French news. Three months later Luc got back to me and presented me with eight songs, saying he'd written the role of Clopin specially for me.
Did accepting the role mean putting your own solo career on hold?
Before I even started performing in Notre-Dame de Paris, negotiations were underway with my record company to bring my fourth album, Rudeluck, out in France on the Mercury/Universal label. I didn't set out to use "Notre-Dame" to launch my own career, it just so happened that the musical helped me advance my career in France. The show became a phenomenal success over here. But, together with my French Canadian colleague Garou, we'd always make sure that when we were invited to perform on TV we didn't just do songs from the musical, we'd perform our own material as well.
I'm not worried about getting stuck in the role for the rest of my life and never being able to shake off my past as Clopin. I believe my own personality will end up coming through in the end. And then, just look at Balavoine, he survived beyond his role in Starmania. Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not ashamed of the character I play in Notre Dame - quite the opposite, in fact. Clopin is actually quite a lot like me and that's one of the reasons I couldn't turn the role down.
Do you think that it's more difficult to pursue several different careers in France?
Despite the fact that you had a revolution in France, I feel that the culture in this country suffers from an overload of hierarchy. I mean, isn't it a ridiculous situation when an understudy can never go on to play a lead role, but always has to remain an understudy?
People have always told me that there are no amazing up-and-coming singers in France. And that is just so wrong! I found that out for myself when I played at the Opus Café for a few months and invited local musicians to come and perform with my group. And believe me, I heard voices there that were a thousand times better than anything you ever hear on TV! The music scene should really be opened up to new talent. But the problem in France is that everything's too compartmentalised. I just hope that young up-and-coming singers will have the chance to get their voices heard in musicals.
Do you have a personal preference for the French or the English version of Notre Dame?
Well, obviously, I feel more comfortable in the French version of the show. I've played the role hundreds of times in French - I've never been sick and there were only a few occasions when an understudy had to step in and replace me. But I have every confidence in the English adaptation of the show. Luc Plamondon spent a lot of time working on the English version with Will Jennings and Jennings himself is familiar with Victor Hugo's work. The main difference in the English version of Notre Dame is that all the metaphors had to be adapted for Anglo-Saxon audiences.
What difference has the show made in your own life?
Well, I'm much better off financially, but then again I come from a Third World country. I was born in Port-au-Prince, in Haiti, where people are ready to jump on the first boat going anywhere, they're so eager to get away! What's more, I come from a very big family so I'll never be rich because I have to share all my earnings. I'm not destined to be rich in this life - but that's absolutely fine with me!
Pascale Hamon
Translation : Julie Street
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