“When I auditioned for this, I was told it was one of the hardest roles on Broadway,” Garen Scribner says of his starring turn in the national tour of “An American in Paris.” “There’s a lot of dancing, singing, acting, costume changes…”
Yet the show, which features a slew of songs and symphonic pieces by George Gershwin, also feels “very spiritual,” Scribner says.
The tour, which began just last month in Boston, plays The Bushnell in Hartford Nov. 15 through 20. The Broadway production, which won Tony Awards for choreography, lighting design, scenic design and orchestrations, closed in October just as this tour was beginning. A London production of the show is planned for next year.
Scribner, who danced for 10 years as a member of San Francisco Ballet, says he had to undergo “leading man boot camp” with “An American in Paris” director and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon to handle the demanding role of Jerry Mulligan, an American painter who stays in France after serving as a soldier there in World War II.
“I’d known [Wheeldon] for 10 years already, but he didn’t know if I could sing.” Since finding his voice, Scribner has done live concerts and sung with the Kronos Quartet neoclassical ensemble.
“We do some acting in the ballet world, to be sure,” says Sara Esty, who plays Jerry’s love interest Lise Dassin in the show. She, too, spent a decade with a major dance company — with the Miami City Ballet — before stepping out to “An American in Paris.”
“I always had a love for musical theater, but I never knew if and when it would happen.” This show is particularly comfortable for her: “I do portray a ballerina in the story. Feels like a a perfect fit.”
She and Scribner were both part of the “An American in Paris” company back when the musical was first being developed — in Paris! — in 2014, when “Garen and I were both stand-bys. In New York, we became alternates. It’s amazing to have been together for this whole journey.”
“Sara and I met the first day of rehearsals,” Scribner adds. “We adore each other. We dance beautifully together. She’s a true triple-threat.”
Esty has an identical twin sister, with the same amount of dance experience, who has joined the tour and will be playing Lise at some performances.
“After they’d offered me the lead on the tour, they said ‘If only you had a clone.’ I said, ‘You know I have a twin sister, right?’ She can do everything I can do.”
Dancing to Gershwin melodies was not a great leap for either Scribner or Esty. They both have danced in choreographer George Balanchine’s 17-song Gershwin tribute “Who Cares?”
Still, Esty says, “none of us really knew what we were getting into.” While “An American in Paris” is based on the classic 1951 film starring Gene Kelly, playwright Craig Lucas decided that the musical should touch upon the devastation and confusion felt in France following World War II. Lucas’ political drama “Singing Forest” had its East Coast premiere at New Haven’ Long Wharf Theatre in 2004, followed by the dark political allegory “Prayer for My Enemy” at the same theater in 2007. Lucas’ best-known plays are “Prelude to a Kiss” and “Reckless.” His other works for musical theater include “The Light in the Piazza,” “Amelie” and the Stephen Sondheim revue “Marry Me a Little.”
“When the movie came out,” Sara Esty says, “it was a little too close to the war to be talking about it. Now they’ve added some serious real-life themes.”
The show also piles on more Gershwin tunes than were in the movie. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Hollywood musical had eight songs, plus the classical theme “Concerto in F” and a culminating ballet number based on the composer’s 1928 “symphonic poem” from which the film takes its title.
The musical uses “Concerto in F” as a sort of overture, has reworked the ballet, taken just a few of the songs (“I Got Rhythm,” “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise,” “S’Wonderful”) and added a lot more, taken from other Gershwin stage shows and film scores: “For You, For Me, For Evermore,” “The Man I Love,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” “Shall We Dance,” “But Not for Me,” “Liza,” the classical “Second Rhapsody” (combined with “Cuban Overture”) and a full-cast frolic through “Fidgety Feet.”
It’s one of these new routines that Scribner chooses when asked for an example of how his character must sing, dance and act all at once.
“‘I’ve Got Beginner’s Luck.’ Fred Astaire famously sang it in a movie. While Jerry, my character, sings it, the sets change behind me. I’m dancing across the stage. This department store magically appears. I have a costume change. I’m pretty winded. Then I have to hit a really high note.”
For Esty, the number that represents the range and ambition of “An American in Paris” is “the end ballet. We’ve all been on this 2-1/2 hour journey together. Then there’s this 15-minute classical ballet that involves the whole cast, this unbelievable artistry happening. People don’t expect the actors to be the dancers at the end of it.”
Scribner says that the huge set of “An American in Paris” is “an exact replica of the Broadway one — made even better, in fact,” and the 13-piece orchestra is larger than many touring shows have. Esty agrees that Hartford audiences can expect “the same luscious sound as our full Broadway orchestra.”
“…and it really doesn’t get any better than Gershwin music.”
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, script by Craig Lucas, music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, visits The Bushnell, 160 Capitol Ave., Hartford, from Nov. 15 to 20. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $36.50 to $119.50. 860-987-5900 and bushnell.org.
.galleries:after {
content: ”;
display: block;
background-color: #c52026;
margin: 16px auto 0;
height: 5px;
width: 100px;
}
.galleries:before {
content: “Local Entertainment Videos”;
display: block;
font: 700 23px/25px Belizio,Georgia,’Droid Serif’,serif;
text-align: center;
color: #1e1e1e;
}
