Review: JE VAIS T'AIMER at La Seine Musicale

Originally set to open in fall 2021, the Michel Sardou juke-box musical is the first French big spectacular to hit the capital since Covid. Following a brief tour, it is playing a limited season at the huge Seine Musicale Auditorium in Boulogne, in the close outskirts of Paris. Unlike the Mike Brant biopic musical, Je vais t'aimer follows the path of Mamma Mia and the most succesful French juke-box musical to date, Resiste, bilt around the repertoire of France Gall.

Without fully reaching the goal of integrating the nineteen plus songs into a coherent single narative, the book by Serge Denoncourt already has the guts not to be afraid of offending the mostly reactionary mentality of Sardou's fans by tackling such risqué subject matters as bisexuality, while the story line around the Atlantic crossing of Le France, the the title of Sardou's most famous and controversial song, making the play a kind of French answer to Anything Goes!

Serge Denoncourt, book writer and director very much in demand, has made the bold choice of giving us two totally different acts, the first focusing on big production numbers impeccably choregraphed by Wynn Holmes, assisted by Nico Archambault, and the presentation of different characters whose stories don't really unfold until the much more dramatic second act, even involving some of their deaths.

Standing out in the large cast, Hobbs towers over the end of the first act in the highly entertaining "Chanteur de jazz," and the character of Mike's emotional "Je vole" leads to suicide in the second.

Sofia Mountassir, who plays the lead in The Bodyguard and more recently in Priscilla folle du desert, does a excellent job.

Most of the cast is vocally impressive, and the modern musical arrangements by Philippe Uminski and Quentin Bachelet are faithful to Sardou's universe. Fans of Sardou won't be disappointed, and those who aren't fans are in for a pleasant surprise.

Producers Roberto Ciurleo (The Three Musketeers, Night Fever) and Frank Montel (NRJ Radio) had a great idea in putting on this show, and luckily Narya Productions (Patrick Raoux, Bruno Amic, Alexis Loizon, who gave us Merlin: La légende musicale, Grease is the Word) helped them bring it to the stage, now on tour after playing in Paris for two months. Je vais t'aimer, a crowd pleaser and a highly polished show, and is likely to come back for the greatest pleasure of fans and novices alike.