Show Finder

The city of light is ablaze with movement in the rhapsodic new stage adaptation of “An American in Paris” that opened at the Palace Theater on Sunday, directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, a gifted luminary of the ballet world. This gorgeously danced — and just plain gorgeous — production pays loving tribute to the 1951 movie, to the marriage of music and movement, and to cherished notions about romance that have been a defining element of the American musical theater practically since its inception. Just about everything in this happily dance-drunk show moves with a spring in its step, as if the newly liberated Paris afterWorld War II were an enchanted place in which the laws of gravity no longer applied. Even the elegant buildings on the grand boulevards appear to take flight.

-----New York Times

Main man Wheeldon (associate choreographer with the Royal Ballet, but making a triumphant Broadway debut as a director-choreographer here) has been equally meticulous about casting the rest of the versatile company. This is one of the most ballet-centric dance shows ever seen on Broadway. The character of Lise has been re-imagined as a professional ballerina, so she and the sizable ensemble have a rationale for being in pointe shoes for much of the show — except when they’re in jazz or tap shoes. That alone puts heavy demands on the company, but their proficiency as actors and singers is what defines them as triple-threat Broadway dancers and worth their weight in gold.

----Variety

Wheeldon and company’s larger achievement is to confer on “An American in Paris” a contemporary freshness, to convey to Broadway audiences how the rigor of classical dance can be adapted to the musical form in fuller and ever more invigorating ways. The conjoining of these worlds on Broadway makes for one very fortunate collision.

-------Washington Post