[This review is from the A&E section of The Independent.]

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Raleigh Little Theatre--True confessions up front: This was my first exposure to the songs of Jacques Brel--and I found I really didn't care for the majority of them. In all likelihood this means I'm not the best person in the world to ask about the merits of this 1967 musical. Much like Smokey Joe's Cafe (which RLT also produces next month), Jacques Brel is a plotless two-act collection of songs by the mid-century French chansonnier, illustrated to varying degrees (at times with wit) by a quartet of singers.

I can, however, testify that Heather Powell, Don R. Smith and Olive McKrell were in particularly fine voice, with somewhat weaker vocal work and acting from a young Alan Seales, and that Julie Florin's four-piece orchestra was exuberant during Brel's more raucous celebrations and satires--and occasionally tentative in their interpretations of his darker themes, which formed a significant amount of this production.

I did appreciate the gentle phrasing of "The Desperate Ones," a pretty song about something not pretty at all, and the similarly artistic schism present in "Timid Frieda" and "Old Folks." Where these and other songs like "Alone" and "Marieke" devoted to a jaded world-weariness hit a contemporary emotional--and political--nerve, others, like "My Death," struck me at times as merely maudlin.

Between these meditations, Brel ascended the absurdist's merry-go-round, in delightful send-ups like "Madeleine," "Brussels" and "The Middle Class."

Still, at the end of this, my first encounter with Brel, I was left wondering about the impact of these songs in the original French--and how much was lost in the translation.

Though some critics might say shows like this should make the case for a songwriter, musical tastes are such an individual affair that I'm not convinced this argument holds water. The best I can say for Jacques Brel is that a previously cultivated love for Brel may well be required to get the most out of this work. As things stand, there were enough glimmers in what I saw that made me wish I'd had one. (Thursday-Sunday through May 30. $15-$11. 821-3111.)

You are here: Home > Reviews and articles about the theatre's productions > Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Byron Woods)