There Will Always Be A France
Broadway- and West End-style musicals have gained ground in Gaul, expanding the fledgling market for French tuners with live musicians and a genuine dramatic arc. French producers Dove Attia and Albert Cohen’s $10 million operatic rock musical “Mozart,” skedded for a September bow, epitomizes this relatively new trend. (You read that right: Mozart, pictured, will have rock ‘n’ roll inflicted on him.) After chronicling Moses in the “The 10 Commandments” and King Louis XIV in “Le Roi Soleil,” Attia and Cohen, godfathers of blockbuster Gallic musicals, have chosen the “Magic Flute” composer as the focus of their show, which opens Sept. 22 at Paris’ Palais de Sports.
“We want ‘Mozart’ to look like a Broadway musical with a sophisticated storyline, a talented director, a real choreographer and a live orchestra,” Attia says. “We’ve done everything we could to optimize our chances of making the show marketable on an international level.”
The biotuner will be staged by “La Vie en Rose” director and former musicvideo helmer Olivier Dahan and choreographed by Dan Stewart, who directed “Aida” in Beijing.
Per Attia, the show’s music will blend classic rock-style songs composed by Attia, Olivier Schultheis and Jean-Pierre Pilot with Mozart’s compositions.
