Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

At The Zipper Theater

Jacques Brel may or may not have been depressed. He certainly had a grim (some would say realistic) view of life, namely that everything ends: love, peace, youth and life.

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris is a tribute musical. In other words, this is one of those events where they string together a whole bunch of songs into some sort of semblance of a loose story and call it a whole piece. If you are over a certain age you may have heard of Jacques Brel, you may have even seen this when it was produced in New York before. Most people my age would have interesting stories from childhood if they remembered this songwriter. I apparently have no interesting stories as we only listened to the Beach Boys and Barbara Streisand. That said, tribute events are a great opportunity to meet someone, like a well-curated art exhibit. And, with four great voices the night I saw it (Robert Cuccioli, Constantine Maroulis, Gay Marshall and Jayne Patterson) it was a tremendous introduction indeed.

This production was certainly no slouch. The cast had great voices and substantive resumes. There seems to be a certain romantic love with The Zipper Theater that I can not quite endorse. One of the gimmicks of the place is that every seat is an old car seat. That's great if you are in the bucket seat of a sports car, but not so great if you are in the back of the bus, as I was. Also, the run-down setting neither enhanced nor detracted from the show. I could have lived with a little less run-down, I think. Throwing a lamp or two in and a scarf might not be enough to say there is both a set and costuming.

In terms of who I would recommend this to--I am definitely not sorry I saw this. It certainly gave me a new lease on life in the morning. I was glad to still be alive. Jacques Brel, as a songwriter, reminded me of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, both depressing and uplifting at the same time. So, if I could go back and do it again, I would bring that young person who just loves Goth and the dark side. I would bring an older person who had an old, sweet remembrance of Jacques and a flair for the international and interesting. I would bring someone who is a little bit patient and can wait to watch all of the songs unfold into a whole. Or, if the cast stays the same, I would bring a great fan of American Idol.