Amelie

Amelie is playing at the Walter Kerr Theatre located at 219 West 48th Street. It runs one hour fifty minutes with one intermission. It is an open ended run.

The new musical is based on the French film of 2001.

Pam MacKinnon is the director. She won a Tony Award for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2013) and was nominated for a Tony Award for Clybourne Park (2012).

David Zinn is the costume and scenic designer. He won a Tony Award for The Humans (2016 Scenic Design). David was nominated for three Tony Awards for Airline Highway (2015 Costume Design), Fun Home (2015 Scenic Design) and In the Next Room (the vibrator room 2010 Costume Design).

Phillipa Soo was nominated for a Tony Award for Hamilton (2016) and a Drama Desk Award for Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 (2013)

Tony Sheldon was nominated for a Tony Award and Drama desk Award for Priscilla Queen of the Desert (2011).

Manoel Felciano was nominated for a Tony Award for Sweeney Todd: The demon Barber of Fleet Street (2005).

The place is Paris and surroundings from 1975-1997.

Amelie (Philipa Soo) is not close to her parents. Her contact with the outside world is with her telescope. She has daily health exams by her father Raphael Manuel Felicano. On one occasion her heart is beating fast. Her parents decide she has a heart condition. They keep her isolated from everyone. Amelie mother Amandine (Alison Cimmet) home schools her.

Her only friend is her Goldfish Fluffy (Paul Whitty). Her parents make her release the fish in the Seine.

Amandine takes Amelie to Notre Dame to pray for guidance on what to do with her. On their way out of the cathedral Amandine is killed by a suicidal tourist.

Raphael is distraught over his wife’s death. He builds a garden and put a gnome in it.

Five years later, Amelie leaves home to live in Paris. She gets a job as a waitress in a café. Amelie does not socialize with any one. There are three women she works with. Suzanne (Harrriet D. Foy), the café owner. She is a past circus performer with a limp. Georgette (Alyse Alan Louise) is a hypochondriac. Gina (Maria-Christina Oliveras) dwells on her former boyfriend and husband who left her.

Some of the regular customers are Gina’s former boyfriend (Paul Whitty), Hipolito the poet (Randy Blair) Philomene (Alison Cimmet), an airline hostess.

Amelie discovers a box in her apartment that belonging to a man who use to own her apartment. She tries to track him down. In the meantime she sees her neighbor thru her binoculars. Her neighbor Raymond Dufayel (Tony Sheldon) is an artist with brittle bone disease and never leaves the house. He tells her a little about who lived in her apartment and who might know where he is. She meets people along the way. Among them is Nino (Adam Chandler-Berat). He drops a photo album, which she picks up. Inside there are pictures of one person. Nino is trying to find her.

There is more to the story but you have to see this delightful, whimsical show.

The curtain is cute and well I’m not telling you what happens but something does.

One funny scene is when she imagines her lavish funeral in the style of Princess Diana where she is serenaded by Elton John.

The cast does an outstanding job. Eight actors do several roles without missing a beat.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich

Photos by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for recent photos. Click on a photo, then click back to album, and finally click on back gallery for this and other shows.