An American in Paris: The Musical Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

An American in Paris: The Musical Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 19, 2021

If you’re a fan of musicals, you may know that there is a perceived “order” of songs in many shows in terms of content, with, for example, an “I want” song typically coming second — after a big opening number. That “big opening number” was always a staple of American musicals dating back to the earliest days of the idiom, and in fact the way that Oklahoma! began with the relatively small scale Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’ has often been cited as one of the distinctive features of the legendary Rodgers and Hammerstein piece that many credit with rewriting the ostensible “rules” of how a musical should present itself. That said, despite the innovations of Oklahoma! and a number of other mid-century marvels, opening a musical with a huge production number has often been the default position of creative teams, for better or worse. While it would be a few years before Oklahoma! and other World War II musical masterpieces to ultimately make it to the screen, one of the biggest major post-World War II film musicals, namely the 1951 Best Picture Academy Award winner which gave birth to the stage musical currently under review, broke those ostensible “rules” itself in a number of ways.

Interestingly, even some diehard film fans tend to think of Singin' in the Rain as an early Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cinematic example of a so-called "jukebox musical", in that it utilized the pre-existing catalog of composer-lyricists Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed himself (of the vaunted Freed Unit) out of which it constructed its song score. However, the original film version of An American in Paris beat the famed Gene Kelly-Stanley Donen masterpiece to screens by a year, and it featured pre-existing songs from the George and Ira Gershwin catalog, though the film didn't necessarily adhere to "book musical" presentational aspects, and in fact was probably best remembered not for its songs per se, but for its dances. In somewhat the same way, this stage musical adaptation may not satisfy "traditional" musical lovers who want their songs fully "integrated" into the proceedings, but it, like MVD Visual and Liberator Films' recent release of 42nd Street: The Musical (another stage property that famously started life as a film), An American in Paris: The Musical may excel most with its appealing choreography which, in true Gene Kelly style, combines athleticism and modern touches with an undeniable balletic underpinning. In that regard, and getting back to the whole "opening number" situation mentioned above, this musical doesn't get to the "song and" part of "song and dance" until around fifteen minutes into the show, and instead begins with the first of several terpsichorean flourishes.

The story here hews relatively closely to the film, with expat erstwhile serviceman Jerry Mulligan (Robert Fairchild, Tony Award winner for this performance) choosing to stay in Paris after the war to pursue his interest in painting. He "meets cute" (in that aforementioned opening dance sequence) with local perfume salesgirl Lise (Leanne Cope, Tony nominated for this performance) and the rest of the story revolves around these two nascent lovers, though their relationship is threatened by a number of "outside forces", including two males, Adam Hochman (David Seadon- Young), the "Oscar Levant" character who is basically the show's narrator, and Henri Baurel (Haydn Oakley), a would be cabaret performer. There's also a bit of intrigue on the distaff side of things, with a potential patron for Jerry named Milo Davenport (Zoe Rainey) entering the fray. (It should be noted that Cope is coiffed and made up to seemingly intentionally evoke memories of Leslie Caron.)

The narrative here is not especially compelling, frankly, but the musical's production design and choreography almost always are. The show, which won a Tony for scenic design, is a marvel of not just practical items like sets and costumes, but for some really inventive projections, including some animated aspects, as in some of Jerry's paintings coming magically "to life". And the show's dancing, which admittedly may be a bit too "artistic" (think Twyla Tharp meets Agnes de Mille) for the journeyman musical lover, is an undeniable highlight, giving the musical much of its energy.

An American in Paris: The Musical Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

An American in Paris: The Musical is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual and Liberator Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As mentioned above, this musical joins 42nd Street: The Musical and Kinky Boots: The Musical Blu-ray review in a rather appealing new series of releases that have been culled from the Broadway HD archives, though kind of humorously, this is (like the musicals linked to above) not the Broadway cast, but the London West End players (which ironically itself includes some of the original Broadway cast). This is another appealing looking transfer that boasts generally nice detail levels, with the expressive costumes being especially notable in terms of fine detail levels. Detail is good enough that things like the taped lavaliers and even some pretty heavy perspiration after the more intense dance sequences can be easily spotted. The production's really inventive use of projections also looks great. This was directed for video by Ross MacGibbon, who performed similar duties for 42nd Street: The Musical, and as with an aspect of his directorial choices that I mentioned in our 42nd Street: The Musical Blu-ray review, he very occasionally decides to not opt for "proscenium" framings, suddenly getting up and in between the dancers, something that I personally found a little disjunctive and which kind of ironically removed me from the proceedings rather than injecting me into them.

An American in Paris: The Musical Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

An American in Paris: The Musical features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks. Fidelity is excellent across the board on both tracks, though per my personal preference, I sometimes actually liked the stereo track better for its perceived forward emphasis on vocals. This is no fault of the production, but I felt like the pit band might have been helped with more forces, but the genial arrangements and orchestrations sound great and are especially full bodied on the surround track, which noticeably ups the midrange and low end. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

An American in Paris: The Musical Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on the Blu-ray disc.

An American in Paris: The Musical Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The original film version of An American in Paris is considered an unimpeachable masterpiece by most, but in my typically curmudgeonly way, I'd suggest it's at least intermittently hampered by the same narrative deficiencies this stage adaptation shows. The stage version may also be unavoidably "altered" by not having a formidable musical talent like Oscar Levant in the Adam role, but where this musical does excel is in its really gorgeous (and cinematic) production design and its really distinctive choreography. Technical merits are generally solid, and with a few passing caveats noted, An American in Paris: The Musical comes Recommended.