AMELIE

A review by Abigail Kathleen

Amelie the Musical is the story of a young girl with an overactive but charming imagination. After a secluded childhood due to her parents paranoia and over protective nature, Amelie is very reserved, socially awkward and keeps herself entertained with her creative imagination. Inspired by Princess Diana, Amelie wants to help others, to do this she orchestrates small acts of kindness to bring happiness to those around her, and eventually finds her own romantic happiness.

The musical is based on the 2001 French film Amelie, which has become a critically acclaimed and iconic film. A musical has been attempted previously in America but unfortunately the whimsical french charm of the story was lost on American culture. The film has been adapted into a musical written by Craig Lucas and he has done a spectacular job, Amelie the Musical is currently on tour and it is a musical not to be missed.

I went to the press night for Amelie the Musical on the 23rd May at New Wimbledon Theatre, I haven’t seen the film so I approached the show with a fresh mind with nothing to compare it to, which sometimes is for the best! Audrey Bisson steps into Amelie shoes and becomes every inch of our quirky lead character.

Whilst at first I struggled to get to grips with the story, my guest Jordan fortunate knew and love the story so during the interval she had to simplify it out for me, once I understood everything fell into place. The story itself is set in France so all characters spoke English with a French accent, the stage was set at a train station with a photo booth taking centre stage and Amelie living in the centre clock face.

The songs flowed one after another, some spectacular and heart felt whilst some a little random but placed for humour. The genre is a romantic comedy so there is a lot of word play, timing and jokes, Amelie’s very own romantic story line was a little frustrating where she constantly kept running away from her love interest but that was a way of showing her social awkwardness!

I related to Amelie far too much with her characteristics and desire to be independent and left alone. I thoroughly enjoyed Amelie the musical, the performance was flawless, magical and dripping with charm, it is impossible to not to fall in love with Amelie and her adventures.

It’s a 5 stars from me.