SAXTONS RIVER — Brel is back!
Main Street Arts recently announced that, due to popular demand, its touring production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris has been extended for one more performance with a show in Grafton on Wednesday, Dec. 16, at 7:30 p.m., at the Grafton Inn's Phelps Barn.
Tickets are $18 in advance, $20 at the door.
Jacques Brel is a celebration of the life and art of one of the greatest singer-songwriters of the 20th century. Considered the songwriter/poet of his generation in the French-speaking world, Brel's literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs were a major influence on English and French speaking performers ranging from Edith Piaf and Bob Dylan to David Bowie and Leonard Cohen.
In the late 1960s, his work was translated into English and incorporated into a cabaret-style musical that became an award-winning standard of the Off-Broadway and regional stage.
According to Main Street Arts's Artistic Director David Stern, those unfamiliar with the show will find much to enjoy.
“Jacques Brel combines music and theatrical excerpts together to create a unique musical revue... with meaning beyond the sum of its parts. There was a reason he was so famous.”
Although some revivals have added and subtracted a variety of songs, the Main Street Arts production has stayed faithful to the musical selections when Jacques Brel was first performed at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village.
“In creating the show we worked closely with Matt Blau, the son of the original creator,” Stern said. “We wanted to make sure we captured the spirit of the original, which works best in intimate settings such as Phelps Barn."