Las Vegas marks the last stop for ‘American in Paris’ title performer
As classically trained dancers, Garen Scribner and Sara Esty are used to making leaps.
There’s the one that brought them from ballet to Broadway — as the stars of the Tony-winning “An American in Paris,” which checks into The Smith Center’s Reynolds Hall on Tuesday for an eight-performance visit.
And there’s the leap Scribner plans to take at the conclusion of the show’s Las Vegas run, as he leaves the music-by-Gershwin production that’s been his life for the past few years.
“Bittersweet” is how Scribner describes his imminent departure, in a telephone interview from the show’s Los Angeles tour stop. (Which just happened to be the palatial Hollywood Pantages theater — where the show’s 1951 cinematic inspiration collected an Academy Award for best picture.)
Scribner steps into Kelly’s shoes as the show’s title character, an ex-GI who stays on in Paris after World War II to pursue his dreams of becoming an artist — and pursue a beguiling ballerina.
On tour, Sara Esty plays the ballerina role that marked Leslie Caron’s movie debut. Esty’s worked with Scribner since “American in Paris’ ” pre-Broadway beginning — and faces Scribner’s looming farewell with undisguised dread.
“I can’t even talk about it,” she says in a separate telephone interview, citing “the ultimate connection — the ultimate romantic vibe” the two generate on stage.
The feeling’s mutual, Scribner says. “I could perform the rest of my life with Sara,” he comments, describing their collaboration as “so easy, fun and meaningful.”
Neither dancer had plans to make the jump from ballet to Broadway.
For Scribner, the show’s “Gershwin score was a huge draw.” Along with the title symphonic tone poem, the stage musical includes a few songs featured in the “American in Paris” movie (including “I Got Rhythm” and “ ‘S Wonderful”) and a few more introduced in the 1938 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie classic “Shall We Dance,” from “Beginner’s Luck” to “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.”
An even bigger draw, however, was the presence of British dancer and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, who was making his own leap, as a director, with “American in Paris.”
Esty acknowledges that creating a new musical can be “such a crapshoot,” but “I heard two things — Christopher Wheeldon and Broadway — and I said yes. He’s such a big name in the ballet world.” She figured Wheeldon “wouldn’t be taking this huge leap if it weren’t for something good. It’s one of the best decisions I ever made.”
Before “American in Paris,” Scribner danced with the San Francisco Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater I; Esty arrived from Miami City Ballet.
And while both left ballet for Broadway, dance remains center stage in this “American in Paris,” the performers note.
Unlike some musicals where dance is definitely an afterthought, “the whole thing is a dance,” Scribner points out.
“It almost seamlessly goes from actors speaking” to actors dancing, “but we’re still telling the story,” Esty adds. “It’s amazing that dance can be such a strong component of storytelling,” demonstrating to people who don’t think they like ballet that they do.
Besides, with the Oscar-winning “La La Land’s” recent big-screen success, audiences may be ready for a return of “big long dance sequences you got swept up in,” she adds. “History is repeating itself.”
And Scribner’s more than ready to make that leap. “ ‘La La Land’ has ushered in a new era,” he says, which means the Scribner-Esty team’s “available to be the new Fred and Ginger.”
Contact Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.
Hollywood hits pioneered jukebox musical format
If you think jukebox musicals began with "Mamma Mia!" — think again.
Long before Broadway discovered the formula, golden-age Hollywood was raiding top pop music vaults to create classic musicals.
The Oscar-winning 1951 musical "An American in Paris" — the inspiration for the stage version opening Tuesday at The Smith Center — boasted a glorious Gershwin soundtrack that accompanied, and inspired, star and choreographer Gene Kelly's exuberant moves, with and without his gamine dance discovery, Leslie Caron.
More imperishable Gershwin tunes sparked another made-in-Paris showcase, 1957's "Funny Face," starring radiant young Audrey Hepburn and dapper, if not-so-young, Fred Astaire, who had starred in the original "Funny Face" — with a totally different plot — on Broadway 30 years before.
A veteran of song-catalog musicals, Astaire also headlined Irving Berlin's 1946 "Blue Skies" alongside Bing Crosby — and 1948's ebullient Berlin cavalcade "Easter Parade," co-starring Judy Garland.
Best of all, 1953's "The Band Wagon" (which shares a title with Astaire's 1931 Broadway revue — and was directed by "American in Paris' " Vincente Minnelli) showcased Astaire and Cyd Charisse's magical routines to the music of Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz. (You may not know their names, but you should know their songs, from "Dancing in the Dark" to "That's Entertainment!")
As for Kelly, his greatest musical — the 1952 Hollywood spoof "Singin' in the Rain" — features songs by the team of Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed.
Brown's claim to fame remains his songs, but Freed became a movie producer at the Hollywood dream factory known as MGM. His credits there include "Easter Parade," "Singin' in the Rain," "The Band Wagon" — and, fittingly, "An American in Paris."
Smith Center bets on 'An American in Paris'
Las Vegas may be a long way from Broadway, but The Smith Center was represented when "An American in Paris" began its Tony-winning run on the Great White Way.
The Smith Center belongs to the Independent Presenters Network, a group of performing arts complexes that, "as a group, will take a little stake in a show," explains Smith Center President Myron Martin.
In the case of "An American in Paris," that stake was $25,000, he notes, for a musical with a budget in the $12 million-to-$15 million range.
It's "kind of embarrassing to call it an investment," Martin acknowledges. But such an investment, however small, can pay off later by "making sure the producers know we're behind them — and want to book the show" when it goes on tour.
