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Cirque du Soleil Paramour Brings the Golden Age of Hollywood to Broadway

If you’re heading to the Lyric Theatre get ready to be wowed because its current resident, Cirque du Soleil Paramour, is no ordinary Broadway musical. The new production—Cirque’s first foray of this kind onto the Great White Way—propels the audience through a battle for an ingénue’s heart while seamlessly incorporating Cirque’s electrifying physical feats into a loving tribute to early Hollywood.

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Cast of PARAMOUR, photo by Richard Termine.

The plot revolves around “a budding star who must choose between fame and true love,” says Scott Zeiger, President and Managing Director of Cirque du Soleil Theatrical. “Sacrifices and mistakes will be made, but in the end love conquers all. This framework gave us the bones to sing, dance, and soar over the audience.”

And the show’s 38-member cast does just that. Amid a classic storyline and score reminiscent of vintage musicals like 42nd Street, this one-of-a-kind production takes things to another level—one of heart-stopping thrills via acrobats, gymnasts, and aerialists, along with in-the-aisle antics and zombies emerging from the ceiling.

paramour broadway cirque du soleil

Cast of PARAMOUR, photo by Richard Termine.

Paramour is structured around a romantic triangle comprised of AJ (Jeremy Kushnier), an overbearing movie director Zeigler describes as “a Svengali”; Indigo (Ruby Lewis, in her Broadway debut), a ravishing auburn-haired chanteuse; and Joey (Ryan Vona), Indigo’s handsome young accompanist/aspiring composer. It’s the dawn of Hollywood’s Golden Age when the three meet in a seedy L.A. speakeasy. AJ is already a big-name director when he hires Indigo to star in his upcoming epic, Paramour. In fact, the medium of film could be the fourth main character thanks to two complex, beautiful scenes utilizing movie screens to capture the cinematic magic of Old Hollywood.

The film idea came from the show’s director, Paris-born Philippe Decouflé, whose multi-discipline background includes choreography, dance, mime, and film direction—skills that came into play when developing Paramour alongside Ziegler and creative director Jean-Francois Bouchard.

paramour broadway cirque du soleil

Cast of PARAMOUR, photo by Joan Marcus.

“Philippe typically uses film in dance shows and live-action productions,” Zeiger says. “We felt if we were going to have film, we were going to use it thematically to build a story about the early days of the industry.”

If the word “paramour” sounds similar to the name of a certain movie company from Hollywood’s Golden Age, it’s no accident. The producers were not only giving a nod to Paramount Studios, they were also paying homage to Cirque’s French-Canadian roots with a word that translates to “secret lover.”

As for Paramour’s venue, the 1,896-seat Lyric Theatre—once home to another musical that made good use of the expansive overhead space for soaring pyrotechnics (Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark)—turned out to be a perfect match. “Producers have shied away from the Lyric, but our show has moments, like aerialist twins [Andrew and Kevin Atherton] flying over the audience, and the drama of that could get lost in a smaller theater,” says Ziegler. “We wanted to embrace the space and break the fourth wall as much as possible.”

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Ruby Lewis as Indigo and Ryan Vona as Joey, photo by Joan Marcus.

Meanwhile, as the three leads hit all the right notes in their respective characters—Lewis, with show-stopping vocals; Kushnier, blending humor and hubris; Vona, with romantic charm—the supporting cast shines equally bright when jetting across the stage in acrobatic abandon or singing and dancing their hearts out with dazzling showbiz panache. They don’t just break the fourth wall; they tear it down.

Decouflé sums it up nicely in Paramour’s program: “Written with the greatest respect for the traditions of Broadway, by way of Busby Berkeley.”

PARAMOUR is playing at the Lyric Theatre, 213 W. 42nd St., 877-250-2929. For more information, visit cirquedusoleil.com/paramour.

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