The Theatre du Rond-Point is said to be enjoying a renaissance, with renovations and a variety of presentations, plus a going restaurant and bar. I couldn't tell, though, from its latest featured production much about its success. True, the theater was almost full on a Sunday afternoon. But then, so it was a few years ago when I saw The Three Musketeers -- done, of course, in Dumas' French -- as the last offering of a departing traditional director.
Boulevard, like the American Sugar Babies, is a revue made up of bits of schtick from funny popular burlesque shows, but adds movies, cabaret, stand up comedy, skits, comic routines, silly characters.
It begins in a sparsely furnished room of elegant proportions into which, from central double windowed doors, bursts a pretty young woman. As if seeking refuge from a gathering storm, blue as her limp gown, she walks down center and breaks into tears. She's typical of the put-upon heroine of many a comic situation, but most often a chase with various characters banging into her and each other. In various shapes -- especially that of a pear on a freaky bald guy -- and sizes, they do takes on commedians such as Alpha, Barbin, Couleau, Maltot, Merio, Natrella, Pellegeay, Pose, well known in France. A more international audience will recognize borrowings from the likes of Chaplin, Woody Allen, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, Jerry Lewis (of course!), the Marx Brothers, Monty Python.
Literature is not forgotten, with bits from Feydeau, Goldoni, Marivaux, Lavedan, Chekhov, and more unusually, Harold Pinter, Borges, Kafka and the Talmudist Rabbi Nakhman de Braslav. Figuring out these sources becomes, indeed, a major reason to stay put during an overlong, overstretched revue, too often of overdone bits. How many times must an overstuffed horse dance or a clownish figure lose his pants?
I had thought that Boulevard would stress physical comedy and thus appeal more than most comedies to an international audience (of my reviews, as well). Yet, puns -- such as an actual devil taking all -- proved among the funniest features. With giggling often more predominant in scenes onstage than in the audience, the show is definitely a mixed bag or, as two stagehands sing mournfully, "Poor Salade."
