Jean-Luc Choplin finally touches his dream: ” To go up Cabaret to revive a cabaret. » In a multicolored polka-dot jacket and matching shirt, the new artistic director of the Lido welcomes, under mirror balls, a troupe of dancers and singers who have just landed from the Eurostar, all experienced in musicals. They will revive the show which follows the journey of a British singer in Berlin between the wars, inseparable from Bob Fosse’s 1972 film, with Liza Minnelli in the title role. Jean-Luc Choplin promises that the show (in English subtitles) will “enchant Paris” and make people forget the old-fashioned revues of the old music hall, undoubtedly one of the most famous in Europe.
Already, on the facade of 116 bis, avenue des Champs-Elysées, an animated light panel has replaced the photos of feathered dancers. The huge and distorted face of the British Sam Buttery, a genderless singer, plunges on passers-by. A way to announce to Parisians the change of ownership. finished on Lido de Paris, place in its namesake the Lido 2 Paris, written with the A in the logo of the new master of the place, Accor, the leading European hotel group and sixth in the world. At almost 73 years old, Jean-Luc Choplin has stars in his eyes: “Our new Lidohe promises, it will be Broadway in Paris. »
He warns that the premiere of the play, the 1is December at 8 p.m., will be a “incredible challenge” – “a serious challenge”, translated by Canadian director Robert Carsen, who has worked on several shows by Jean-Luc Choplin. Rarely in the world of French varieties has a project been so risky. Opening a performance hall, with a musical entirely in English, when the period is more than uncertain…
Many people do not believe it. Especially since the competition is fierce, with several musicals on display in Paris for the holidays, at the Théâtre du Châtelet, at Bobino or at La Seine musicale. And that it is a priori difficult, in terms of brand image, to be less modern than the Lido, synonymous with revues with its stilted handsome guys descending a staircase of light, accompanying almost naked dancers, while the public sips a lukewarm champagne.
Celebrities, pedestal tables and rococo lamps
Less than a year ago, in the dismal post-Covid-19 Paris, no one would have bet on the future of the old Lido. The accounts were in the red: 80 million euros in cumulative losses since 2012. A deficit impossible to absorb, with 184 permanent employees and a room that is half full on good days, at the mercy of often low-cost tour operators. Rumors of an imminent closure were numerous, but the Sodexo group, the owner, was reluctant to sell.
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