Entertainment in France
Whether you prefer
classical drama or cabaret, leggy show-girls or ballet, opera or jazz, cinema
or dancing the night away, Paris has it all. Free entertainment is aplenty as
well, from the street per-formers outside the Pompidou Center to musicians
busking in the metro. Parisians themselves enjoy strolling along the boulevards
or sitting at a pavement café, and nursing a drink. Of course, for the ultimate
“oh-la-la!” experience, showgirls await
you at celebrated cabarets while supermodels pose in nightclubs. For fans of
spectator sports there is tennis, the Tour de France, horse racing, soccer or
rugby. Recreation centers and gyms cater to the more active, while the
municipal swimming pools delight water babies. And for those disposed either
way, there’s always the popular type of bowls
played in Paris, pétanque.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
For the visitor in Paris there is no shortage of
information about what’s on offer.
The Office du Tourisme near the Tuileries and Opera is
the city’s main tourism distribution point for leaflets and schedules of
events. It has a recorded information telephone service giving details of free
concerts and exhibitions along with information on transportation to the
venues. Its website is also extremely useful. Your hotel reception desk or concierge
should also be able to help you with
any such information. They usually keep a wide range of
brochures and leaflets for guests, and will generally be more than happy to
make reservations for you.
BUYING TICKETS
Depending on the event, tickets can be bought at the
door, but for blockbuster concerts it is necessary to book well in advance. For
most major events, including some classical music concerts
and museum shows, tickets can be purchased at the FNAC
chain or Virgin Megastore.
For popular events be sure to book well in advance,
Parisians can be very quick off the mark for hot tickets. However, for theater,
opera, and dance performances, you can often buy inexpensive tickets at the last
minute. If the tickets are marked sans visibilité you will be able to see the
stage only partially, or perhaps not at all. Often, obliging ushers will put
you in a better seat, depending on availability, but don’t forget to tip.
Theater box offices are open daily from approximately
11am–7pm. Most box offices accept credit card reservations made by phone or in
person, but you may have to arrive early to pick up your tickets if you booked
by telephone, as they may be sold to someone else at the last minute. If you
are really eager and can’t get hold of tickets, you can always turn up at the
box office just before the performance in case there are unclaimed or returned
tickets.
TICKET TOUTS
If you must have a ticket to a sold-out performance, do
as the French do: stand at the entrance with a sign that says cherche une place
(or deux, etc). Many people have an extra ticket to sell. Often the
people selling the extra tickets are simply doing so
because a person in their party cannot come and they will simply sell the
ticket on at face value. It is fine to buy these tickets, but do watch out for
touts and be sure you don’t buy a counterfeit or overpriced ticket.
DISCOUNT TICKETS
Half-price tickets to current plays are sold on the day
of performance at Kiosque Théâtre. Credit cards are not accepted and a small
commis-sion is charged per ticket. There is a booth on the Place
de la Madeleine (see p216), open 12:30–8pm, Tuesday–
Saturday, 12:30–4pm Sunday, and in the Parvis de la Gare Montparnasse 12:30–6pm
Tuesday–Saturday. This is a great way to buy tickets without booking weeks or
even months in advance and, of course, has the added benefit of costing less.
The kiosque is a Parisian institution and often has passes for the season’s top
shows.
DISABLED VISITORS’
FACILITIES
Where facilities do exist, they are either very good or
dreadful. Many venues have wheelchair space, but always phone in advance to
make sure it’s properly equipped.
As far as public transportation is concerned, the metro,
with its long stairways, is completely inaccessible to wheelchairs. Some bus lines
are equipped with ramps for wheelchair accessibility; check with the city’s
transportation authority, the RATP, to find out which lines have facilities.
USEFUL
ADDRESSES
FNAC
Forum des
Halles, 1 Rue Pierre-Lescot 75001. Map 13 A2. Tel 0825 020 020.
FNAC 26 Ave
des Ternes 75017.
Tel 0825 020
020.
G7 Taxis
Tel 01 47 39
47 39.
Office du
Tourisme
25 Rue des
Pyramides 75001.
Map 12 E1. Tel
08 92 68 30 00.
Taxis Bleus
Tel 08 91 70
10 10.
Virgin Megastore
52–60 Ave des
Champs-Elysées
75008. Map 4 F5.
Tel 01 49 53 50 00.
Theater
From the grandeur of the Comédie Française to slap- stick
farce and avant-garde drama, theatre is flourishing in Paris and the suburbs –
the training ground for the best young actors and directors. The city also has
a long tradition of playing host to visiting companies, and it attracts many
foreign productions, often in the original languages.
There are theatres scattered throughout the city and the theatre
season runs from September to July; national theatres close during August but
many commercial ones stay open. For complete listings of what’s on read Pariscope
or L’Officiel des Spectacles.
NATIONAL THEATERS
Founded in 1680 by royal decree, the Comédie Française , with
its strict conventions regarding the style of acting and interpretation, is the
bastion of French theater. Its aim is to keep classical drama in the public eye
and also to perform works by the best modern playwrights.
The Comédie Française (inextricably linked in the
national consciousness to Molière) is the oldest national theater in the world
and one of the few institutions of ancien-régime France to have survived the
Revolution. It settled into its present home after players occupied the
Palais-Royal during the Revolution. The traditionally-styled red velvet
auditorium has a vast stage equipped
with the latest technology.
The majority of the repertoire is classical, dominated by
Corneille, Racine, and Molière, followed by second strings Marivaux, Alfred de Musset,
and Victor Hugo.
The company also performs modern plays by French and foreign
playwrights.
The Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe, also known as the Théâtre
National de l’Odéon , was at one time
the second theater of the Comédie Française. It now has
two sites and specializes in performing plays from other countries in their original
languages.
Next door the Petit Odéon features new plays and those in
foreign languages.
The Théâtre National de Chaillot is a huge underground
auditorium in the Art Deco Palais de Chaillot. It stages experimental and
contemporary theater, lively dance productions, and, occasionally, musical
revues.
The Théâtre National de la Colline has two performance
spaces and specializes in contemporary dramas.
FARTHER AFIELD
A thriving multi-theater complex in the Bois de
Vincennes, the Cartoucherie houses five separate avant-garde theaters,
including the internationally famous Théâtre du Soleil.
INDEPENDENT THEATERS
Among the most important of the serious independents are
the Comédie des Champs-Elysées, the Hébertot, and the Atelier, which aims to be
experimental. Other notable venues include the Théâtre
Marigny, for excellent modern French drama, the
Montparnasse, and the Théâtre Antoine which pioneered the use of realism on stage.
The Madeleine maintains consistently high standards and the Huchette specializes
in Ionesco plays. The avant-garde producer/ director Peter Brook has a loyal following
at the Bouffes-du-Nord.
For over a hundred years the Palais Royal has been the
temple of risqué farce. With fewer French Feydeau-style farce writers these
days, translations of British and American sex comedies are filling the gap.
Other notable venues include the Bouffes-Parisiens, La Bruyère, the Michel, and
the St-Georges. The Théâtre du Gymnase presents popular one-man comedy shows.
CAFE-THEATERS AND CHANSONNIERS
There is a long tradition of entertainment in cafés, but the
café-theatres of today have nothing in common with the “café-concerts” of the
late 19th century. These modern entertainments have originated because young
actors and new playwrights could not find work, while drama students were
unable to pay to rent established theatres. Don’t be surprised if there is an
element of audience participation, or alternatively, in small venues, if the
actors can sometimes seem a little too close for comfort. This form of theatre
is now so popular in Paris that one can often see posters
advertising classes for café-theatre or notices inviting
people to join small troupes. Café-theaters rose to prominence during the 1960s
and 70s, when unknowns such as Coluche, Gérard Depardieu, and Miou-Miou made
their debut at the Café de la Gare before going on to success on the screen, so
who knows who you might see at your local café. Good venues for seeing new
talent include the Théâtre d’Edgar and Le Point Virgule, while Cabaret Michou is
an old-fashioned spot that is very popular and tends to specialize in broad
caricature.
Traditional chansonniers – cabarets where ballads, folk
songs, and humor abound – include Au Lapin Agile, in the heart of Mont-martre.
Political satire is on offer at the Caveau de la République and the Deux Anes,
also in Montmartre. Another form of café entertainment that often veers toward
the theatrical is café-philosophique. These are philosophical discussions or debates
on topics such as
justice, war, and love, in which skilled orators take to
the floor to declaim their positions.
Audience participation is encouraged. Such evenings are
held in many locations, but the best known are held at Les Editeurs. Although
debates take place in French, English language events also exist: the monthly
play-reading at the Café de Flore is a fine example of the genre.
CHILDREN’S THEATER
Some Paris theaters, such as the Théâtre du Gymnase, the
Porte St-Martin, and the Café d’Edgar, have children’s matinees on Wednesdays
and weekends. In the city parks there are several tiny puppet theaters
(marionnettes), which are sure to delight children and adults alike.
The Lido also has a new show for children.
OPEN-AIR THEATER
During the summer, weather permitting, open-air
performances of Shakespeare in French and classic French plays are held in the
Shakespeare Garden in the Bois de Boulogne. There are also occasional
performances in the Tuileries and in Montmartre as part of Paris’s summer
festival; check listings magazines for these events.
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE
THEATER IN PARIS
The Professionals and Mondays at 7 Troupe are both
Paris-based companies who perform in English (details in listings magazines).
There are also several English-language poetry societies which host poetry and
play readings, the best is the Live Poets Society. Kilometre Zero is an
interesting English-language arts collective that performs plays, publishes a
magazine, and hosts open-mike recital evenings. La Java puts on excellent
stand-up comedy acts in English each month, courtesy of Anything Matters.
Peter Brook occasionally puts on Shakespeare plays at the
Bouffes-du-Nord. A historic venue, it is much-loved by expatriates and plays
host to some of the finest comic talent on the circuit at the moment.
STREET THEATER
Street theatre thrives during the summer. Jugglers, mime artists,
fire-eaters, and musicians can be seen in tourist areas such as the Pompidou
Center, St-Germain-des-Prés, and Les Halles.
CABARET
The music hall revue is the entertainment form most
associated with late 19th-century Paris. It evokes images of bohemian artists
and champagne-induced debauchery. Today, most of the girls are likely to be
non-French and the audience is made up mainly of foreign businessmen and tour
groups.
When it comes to picking a cabaret the rule of thumb is
simple: the better-known places are the best. Lesser-known shows resemble nothing
so much as Grade-B strip shows. All the cabarets listed here guarantee topless
women sporting outrageous feather- and sequin-encrusted headpieces, an
assortment of vaudeville acts and, depending on your point of view, spectacularly
entertaining evening or an exercise in high kitsch.
The Lido is the most Las Vegas-like of the cabarets and
stars the legendary Bluebell Girls. The Folies Bergères is renowned for lively
entertainment. It is the oldest music hall in Paris and probably the most famous
in the world.
The Crazy Horse features some of the more risqué costumes
and performances, and dancers with names such as Betty Buttocks, Fila Volcana,
and Nouka Bazooka. It has been transformed from its Wild West bar-room into a jewel-box
theatre with a champagne bucket fastened to each seat. Here, the lowly striptease
of burlesque shows has been refined into a vehicle for comedy sketches and
international beauties. Paradis Latin is the most “French” of all the city’s
cabaret shows. It has variety acts with remarkable special effects and scenery
in a beautiful, old Left Bank theatre, partly designed by Gustave Eiffel.
The Bobin’O offers a commercial show that is inspired by
all of Paris’ cabarets. The Moulin Rouge, once the haunt of Toulouse-Lautrec,
is the birthplace of the cancan.
Today, the Moulin Rouge is less extravagant than the
version portrayed in Baz Luhrmann’s movie, but cabaret fans can still be
certain of an evening of glamor, glitz, and good times. Outrageously camp,
transvestite parodies of these showgirl reviews can be seen at Chez Madame
Arthur.
BUYING TICKETS
Tickets can be bought at the box office, by telephone, or
through theatre agencies. Box offices are open daily from about 11am–7pm; some
accept credit card bookings by telephone or in person.
Most tickets can also be bought online, via either
theatre websites or Internet ticket agencies.
TICKET PRICES
Ticket prices generally range from €7–€30 for the
national theatres and €8–€38 for the independent. Reduced-price tickets and
student stand-by are available in some theatres
15 minutes before curtain-up. For cabaret, expect to pay
from €23–€60; €68–€105 with dinner.
The Kiosque Théâtre offers half-price tickets on the day-
of-performance: credit cards are not accepted and a small commission is charged
for each ticket sold. There is a ticket booth in the Place de la Madeleine and
one in front of Gare Montparnasse.
DRESS
These days, evening clothes are only worn to gala events
at the Opéra National de Paris Garnier, the Comédie Française, or the
premiere of an upscale play.
No comments:
Write comments