By Liz Lopez
Source: Broadway Across America, Lexus Broadway in Austin
Lexus Broadway in Austin presented by Texas Performing Arts offers “An American In Paris,” the most awarded new musical of 2015 and winner of four Tony Awards®, at the Bass Concert Hall for a one week engagement starting Wednesday, May 30 through Sunday, June 3rd.
Inspired by the Academy-Award winning film, “An American In Paris” is the romantic story about an American soldier, a mysterious French girl and an indomitable European city, each yearning for a new beginning in the aftermath of war. Directed and choreographed by 2015 Tony Award-winner Christopher Wheeldon, the show features the music and lyrics of George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, and a book by Craig Lucas.
The creative team is also comprised of Tony Award-winners Bob Crowley (set and costume designer) and Natasha Katz (lighting designer); Jon Weston (sound designer); 59 Productions (projection designer); Rob Fisher (musical score adaption, arrangement and supervision); Todd Ellison (musical supervisor); David Andrews Rogers (musical director/conductor); Christopher Austin and Bill Elliott (orchestrations); Sam Davis (dance arrangements); Telsey + Company/Rachel Hoffman, C.S.A. (casting); Rick Steiger (production supervisor); Dontee Kiehn (associate director and associate choreographer); and Sean Kelly (associate choreographer and resident director).
The score of “An American In Paris” includes the songs “I Got Rhythm,” “Liza,” “’S Wonderful,” “But Not For Me,” “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise,” and orchestral music including “Concerto in F,” “Second Prelude,” “Second Rhapsody/Cuban Overture” and “An American In Paris.”
The production opened to widespread critical acclaim at the Palace Theatre on Broadway in April 2015 after its world premiere at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. The New York production closed in October, 2016 after playing more than 600 performances. A West End production of “An American In Paris” played at the Dominion Theatre March 2017-January 2018.
“An American In Paris” won four 2015 Tony Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, the Drama League Award for Best Musical, three Fred and Adele Astaire Awards, and two Theatre World Awards. The musical was included on the Year’s Best lists of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, The New Yorker, the Associated Press, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Masterworks Broadway Original Broadway Cast recording of “An American In Paris” was nominated for the Best Musical Theater Album Grammy Award.
The producing team includes Stuart Oken, Van Kaplan and Roy Furman by special arrangement with Elephant Eye Theatrical, Pittsburgh CLO and Théâtre du Châtelet.