Event

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well

Next Stage Arts Project and Main Street Arts are proud to present Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at the newly-renovated Next Stage in Putney.

After touring night spots across southern Vermont and New Hampshire in the last few months, Main Street Arts' long-running production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris will conclude at Next Stage at 15 Kimball Hill in Putney, Vermont.

Jacques Brel is not a household name in the United States but his music became an essential part of the soundscape of Europe and French Canada. He developed a virtual cult following among singers ranging in styles from Marlena Dietrich and Frank Sinatra to Sting and Nirvana. In the late 1960's folk musicians and antiwar activists routinely incorporated his music into their song sets.

By the late 1960's Brel's flair for music and theater had become such a part of the French speaking world that when he suddenly quit public life he caused a sensation. His English language translators and friends Eric Blau and Mort Shuman tried to answer the question of his whereabouts and to provide some insight into his worldview. Their answer combined Brel's songs with excerpts from his favorite stage pieces creating a cabaret-style musical that became an off-Broadway legend. What was intended to be a short-term review in Greenwich Village ran for years. When the show began to tour nationally, it developed cult-like following in city after city. A two-week engagement in Cleveland was extended for 522 performances.