NEW YORK — In his allegorical 1943 French novella “The Little Prince,” Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote, “One sees clearly only with the heart.” So why, one might reasonably ask, is the new family-oriented show at the Broadway Theatre such a cold and removed affair?
This is an especially bizarre experience because this stage adaptation of “The Little Prince,” which opened Monday night, employs circus artists, especially aerial strap specialists and gymnasts, and draws from a palette many people would associate with the Cirque du Soleil. In fact, the hugely talented Lionel Zacharas, who plays the title role, has appeared in several of Cirque’s Las Vegas shows.
Circus people invariably feed on an audience. They always know how to draw applause. They know how to ask people, especially children, to see with their heart. They’re fundamentally reactive artists, always present and conscious of what the audience sees and feels.
But despite a seemingly willing crowd in the seats at Saturday’s performance, no one knew when or if to applaud. Reaction was not sought, connection was rarely made and the entire experience was more soporific than emotionally revealing. Young heads began to droop as the evening progressed, despite the work of accomplished artists like narrator Chris Mouron (also librettist and co-director), Antony Cesar and Joan Bertrand.
The show, which was directed and choreographed by Anne Tournie, arrived in New York after reportedly successful productions in Dubai and Paris. This unusual Broadway attraction certainly was under no obligation to replicate the street’s customary habits, but it sure could have learned from the commandment of Jerome Lawrence, an old Broadway playwright: Thou shalt not take the money of the audience without letting it know what is going on.
Aside from Mouron operating with too much remove, part of the problem here appears to be what to do about the famously melancholic tone of “The Little Prince,” written from a place of authorial anxiety about the world.
The justly beloved book is not easy to adapt for numerous other reasons. It seems to be about the interplanetary journey of the titular character, but it’s also imbued with a wish — not just for external exploration — but the cultivation of open-mindedness and self-knowledge.
Plus the trippy trip of the title character is really a metaphor for what de Saint-Exupery saw as the necessity of approaching the world with the imagination of a child: it does not make much logical sense otherwise. I’ve seen other attempts to put this book on the stage; they didn’t work well, either.
And you know how not to signal that this is a night dedicated to making imaginative leaps as a tool toward tolerance and better global understanding? Have a score by Terry Truck that cannot break out from soundscape and offer up a massive projection screen the size of the proscenium that swallows pretty much all of the human artists operating at the front.
Worse, the visuals on that constant screen are not exciting enough for your average New York kid, already used to high-density metaverses right in the hands, nor are they sufficiently beautiful or enveloping to contribute to the aesthetics of the entire experience.
The screen just lives there, swallowing up humanity, the prince, the planets and this entire show.
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