From crisis to Grease (is the word)

The Mogador Theater is again buzzing with excitement. Positive news and letters of support are piling up on our desks. It’s been an eventful year, that’s for sure, and 2016 will be remembered as a major milestone in Stage Entertainment France history.

A quick flashback: On Sunday, September 25th, our world went up in smoke only a week before the first preview of The Phantom of the Opera: a fire broke out under the stage forcing us to cancel previews and the opening night—and eventually the entire season. We were devastated and found it very difficult to accept what had happened. Nevertheless, our wonderful and dedicated artists briefly kept the show alive by improvising a moving and emotional performance in front of l’Opéra Garnier (where the The Phantom story actually takes place).

It is impossible to describe the powerful emotions experienced by those who attended the Sitzprobe just two days after the fire, including Just Spee who came to Paris to support the French team. Oh, we should have had Kleenex as a sponsor that day!

But the future soon became our new focus, and it is now time to move onwards toward our new goals: reopening the Mogador (repair work started a few weeks ago), welcoming talents again and having the theater corridors alive with music and voices, and, last but not least, selling tickets. This is what’s keeping us busy right now.

Grease is the word
With the help of the group in Amsterdam, we quickly started discussions concerning the Mogador’s reopening, knowing that this would take some time. But what show should we open with? Market research indicated that Grease was the one that we wanted, ooh ooh ooh. So Grease it will be. Since the announcement, everything has fallen into place and we feel like we’re on the right track: a feel good show, songs that everyone knows and cross-generational interest.

The challenge we face now is that Grease’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: everybody knows the movie inside out, the songs, the moves. They’ll probably expect John Travolta and Olivia Newton John to jump out from the wings and shimmy onto the stage.

Needless to say the level of expectations is high. Those disappointed by our sudden closing in 2016 will no doubt be watching our opening show with critical eyes. That’s why we decided to give the production a special twist; we totally redesigned the style guide, maintaining some links to the original artwork while also adding elements that made it our own. We briefed a new agency to make Grease modern and top quality; the show must meet the demanding quality standards of Stage Entertainment and the Mogador. 

And the theater will be ‘greased’ after having been ‘greyed’: this is how the Mogador looks now:

Like it ? 

France is back on track! Ready to rock and roll!

Special thanks for all your kind support during those dark days. We owe you a successful show.

@ Olivier Lazzarini