CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
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Amelie: The Musical, Alhambra Theatre, Bradford
Inventive staging of a contemporary film classic
Gamine: Audrey Brisson as Amelie
[Pamela Raith]
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THE 2001 film Amelie has so many iconic scenes that it takes a brave person to adapt it for the stage.
Craig Lucas partly circumvents direct comparison in this musical version which, while maintaining the original’s surreal whimsicality, simultaneously makes it more physically grounded.
The basic story is untouched. Amelie, a lonely girl raised by a neurotic mother and iceberg father, spreads happiness in the lives of other people while ignoring her own needs. That changes when she meets the gently eccentric Nino and is forced to confront her own dream world.
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