Don’t take the title of this musical revue literally. While Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel did once live in Paris — he spent a good chunk of his adult life there, in fact — he died in 1978 at age 49, so he’s no longer “alive and well”.
He lives on in his music though. Best known in English-speaking countries through interpreters like David Bowie, Judy Collins and Ray Charles, Brel has sold over 25 million albums worldwide . This revue of 25 of his songs sung by four vocalists (two women, two men) debuted off-Broadway in a Greenwich Village theater in 1968. It was reprised five years later at Carnegie Hall with Brel in attendance. It has since toured internationally, and been made into a film.
Tomorrow night at Artesian on 13th, the new Golden Apple Theatre Company helmed by Do It With Class impressarios Robert Ursan and Andorlie Hillstrom is presenting Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris as it’s debut production. I’ll be seeing the show and blog reviewing it, so keep an eye out. It runs Nov. 18-28. ($25, $10 student matinees).
If you’re looking for something to do tonight, Aegean Cafe (1901 Hamilton) is hosting another Philosophy Cafe at 7:30 p.m. This one’s being presented by U of R prof Ann Ward and is entitled Oedipus and Socrates: Philosophy and Poetry on the Quest for Self-Knowledge.
Which would likely make for a better world, I think. If we made philosophy and poetry a bigger part of daily life, I mean. Not to say that there isn’t some really great stuff going on creatively and intellectually now. But there’s a lot of crap too. Way more than there would have to be if people just aimed a bit higher in what they did day to day for entertainment and enlightenment.
Like going to Aegean Cafe tonight for a drink and checking this talk out..
Or going to the Shortlist Reading being held at Government House to showcase nominees for the 2010 Saskatchewan Book Awards. It’s at 7:30 p.m. too, and is free by RSVPing to 569-1585.
