The Epic Story of the Swiss musical
A « musical documentary » on the rise of this art in French-speaking Switzerland. More than ever, the musical is in fashion, both on screen, with box-office hits like La La Land, Emilia Perez or Joker 2, and on stage in major shows at the Arena such as Starmania, Les Misérables or West Side Story at Beaulieu. But what does that mean in French-speaking Switzerland? How has this art form, long dismissed as corny by French speakers, broken out of its niche to captivate audiences?
To dive into this chapter of cultural history, we follow a woman whose path is exemplary in the Romand scene: Aude Gilliéron. At fifteen, she discovered musicals, fell in love with the genre, decided to make it her career, and dedicated herself to a discipline that demands the same effort as opera, for only a fraction of the recognition and financial support. Despite hardships, she climbed every rung, audition after audition, eventually making her mark in Mamma Mia! in Paris.
This documentary is itself a musical, a “musical documentary” even, since its voice-over is a song, performed by Aude herself. Written by Blaise Bersinger to a score by Joséphine Maillefer, the song serves as a guiding thread, weaving Aude Gilliéron’s journey into the larger history of the Romand musical. Verse by verse, the documentary tells the story of a passion shared by a large part of the population, by many artists, and by a handful of structures devoted to this art form.
Many voices retrace this epic of the musical in Romandie: Ursula Perakis, founder of the first dance school specializing in musicals in French-speaking Switzerland in the 1990s, and Floriane Iseli, who opened a similar school in La Chaux-de-Fonds; Noam Perakis and Céline Rey, who run the Théâtre Barnabé, the nerve center of the Romand musical with its 40,000 annual spectators, together with Emmanuel Samatani, its long-time artistic director. Finally, producer Ylan Assefy-Waterdrinker and artists Giliane Béguin, Loïc Fleury, and Faustine Jenny recount the realities of the profession. All of these testimonies are illuminated by the expertise of Alain Perroux, author of La comédie musicale mode d’emploi and new director of the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
