The musical journey of “Zazie dans le métro”, orchestrated by Zabou Breitman and Reinhardt Wagner, begins its tour in Amiens

The director and composer takes Raymond Queneau’s text and turns it into a musical. The piece, created at the Maison de la Culture in Amiens, will be performed in preview until March 15, 2024, before touring to several cities in France.

It is an emblematic work of French literature, Zazie on the subway by Raymond Queneau is now the subject of an original adaptation. In the hands of Zabou Breitman and composer Reinhardt Wagner, the young heroine comes to musical and musical life invites the audience to the popular and burlesque Paris of the 1960s.

The Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, which produced the piece, offers the first performances of this new creation by Zabou Breitman until March 15, 2024. Then we go on tour for 30 dates through France, Belgium and Switzerland.

According to the musical story Red hair According to Jules Renard, Zabou Breitman is rediscovering the joys of musical comedy. The staging of Zazie on the subway draws on the literature and thoughts of Raymond Queneau by adapting them into music. On stage, seven singer-actors and six musicians play the score live and follow the characters’ adventures. “It’s very complicated to take only Raymond Queneau’s dialogues, because there are all the descriptions of places and characters there, and it’s thanks to the songs that we were able to put this idea into practice.” explains Zabou Breitman.

For this new creation, Zabou Breitman reunites with Reinhardt Wagner, a world-famous French composer who has already been nominated for the César and the Oscars. The actors throw themselves into dancing and singing escapades in the form of a musical comedy full of references: cabaret, Kurt Weill, jazz, Java and of course realistic songs.

Zazie is still relevant at 60 years later

Raymond Queneau’s 1959 novel tells the story of an intrepid and very talkative child who arrives at his uncle’s house in Paris. She dreams of riding the famous subway, but her plan is thwarted by a drivers’ strike. Equipped with a strong character and coarse language, Zazie embodies this philosophical fable full of imagination. A gallery of colorful and lovable characters will accompany him on his initiation journey. There is of course Uncle Gabriel, “Hormossessuel” and transformist in Pigalle, but also his sweet wife Marceline, who will become Marcel, and Turandot accompanied by his parrot.

Behind the haunting dialogues and the comical situations, Queneau’s text also conceals a sharp criticism of the society of the time, which was characterized by moralization and bourgeois values. So, aAs the story progresses, we discover the torment of the adolescent girl. So much violence that still resonates today. Behind the colloquial words, the humor and the poetry lies the immense freedom of a little girl who says everything and, above all, what is not said.

“Zazie in the Metro” at the Maison de la Culture in Amiens from March 12th to 15th, 2024. Then on tour at MC93 from March 20th to 23rd, in Bayonne on May 2nd and 3rd, in La Rochelle on May 14th and 15th, at TNP Villeurbanne from May 22nd to 25th.