The musical combines historical fact and fiction Lili St-Cyr takes us into the red light of 1940s Montreal that sparked political, feminist and social controversy.
We see how the famous stripper Lili St-Cyr, a native American, chose Montreal, its accents and its Canadians and how her famous transparent bathtub number was born at the Gayety Theater (now the Théâtre du New World) that caused a stir to experience the world of stripping.
A diverse and bug-free game
The author Mélissa Cardona, who is behind the 2018 play Amsterdam – which many viewers still remember for Lili St-Cyr – this time signs a work with hypnotic characters.
The acting is an impressive balance of powerful voices, embodied emotion and the speed of costume donning.
“I don’t do burlesque,” sings Marie-Pier Labrecque, who plays Lili St-Cyr magnificently, with charm and authenticity, in the musical comedy directed by Benoît Landry, which will be staged throughout the summer in the town of Kingsey Falls.
Hats off to Roger La Rue, who skillfully twirls from one character to the next…
The songs, with jazz and swing accents, add some laziness to the different scenes and reveal us Lili’s years in Montreal, her loves and the challenges she has to face.
Just enough
The climax of the play? Don’t take sides. Between activism for women’s freedom and conservative ideals of the time like “Hide that breast we can’t see,” this piece of music explores the art of revealing just enough.
And this is brilliantly conveyed in the dichotomy of characters we love for a time and then hate, like a yo-yo of empathy.
human characters
On the one hand, Jessie Fisher (Kathleen Fortin), Montreal’s first elected councilwoman, “worries about little girls and the bad influence Lili’s shameless shows are having on them,” but softens the viewer with her heartfelt cry of a mother and hers bitter loneliness.
Both feminist and independent, Lili herself is a tormented lover when she proclaims “that a woman can do as she pleases” or when she sings “I Am an Abyss” (a very touching song).
For their part, the men sit in their 1940s clichés: unfaithful, an open husband but not too much (“I want her to make her dream come true, but dressed”), a journalist who cuts off the women.
The fictional character of Sophie Leblanc in the story makes it possible to address the female rivalry without playing to excess, solving this dilemma that inhabited the Gayety and other cabarets of the time: the voice or the cleavage?
“I’m not that beautiful,” Lili unfortunately has to remind her.
In short, Lili St-Cyr’s play is not only entertaining and offers a surprise here and there, but also philosophical.
The viewer is invited to question themselves to find out where the “too much” and the “just enough” lie in the art of stripping.
Lili St-Cyr is a female character to be discovered in this sometimes funny and sometimes extravagant summer musical.
musical comedy Lili St-Cyr will be performed at the Salle Kingsey of the Théâtre des Grands Chênes in Kingsey Falls until September 3, when it will tour throughout Quebec.