A Big and Distracted Amélie

By Patrick Hurley

There is a moment, less than a minute into the production of Amélie, a new musical playing now at the Ahmanson, where anyone who is familiar with the 2001 French film must abandon the expectation that all of the cinematic devices that made the film alive and vibrant will be translated into hyper-theatrical ones. This does not happen. Instead, we are taken into a world of frenzied activity and cluttered design disguised as a day-dreamy internal landscape.

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