Pluming fantastic

By Chen Jie | China Daily | Updated: 2008-01-15 07:34

Joseph and Louis Clerico acquired the Lido in 1946 and about 10 years later bought the Moulin Rouge, transforming them into the famous Paris cabaret. The Clerico family's vision of what cabaret should be and their dinner show format were soon being copied worldwide.

Half a century later, the third generation of the famous Parisian music-hall family now has eyes on China.

Carlo Clerico, grandson of Joseph, has stayed in Shanghai for three years, preparing for show business in China. His long-term goal is to find a suitable venue in Shanghai and Beijing to run the show like they did in Paris.

"My family has managed the Lido and the Moulin Rouge for some 60 years and I have been the technical and managing director for 10 years in the Lido. I want to do something new, something originated from the Paris cabaret but developed with new vision and in a new land," says Clerico who has set up a joint adventure Straco-Creation with Singaporean group Straco Corporation to produce shows in Shanghai, Macao and Dubai.

"Today's China attracts the attention of the whole world. You have the booming economy as well as flourishing culture and arts. With the 2008 Olympics and 2010 World Expo coming, more new theaters and nightclubs will be built in Beijing and Shanghai.

"Local people and tourists want to see a diversity of shows, that's what we could do," Clerico told China Daily by telephone from Shanghai where his latest production Paris Plumes was running at the Oriental Art Center.

"This time, I invited Pierre Rambert, the current artistic director of the Lido to create Paris Plumes. Rambert is my long-time friend and his show Bon heur is running at the Lido now. His artistic direction brings the most original Paris night flavor to audience here in China," Clerico says.

Paris Plumes will play from Thursday to Sunday at Beijing's Poly Theater before it embarks a tour of Asia and Europe.

Plumes features 17 high-kicking and bare-breasted female dancers, eight male dancers, and two singers, who take the audience on a dream-like ride.

The show takes people into the world of some of the great music hall performers of the 1930s and 40s from Josphine Baker to Zizi Jeanmaire and Piaf.

Composer Khalil Chahine creates original music and rearranges the old popular French chanson for the show while choreographer Craig Revel Horwood arranges all kinds of cabaret dances, plus new numbers into different scenes. Edwin Piekny designed some 250 gorgeous costumes, using the plumes headdresses to make the performance a real "show of feathers".