by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

French musical theatre lyricist and librettist, Alain Boublil, has established himself by creating legendary musicals that have conquered Broadway and London’s West End. In this Exclusive Interview he retraces the path that has lead him to create worldwide hits in the realm of musical theatre.

When did you understand that music was your path?

Very long ago when I was 14, 15, 16… That is when I realised that I liked all these French singers, like Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel, and at the same time I discovered jazz and all the music of the time, obviously rock n’ roll. All this made me understand I wanted to be part of that world but I didn’t know exactly how. The real discovery for me was the day I saw ‘West Side Story’. Before that I had the impression that I would have been connected to music, with words and writing and when I saw that musical in Paris, I felt that it was a culture shock. It took me many years to interpret what I would have done through time but that definitely was like an earthquake for me.

How has your collaboration with Claude-Michel Schönberg impacted on your work?

It was crucial because when I had the first idea of writing a musical, it was after I saw ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’ That changed my life: suddenly I realised that it was written by people who had the knowledge of popular music and not only musical theatre in the American sense. At that stage, Leonard Bernstein, Steven Sondheim, Cole Porter seemed to be completely out of reach. But when I saw ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and later ‘Evita,’ done by people who were to become famous, I realised they had taken the writing of musical to a different stage. They had in a way gone back to through sung musical, which was what opera was and they had given less importance to the dialogue in between songs: finally it was a completely different kind of musical, the kind Claude-Michel and I were aiming to write.

What struck you of Victor Hugo’s novel, triggering you to adapt it into a musical?

It was very instinctive. I was in a theatre in London, after our first big success, ‘La Révolution Française’ (The French Revolution), the first musical I wrote with Claude-Michel Schönberg. I was attending a performance of the masterpiece musical ‘Oliver!’. While watching The Artful Dodger I started thinking of Gavroche, and it was like I was looking at two shows: one on stage and one in my head. I was putting together the pieces of the puzzle of the musical version of the novel of ‘Les Misérables.’ It may have never had happened, but as soon as I came out of the theatre I became completely obsessed by the idea that I discussed with a couple of people who thought it was crazy to touch Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, and thought I would be crucified in France. Of course at that time I was only thinking of France, I never thought that one day I would be speaking to someone in New York about my shows. Four years after the success gathered by ‘La Révolution Française’ I went to Claude-Michel Schönberg, my work partner, and told him the idea I had come up with and we started working on it immediately. We left the jobs we had in publishing companies and record companies and started working on our own for two years, without telling anyone about what we were doing, and preparing what would become the first demo and draft of the musical, which was then re-written a lot after we met with Cameron Mackintosh.

How was it to work on the film adaptation of Les Miz?

The brilliant British screenwriter William Nicholson and director Tom Hooper called me and Claude-Michel, and said they couldn’t write the adaptation without us, because someone competent in music was needed, and of course we had invented it, so the collaboration was reciprocally beneficial. We also wrote a new song, ‘Suddenly,’ with the English lyricist, Herbert Kretzmer. It took a year to build the entire adaptation. The genius expedient used by Tom was to record the actors as they were singing live, that was the key to give rawness and authenticity to this movie.

One of the stage-actresses who played Éponine many years ago, Lea Salonga, also starred in another musical you wrote Miss Saigon…

I still work with her in concerts, I see her often, when we do performances from all the shows. ‘Miss Saigon’ was Claude-Michel Schönberg’s idea, he was dreaming of adapting ‘Madama Butterfly’ in modern times, just like ‘West Side Story’ was an update of ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ One day Claude-Michel came up to me with the picture of a woman who gave up her daughter at the airport of Saigon not knowing if she would see her again, because she had conceived her with an American soldier and she would rather give away her child, hoping she would have a better future, if the pilot found her father in the United States. This story brought tears to our eyes and very much influenced ‘Miss Saigon.’ I came up with the idea of setting it during the American-Vietnam war. I had always wanted to put on stage a beauty contest and I thought we could place it during the last days of the war, with all the girls dancing in the bars. That is how the name of the show came up.

Will there be the chance of bringing Miss Saigon to the big screen, like Les Misérables?

Maybe. We’ve started discussing it. In the meantime it’s re-opening in London on May 21st. I’m also busy re-writing ‘Martin-Guerre’ completely, which hopefully will open in England in 2015.

Related Images: