Back to the Updated Future: Rock Opera “Starmania” – 45th Anniversary

In 1979 the very first French iconic rock opera – Starmania, created by Michel Berger (composer) and Luc Plamondon (librettist), premiered at the Paris Congress Centre / Le Palais des Congrès. The original run was concise and lasted for only twenty-five performances, but, despite that, the rock opera Starmania (sub-titled Starmania, ou la passion de Johnny Rockfort selon les évangiles télévisés / Starmania, or The Passion of Johnny Rockfort According to the Televised Gospels) appeared on various stages more than once and underwent multiple successful productions (1980, 1986, 1988, 1994).

The show toured regionally and internationally, for those purposes the libretto was translated into English and German languages. In 1992 an English version of the show was created, with the English lyrics by Tim Rice – a music album titled Tycoon was released. It featured such stellar singers as Celine Dion, Nina Hagen, Cindy Lauper and Tom Jones. In 1996 a dinner theatre in Texas presented a production of Tycoon, with Luc Plamondon in attendance.

The main idea that the creators wanted to realize in the rock opera was to show how the change of eras occurs and how it all affects our lives. Various forms of the structure of our society come and go, but the revolutionary way of changing them is disastrous to the nation. The form of presentation of the material turned out to be acceptable for the younger generation of Frenchmen of the 80s of the last century, who aspired to a new, modern, avant-garde theatrical art. At that, the historical moment required a sober assessment of the present and guarantees of a “progressive” future.

It is symbolic that the authors have moved the time of action to the near future, in which there are no borders and countries, but there is a single state, where the owner of the most expensive skyscrapers, a construction and media tycoon – Zéro Janvier – seeks autocracy. The twists and turns of the plot, based on the relationship between representatives of two opposing factions, bring the leader of the Black Stars Johnny Rockfort to the headquarters of the Party Promising Political Progress, which is headed by Zéro. The Black Stars plan to blow up the tower where Zéro’s office is located, but Johnny’s girlfriend from the high society betrays them. Rockfort goes to prison, and Zéro becomes President of the Occident.

Almost fifty years have passed since the libretto was written. And now is the very time to which the show sent its viewers according to the creators’ plan. The legendary French rock opera is lighting up the sky once again. In 2023, a new version of it was launched in France, timed to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the stage premiere. What does the future look like now? How have the main characters changed?

It is obvious that the work of Michel Berger and Luc Plamondon has not lost its relevance at all. However, the contradictions that have accumulated in the life of French society, resulting in violent clashes of democratic, liberal, and alternative forces, domestic, and cultural problems within the country, as well as the multiple issues of the European Union, a common home for Europeans, are a completely different background than the one that existed half a century ago. If earlier the future was perceived as an illusion inside a dystopia that could be defeated, now it is perceived as a dystopia that does not give much hope of changes for the better.

Initially, Plamondon’s texts, inspired by the existentialist ideas of Jean-Paul Sartre, were full of optimism: people will figure everything out and realize that true values are many times more important than tinsel and momentary success. But today the main characters – Zéro Janvier, Stella Spotlight, Johnny Rockfort, Ziggy, Marie-Jeanne, Cristal, and others – once again were unable to answer the questions that they faced almost half a century ago: Who am I? What is the meaning of life? What am I willing to die for? Should I come over to the dark side? The backdrop against which the action takes place, despite the abundance of lighting and special effects, comes out as dull, hopeless, and gray. Even the numerous video installations projected onto the large moving screens are monochromatic. The stage is plunged into the red and blue light, respectively, at the most intense and turning points of the action and during ensemble party scenes.

The directors of this revival of the famous rock opera did not dare show the audience a new version of the future, which awaits us in the next fifty years. The story remains the same and, coming to the show, the viewer gets transported … back to the future. Moreover, that is the same exact future where “there will be no place for terrorism and totalitarianism.” Deja vu. The record turns, the circle closes – once every fifty years, the future does not come… There remains the dream of immortality (Stella Spotlight) and sunlight (Marie-Jeanne) as a metaphor for life. It’s hopeless. At the same time, the reference to the past has been obviously more successful.

Thus, at the beginning of the show, a white grand piano appears on the stage. Later the piano becomes part of the interior of Stella Spotlight’s apartment and is not used for its intended purpose. But we see… Michel Berger at the piano, although only from behind, but it is impossible not to recognize him. In the finale, from a photo projected on a big screen, the maestro will look at us, along with Luc Plamondon – sending their greetings to us from the past. A tribute is also paid to Berger’s wife, France Gall, who became the first performer of the role of Cristal in the original production. In the revived version, she performs a fragment of the title song Monopolis from the screen, which appears at the Underground Café and feels like a hologram. The contemporary Cristal (Gabrielle Lapointe) tries in every possible way to imitate the voice and image of France Gall. According to the creators, they saw their task as “updating” the picture of the “former” future, as envisioned by Berger and Plamondon.

“When we have the flash news moments in the show – I wanted to have a very dark electronic sound and as a composer myself – I wanted to add my French touch to it. I worked with Justice, Kavinsky, – all those bands, so it’s not far from my personal style. So, the flash news moments back in the 70s –sounded folky and cheap – since they wanted the sound of the flash news from back in the days, but I wanted to create a scary, dark atmosphere and combine it with the new scenography that is also more sinister than before… The coldness of the synthesizers worked for the story. Especially since the rest of the music is mainly so warm and soulful, funky and rock-n-roll – it was cool to juxtapose it with the cold synthesized sound like Depeche Mode,” – said Victor Le Masne, the music director and orchestrator of the new and revived Starmania.

The solid images of the main characters of the rock opera, unfortunately, have ceased to be that because of the very changes that have happened to them. In the original production, Johnny Rockfort was a revolutionary, a fighter for freedom and democratic values. His role was performed by various singers and musicians over time, such as Daniel Balavoine, Norman Groulx, and Bruno Pelletier, to name a few. Bruno played the role of Johnny in the Théâtre Mogador version (1994), dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the rock opera; he managed to expand the dramatic component of the character better than others and make the viewer believe that he is on the side of Good, a leader of people striving for a better life. In the latest version, Johnny Rockfort is just the leader of a criminal gang.

The main “villain” of the story, the one with a telling, self-explanatory name – Zéro (Zero, with the last name Janvier – January, which comes down to – Zero January – the absence of a new year and a new life) – is perceived as a representative of the oligarchy, hungry for power, sparing no money to achieve his goals. And the betrayal of Johnny’s girlfriend is generally understandable and doesn’t even seem like betrayal… Let’s talk about Johnny’s girlfriend – the mysterious Sadia…

The most annoying issue, in our opinion, happened with the transsexual – Sadia, who has practically lost her male-gender component.  Miriam Baghdassarian – is astonishing in the role of Sadia and her vocals are terrific, but that transsexual part of the character was just not there – was that the approach of the director Thomas Jolly, was that the production’s approach, was that Miriam’s decision to not pay attention to the “trans” part of Sadia too much? We decided to ask  Victor Le Masne: “What I can say about it is that we are not in 1979 anymore – back then someone transsexual was very special and new, but now – I do like the fact that she is more like a regular woman, she might have been a man in the past but she blends in with the current society, she wants to act like a woman, she is a badass. It’s more about the empowerment than the fact that she is a transsexual person. It is part of her character, but it doesn’t define her anymore. Her personality is the most thrilling part.” However, the creators, as it turned out, did this intentionally, believing that today this character would look like this.

We managed to discuss the main changes with the performer of the role of Sadia, Miriam Baghdassarian: “One of the main changes that I am most excited about in Starmania is the modernization of the production. While staying true to the essence and spirit of the original musical, the new adaptation brings a fresh and contemporary twist to the story. As Thomas Jolly did with his assistant Samy Zerrouki, together with Raphaël Hamburger (the son of Michel Berger and France Gall) -they updated the staging, set design, and visual effects and created a visually stunning experience for the audience. Victor Le Masne, the mastermind behind the rearranged version of the music, adds an exciting and dynamic element to the show, making it even more captivating for everyone. His musical genius has brought a fresh and contemporary flair to the original songs. With his innovative arrangements and creative vision, Victor has truly added a magical touch and an important element to Starmania, making it an absolute must-see for all music lovers! The reinterpretation of each role and our relationships brings a new depth and complexity to the story. The updated script allows for a more nuanced exploration of the themes and emotions portrayed in the musical, resonating with audiences on a deeper level.

Overall, the main change that I am most excited about in Starmania is the reimagining of the production, which breathes new life into it and makes it relevant for newer and older generations as time goes by.”

What changed in the production compared to the original version, and what did the new/old characters feel – we also asked the performer of the role of Stella Spotlight – Maag (Magali Goblet), to share her thoughts with us.

Lisa Monde: What do you think of your Stella Spotlight character in this new revival?

Maag: She is a complex and complete character. For me she has two sides – one side meant only for the public- made of rhinestones, of glory…and the other side, much darker and melancholic – she is a former star who was adored but who feels a deep loneliness during the sunset of her career.

LM: How did you create Stella?

M: I took a lot of inspiration from such personalities as Dalida, Romy Schneider, Marylin Monroe…I watched their latest TV appearances, and their latest interviews to try and capture this solitude and melancholy which are so specific to Stella. I was also inspired by the character of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, an actress in decline who gradually descends into madness. Then we worked with Thomas Jolly to find the most accurate interpretation.

LM: What is the dramatic arc of Stella’s character?

M: We meet her a few minutes before her suicide which she seems to have organized, she is interrupted by her maid and then discovers Zéro Janvier’s proposal. We then witness her “rebirth” which will ultimately be short-lived since she chooses death in her last scene.

LM: Tell me about Stella’s last scene, when she jumps off the building.

M: This scene comes after Zéro’s victory which questions us about our limits: How far can we go for the sake of glory? And above all “what’s the point,” if in the end, we find ourselves alone? Not only is Stella disgusted but I also think she understands what is happening with the Black Stars and decides to choose – death. It is the only thing that she will ultimately have chosen in her life for herself, she who has always had her behavior dictated to her.

LM: What was the biggest challenge for you in Starmania?

M: To manage to do the same thing every evening despite fatigue, health issues…

LM: What do you like most about the recent revival? What was the director’s approach: were you creating a completely new show or rooting yourself in the original?

M: Thomas Jolly’s insane staging and the fact that the story is more “readable-” that’s what I love the most about our production. The arrangements by Victor Le Masne (both close to the 1979 version, but with an added touch of modernity) give rise to a sense of modernity.

The music director, composer, and orchestrator – Victor Le Masne told us how he worked on the music design of the show himself.

Lisa Monde: So, you are the music director of this production and the music arranger of the whole show?

Victor Le Masne: Yes, we arranged the whole show with my team. But sometimes the songs are so perfect that they don’t need much of rearrangement. I have a “musical vision” for every song. I had many discussions with Raphaël Hamburger – the son of Michel Berger, the composer. It’s a process of giving a new life to the original tunes that I love so much.

LM: And that’s what I’ve noticed – your approach to working with this musical material was so respectful, but also your arrangements sound fresh and new. What was your approach musically to this work?

VLM: I love the original version. I was born in 1982, and the musical premiered in 1979 so my childhood is interlaced with this music. So, when Raphaël called me and asked me if I wanted to be a musical director and the arranger of this production, I was so excited, moved by his offer, and extremely proud to become a part of this. I guess my approach was classic and old-fashioned. I picked some great musicians that I respect and trust and went to the recording studio. We locked ourselves in a studio for months. I had access to the original notes and score of the original recording session by Michel Berger – Raphaël gave me the tapes and I listened to them a lot. They were so full of life, so musical, so profound and warm that for me it was an amazing chance to dive into those days. Witness how it was done from the inside. I wanted for the music to sound organic and real, precise and not cheesy, but with a funky rock-n-roll style to it.

LM: I could also hear the electronic style in it.

VLM: Yes.

LM: Talking about the computerized effects… the character of Roger Roger used to be a head in the TV box, and he was basically rapping but now he’s different – we hear a computerized voice, and there is no face to go with it – there is this screen saver type of thing happening on the screen, AI.

VLM: Yes, it is an abstract being hinting at what will happen in the world if we go even deeper into the “computer days.” It’s not a person anymore, not a human being – it’s just a sound wave. It’s very dark and sinister.

LM: Is Roger Roger saying the same lines as he did in the original? But it doesn’t sound like rap anymore. Why is that?

VLM:  I just wanted the character to be really robotic, he is just giving us cold information and the news is terrible every time. It needed to be cold-sounding. In Michel Berger and Luc Plamondon’s world – the melodies are so well written, the music is so beautiful – the idea was that Roger Roger has no music in himself anymore. I wanted to make him desynchronized with the rest of the show.

LM: So, it is on purpose that he has no music to him anymore? That makes me think of the wonderful rock opera We Will Rock You where people lost the music and therefore their humanity.

VLM: Yes! Roger Roger’s voice has no melody but there is a rhythm still, the music is in the rhythm and the instrumental behind it even though it is all synthesized. But as a character – I wanted him to be devoid of anything human.

LM: In Starmania, working with the original music, were there any adjustments made to the songs? Was anything cut, moved, added, or adjusted in any way?

VLM: In terms of music, yes. Thomas Jolly, the director of this show, sat down with Luc Plamondon and they didn’t rewrite the story, but they changed the chronology of events in the story so I had to adjust the music to follow the new order of things. Some songs were cut in two, for example, in Travesti, when Sadia is singing the new version of it, I kept imagining Prince taking over the stage when I was working on the arrangement… And in this number, Johnny Rockfort joins Sadia, and I added a verse from Quand on Arrive en Ville inside Travesti. We did a lot of that – cut a song in two, move songs around – turning it more into a musical tapestry, so there is a hint of one melody in another. And musically, with certain songs like Paranoia and Mass Media – I changed some of the harmonies in those because Raphaël wanted me to “update” them. For the sake of a new sound harmonically.

The biggest “innovation” in the gallery of images is the reincarnation of Roger Roger, a television announcer with plastic yellow hair, comically rapping into an “All-seeing Eye” with AI capabilities. This talking abstraction, depicted on the screen by a sequence of dots forming intersecting lines, is reminiscent of an interactive computer screensaver, according to the idea of the authors of the book of this version of the rock opera (Thomas Jolly and Raphaël Hamburger), consists simultaneously of two interconnected parts – consciousness and subconsciousness. It is a kind of mystical matter that exists in space and passively contemplates the terminally ill world. However, it’s not a very convincing picture of the future, which is understandable, considering that, according to the authors themselves, they were “inspired by the silent film Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang,” which was released … back in 1927. In it, one can find not only the same burning car, explosions, and military uniforms, but also the very mood prevailing on the stage of the current revival of Starmania.

The show starts with a very atmospheric ensemble scene where citizens of the Monopolis go about their lives, grey and busy – the choreography showcases faceless shadows walking with briefcases between skyscrapers, getting erased and lost. The big structure that represents the main part of the set is an island made of tall buildings with sharp edges that look like thorns, cliffs and all of it together looks like a star. The creators of the new revival played with the image of a star in the show – which obviously works for Starmania. It is present in staging, in the set, in lighting design and special effects, scenography, and even shiny costumes of the two sparkly characters: Cristal – the TV host, and Stella Spotlight – the retiring movie star.

Tom O’Horgan was the director of the original rock opera Starmania. By the time he started working on the rock opera, he already had the experience of staging rock operas such as Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, and that, of course, was very important and became the guarantee for success. The new production does not have a director as such. Thomas Jolly is responsible for the mise en scene, and Emmanuelle Favre is responsible for the set design. Perhaps that is why the production evokes a feeling of multiple “inconsistencies” between time, characters, and action. And the set design, which largely copies that of the musical La Légende de Jimmy (1990) and introduces iconic elements of the already mentioned old film Metropolis, today can only surprise but a few people.

The set design solutions are supported by choreography, which provides an atmosphere of a dangerous city and the hopeless dullness of life. The choreographer, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, in the complicated given circumstances, tried to solve the problem of conveying the plot to the spectator through the language inherent to dance. In fact, there are only three ensemble dance numbers in this production. In Ce Soir on Danse à Naziland/Tonight We Dance in Naziland, the viewer can enjoy an aesthetic dance with glasses of champagne performed by dancers imitating the movements of boys from gay bars. Whether it is intended to emphasize their belonging to the LGBTQIA community or the high society – remains unclear. During Paranoia, the audience witnesses group sex with Stella, Gourou Marabout – antagonist of Zéro Janvier (performed by Malaïka Lacy), and numerous dancers dressed in skin-tight tan-colored bodysuits. The dance with a “multiplied” Ziggy in La Chanson de Ziggy is very beautiful: Bowie fans dance on stage in identical costumes and wigs. Although nowadays it might have been easier to simply make an appropriate video projection on the screens, the choreographer created a wonderful, memorable live performance.

For the most part, the ensemble numbers are based on movements that demonstrate not only the intention but also the action itself: if a bat is in the hands, then it’s hard not to believe that an enemy or an opponent may get hammered with it. Such naturalism supports the gloom and ominousness of the atmosphere, emphasizing the increased level of aggression in society. The updated picture of the future is based on an emphatic abundance of weapons and military clothing. The explosion in the finale scared many, so plausible it was.

Despite the announcement of “Louis Vuitton costumes,” in the original production, especially in the production at the Théâtre Mogador, the costumes looked much more futuristic and organic enough for the story about the future. As did, in general, all the other components of the musical. Dance, vocals, and acting skills were at a completely different, higher level.

It is impossible not to mention an important technical component of the revived production – lighting design solutions and video installations. Lighting special effects are the strong point of the production, giving a symbolic geometry to the set design: a prison, a star, and other symbols made up of direct projections of rays of light. However, in some cases, the redundancy of the lighting design interferes with the perception of lyrical ballads, distracting from those feelings and experiences that the performers are trying to convey to the viewer. One such obvious example might be the beautiful area by Zéro Janvier Le Blues du Businessman/ The Businessman’s Blues.

Video projections are solved in black and white. Some are stylized as zoom videos (Zéro’s appeals to the people), others are fragments of the TV broadcast of the famous Starmania TV Show, as well as the breaking news from the streets of Monopolis, and recordings from video cameras- b-rolls, that end up being part of the newsfeed.

Even though the rock opera Starmania is a product created for the French-speaking world, which has forever entered the history of the French musical theatre and occupied an important place in it, the most famous songs, such as Quand on Arrive en Ville/A Little Damage Done (When we Come to Town), Le Blues du Businessman/The Businessman’s Blues, Monopolis, Petite Musique Terrienne/Little Earth Song, Le Monde Est Stone/The World Is Stone, S.O.S d’un Terrien en Detresse/ S.O.S. of an Earthling in Distress, La chanson de Ziggy/Ziggy’s Song, Les Uns Contre Les Autres/You Have to Learn to Live Alone and others, today continue to be heard all over the world. Therefore, there is hope that the rock opera will celebrate its half-century anniversary with another revival with an updated image of the future, where Naziland doesn’t get associated with a totalitarian state, and Zéro Janvier – is simply a non-existent calendar day, somewhere in between December 31st and January 1st. And, perhaps, Starmania’s world tour will take place, which will reach the shores of America.