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Can-Can

C'est Magnifique! Lively, funny, and thoroughly entertaining, Can-Can captures the energy and spirit of Bohemian Paris in the late nineteenth century.

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Description

  • Full Length Musical
  • Comedy
  • 120 minutes

  • Time Period: 19th Century
  • Target Audience: Appropriate for all audiences
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
  • Cautions: Mild Adult Themes
  • Orchestra Size: Large

  • Performance Group:
  • High School/Secondary, College Theatre / Student, Community Theatre, Professional Theatre

  • Accolades:
  • Winner! 2 Tony Awards for Best Featured Actress and Best Choreography (1954)
    Winner! Theater World Award for Outstanding Stage Performance for Gwen Verdon (1954)
CAN-CAN is a songfest about Paris in 1893 and some of its more Bohemian citizens. Aristide Forestier, a young, newly-appointed and over-zealous magistrate, decides to undertake a reform movement. The first case before him is a charge against some young women that their dance, the cancan, has violated the Paris morals code. Acting with the unique wisdom of the French, the chief judge dismisses the case because all of the witnesses seem suddenly to have had cinders in their eyes when the crime was committed and so cannot testify. Aristide goes to Montmartre to investigate the matter personally.

He gets his evidence but in the process falls in love with La Môme Pistache, the cafe proprietress. In the Montmartre we meet, Claudine, the principal dancer of the cancan palaces, Boris Adzinidzinadze, the temperamental artist whom she supports, and Hilaire Jussac, the art critic with whom Boris fights an uproariously funny duel. Aristide ends up in a police scandal which gets him disbarred. He confesses his love for Pistache, leaves the law to the courts, and joins her in teaching others how to do the CAN-CAN.

The show contains the famous Garden Of Eden Ballet, and such entrancing Cole Porter songs as C’est Magnifique, I Love Paris, Allez-Vous-En, and Can-Can flow logically from the context of the story

Premiere Production: Can-Can opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on May 7, 1953, starring Lilo, Hans Conried, Peter Cookson, Erik Rhodes and Gwen Verdon. The production played for 892 performances.

Characters

  • Casting: 3M, 2F
  • Casting Attributes: Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle), Expandable casting
  • Chorus Size: Large

  • Principals
    JUDGE ARISTADE FORESTIER
    LA MÔME PISTACHE

  • Supporting
    CLAUDINE
    MIMI
    HILAIRE
    BORIS ADZINIDZINADZE

  • Featured
    COURT PRESIDENT
    APACHE LEADER
    JUDGE PAUL BARRIER
    BALIFF
    HERCULE
    PHOTOGRAPHER
    THEOPHILE
    ETIENNE

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Perusal Material Shipped immediately. This is optional. Order Now

    1 x Prompt Book & Vocal-Chorus Book

    		$24.00
    Rehearsal Material Shipped a minimum of 3 months before the last performance. This must be hired as a condition of the License to produce this show.

    20 x Chorus-Vocal Prompt Books
    2 x Piano-Conductor's Score

    		$550.00 +$135.00/pm
    Orchestral Material Shipped a minimum of 1 month before the last performance. This is optional.

    2 Violin AC (doubles Accordion)
    1 Violin BD
    1 Viola
    1 Cello
    1 Bass

    1 Reed I: Flute, Piccolo & Clarinet
    1 Reed II: Oboe & English Horn
    1 Reed III: Eb Clarinet, Bb Clarinet, Bass Clarinet & Alto Saxophone
    1 Reed IV: Flute & Clarinet
    1 Reed V: Clarinet & Bassoon

    1 Horn I & II
    1 Horn III
    1 Trumpet I & II
    1 Trombone (and optional Euphonium)

    1 Percussion:

    Timpani (2 Drums)
    Snare Drum
    Bass Drum
    Tom-Toms (2)
    Suspended Cymbal
    Hi-Hat Cymbals
    Tam Tam
    Bell Plate
    Temple Blocks (3)
    Triangles (Large & Small)
    Wood Block
    Cowbell
    Slide Whistle
    Bird Whistle
    Dog Bark Sound
    Glockenspiel
    Xylophone
    Bottle Crash Sound

    1 Guitar
    Piano-Celeste (Piano-Conductor's Score sent with rehearsal material)

    		$350.00 +$135.00/pm

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