The crystals shine and the tinsel shines in the fantasy of costumes that the French couturier Jean Paul Gaultier has designed with an apotheosis of Swarovski crystals for the variety show Falling in Love, which has just premiered in Berlin and will be on the bill for at least two years .
A hundred dancers, singers and acrobats evolve before our eyes on the stage of the Friedrichstadt-Palast, a temple of Art Deco remnants that refer to the 1920s of that Berlin between the wars and inflation in which people danced on the volcano to escape. It is not the original building, which had to be demolished in 1980 due to structural damage. The current one, also located on the bustling Friedrichstrasse, was erected in 1984 as the last major construction project of communist Germany.
Its stage of almost 3,000 square meters and a length of 24 meters, the widest in the world, is ideal for hosting revue genres to a superlative degree, with a profusion of acoustic and lighting special effects. “J’aime ça, c’est magnifique, c’est superbe!”, proclaimed Gaultier at the press presentation of the new entertainment.
Halfway between a fashion show and musical theater, Falling in Love tells the story of a young deaf poet who falls as if by magic into a wonderful world made of love and diamonds. The title aims to convey the hope of a happy fall (falling) in a sublime loving universe for heterosexual and LGBTIQ people, a visual and musical dream for palates that enjoy extravagance and exaggeration. Gaultier’s wild haute couture is dressed with one hundred million crystals from the Austrian brand Swarovski, which sparkle in 280 of the 550 suits that appear on stage.
“I am fascinated by costumes, glitter and feathers; “I have worked as a couturier for decades, but I have always found my own way to maintain my passion for performance clothing,” Gaultier told us.
It is the second time that the Frenchman has embarked on a collaboration for a major show at the Friedrichstadt-Palast, an institution that attracts tourists and residents alike, after the one he premiered in 2016, titled The one. At 71 years old, he serves as visual design director here and to round out the designs he recruited the Russian stylist Sasha Frolova, a latex specialist, and the Canadian duo Fecal Matter, who claim the beauty of the repulsive.
In the staging, Gaultier uses bursts of color (red, green, blue, yellow, fuchsia) and some of his classics, such as the striped sailor shirts of his Le Male perfume or the pointed bustiers that enchanted the audience. singer Madonna.
The songs are in German and English, and you don’t need to know both languages ??to immerse yourself in this brilliant two-and-a-half-hour feast. In addition, the 25-minute intermission allows you to explore the foyer and retro-inspired interiors of the Friedrichstadt-Palast, a theater owned by the city-state of Berlin and subsidized by its authorities, who see in it the ambassador of a capital that boasts of being open, cosmopolitan and lover of diversity. For the first time, a main actor with a disability takes part in the show, the young British dancer Callum Webdale, deaf, who plays the central character.
The new show has cost almost 14 million euros, the most expensive in the history of the legendary palace, but not because of Gaultier’s emoluments or the formidable amount of Swarowski crystals, but, according to its director, Bernd Schmidt, because of inflation . The cost of materials had increased by 15% compared to the budget for the previous assembly. “And we wanted to add a little more,” he stressed. Some choreographies by dancers and acrobats run through beds of crystals, an experience that is almost tactile for the audience.