You can take Emily out of America, but you can’t take America out of Emily.
That’s precisely the goal of Emily In Paris, Netflix’s hit comedy-drama, so ridiculously delicious that its fifth season has just been announced.
All thanks to Emily, played by Lily Collins, the charming and unmistakably cheerful girl who wanders around Paris dressed to die for, not learning French and forcing everyone to speak English.
Very quickly, you have everyone doing everything their way. And here is Emily in London.
Or, rather, Lily Collins making her American stage debut abroad, this time in Barcelona, the title of Bess Wohl’s play.
Lily Collins makes her stage debut as an American abroad, this time in Barcelona, the title of Bess Wohl’s play. Breaks into a city apartment in a sequin jumpsuit
Director Lynette Linton’s production begins with a ghostly vibe, as the shadow of a young woman dances on the wall. In the photo during the performance: Lily Collins (who plays Irene) and Álvaro Morte who plays Manuel
Lily Collins’ character and a group of friends had been spending a bachelorette weekend, drinking cheap wine, when she accepted the challenge of chatting up the older Spaniard at the bar.
She bursts into a city apartment wearing a sequined jumpsuit that Emily wouldn’t have been seen dead in, her face bathed in bloodletting and having lost one of her thick-heeled silver sandals like a modern-day Cinderella. So is this a fairy tale?
One of the strengths of this complicated two-handed game is that it keeps you guessing.
Director Lynette Linton’s production begins with a ghostly vibe, as the shadow of a young girl dances on the wall and then, with a chilling scream, gothic horror takes over.
The mood then softens into a romantic comedy with the arrival of our otherwise nameless Cinderella and the apartment’s owner, Manuel, although she is so drunk she calls him ‘Manolo’, like the designer. of Blahnik shoes. A very Emily mistake.
She and a group of friends had been on a bachelorette weekend, drinking cheap wine, when she accepted the challenge of chatting up the older Spaniard at the bar.
And since one thing evidently led to another, it seems that she was quickly taken to her apartment. In fact, she’s drunk enough to find it “cute” (she actually thinks everything is cute), although it’s more of a dirty student dig than a sexy love nest.
Between kisses, they chat. ‘Love is the language of Italy. What is the Spanish language about? asks the squiffy Cinders. “Spain,” responds a dry Manuel.
Then it goes dark again as she staggers towards the bathroom. The mysterious Manuel (a fine and discreet Álvaro Morte, who plays the criminal mastermind The Professor in the Netflix police series La casa de papel) rolls up his black shirt and clenches his jaw. Scary.
But when she returns, he opens a bottle of rioja, licks her foot, and they laugh at the penis-shaped whistle she finds in his pocket (one of the bachelorette party swag) before the play takes a turn. lame.
The macho and taciturn Manuel de Morte hates Americans: “Your big cars, your movies, your McDonald’s… your stupid music, your stupid wars.” It’s not this young woman’s fault.
And since one thing evidently led to another, it seems that she was quickly taken to her apartment. In fact, she’s drunk enough to find him “cute.”
Lily Collins and Alvaro Morte bow to the curtain during the press night screening of ‘Barcelona’ at the Duke Of York’s Theater
So what is the grumpy Manuel doing? Revenge in the name of your nation? As her phone battery drains to 3 percent, this woman from the land of the free seems increasingly trapped.
At just 100 minutes long, the play takes too long to make us care about these two characters.
But as the plot finally thickens and they both reveal their much more interesting side, we finally get involved (and increasingly tense) when dawn breaks and we can hear the demolition team arrive with the crane and wrecking ball to demolish the building. Time is running out.
Lily Collins plays the lead role in Emily In Paris, the hit Netflix comedy-drama. Here she appears as Emily.
To disclose more would be unfair. Barcelona is not perfect: too much is told and too little is shown. But it becomes a play about learning to live again when you think it’s all over.
Linton draws a wonderfully accurate portrayal of Collins, who starts out as a stereotype (Collins in her comic element, as a vacant blonde with verbal diarrhea), but gradually finds stillness, a quiet intensity and hidden depths… much to her character’s surprise. and the audience.
A brilliant stage career awaits him.