Paris (2003 musical)

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Paris
Music Jon English
Based upon Trojan War mythology
Productions 2003 Sydney
2003 Gosford
2004 Melbourne
2008 Adelaide

Paris is a musical written by Australian rock musician Jon English, based on the mythology of the Trojan War. It was first performed live in 2003 by both The Regals Musical Society Inc (Sydney Australia) and the Laycock Street Theatre(Gosford, Australia), see A Working Light for production archive (Gosford, Australia) with English assisting in the direction of the production and appearing as the Fisherman in one performance of the Gosford Production. A production was also mounted in Melbourne in 2004 by Stella Entertainment. Currently in production and opening on 25th July 2008 is the Adelaide premiere by Marie Clark Musical Theatre. The 1990 concept album sold 50,000 copies and is still in print.

According to English, the concept for the original began in a 1982 prank: he wrote a song called 'Oh, Paris,' about the mythic hero rather than the French capital, just to see how many people actually listened to the words.

Poetic licence has been taken with this mythical story, but this is not unusual, as many versions have been created over the years, this version is a simple love story surrounding and including Paris's participation in the Trojan War and some other characters.

Paris is about the struggle to maintain some balance between passion and order, law and chaos, or if you like the head and the heart. Each character is flawed by his or her, own, imbalance between these two forces, and the resulting struggle is reflected both internally and externally. It is no surprise that a war started through greed, lust and anger, was resolved by cold cunning logic.

Paris also gives an opportunity to explore the darker sides of love; its obsessive and all consuming passion regardless of the consequences.

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