Denis Levaillant's Deux pièces à louer drew a full house at the auditorium of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, a success too rare in musical theatre to go unmentioned.

What does a pianist do and feel, serving as the accompanist (and double) for an illusionist magician? What does a singer do and imagine in the enclosed space of a bathroom, with its reverberating tiled surface? Those are the themes of the two sketches (Piano check-up, Le Baigneur) that, by means of gags, make up this action-score. Here, theatre and music find a rather fine equilibrium. The three main characters occupy the space remarkably (Denis Levaillant himself at the piano, Abdul Alafrez as the illusionist, Michel Hermon the singer); a veritable dialogue is established between the partners on stage and a finely honed soundtrack.

*Translator's note: the title is a multiple play on words that can be translated as "Two pieces to hire" or "to praise" or "Two rooms to let".

Brigitte Massin