@ the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava

Marguerite, with music by Michel Legrand, originally premiered at The Theatre Royal Haymarket in London. A new version opened at the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava, Czech Republic and played in rep over a two year period. The musical is set in Nazi occupied Paris during World War II and draws inspiration from one of the greatest of romantic novels, La Dame aux Camélias, by Alexandre Dumas. The beautiful Marguerite is a cabaret star of Paris and the mistress of a high-ranking German officer. Armand is a young musician half her age. They fall passionately in love. Their dangerous love story is played out against the background of Occupied Paris.

Marie Zamora (the original muse for the role of Marguerite) worked with Alain Boublil on an extensive re-write of the book, based upon the original London version by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Jonathan Kent. Michel Legrand and Alain Boublil wrote two completely new songs for the production as well as re-shaping and re-organising the material from the London show while retaining the majority of Herbert Kretzmer’s English lyrics. Marie, at the invitation of Gabriela Haukvicová, the artistic director of the theatre, directed this new version of ‘Marguerite’. William David Brohn, the Broadway orchestrator, who had already collaborated with Boublil and Schönberg on ‘Miss Saigon’ and ‘Martin Guerre’, wrote the new orchestrations.