Michael B. Druxman

Chevalier: a One-person Play in Two Acts Michael B. Druxman

Maurice Chevalier was the quintessential Frenchman. He introduced the world to such memorable songs as "Louise", "Mimi", "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me", and, from the Academy Award-winning film, Gigi, "Thank Heaven for Little Girls." Privately, the man was not anything like his happy-go-lucky public persona. Insecure and dour, the only "true" loves in his life were his mother, who died in the 1930s, and the vast international audiences that adored him. Michael B. Druxman's play is set in 1963, when the star's failing health makes his ability to perform in the future questionable. Reminiscing backstage in his dressing room, he talks about his days of glory in the French music halls, his early Hollywood movies, romantic encounters with Marlene Dietrich and other well-known personalities, as well as the more unnerving times, such as his experiences in France and Germany during WW2 when he was falsely accused of being a Nazi collaborator. CHEVALIER is an affectionate, revealing, song-filled portrait of the man that America once called "the French Al Jolson."