I went into Amélie expecting good things. It had many things in its favor. There was a lot of hype surrounding its opening and Tony nominated actress Phillipa Soo was its star. However, Amélie was a major disappointment. The plot was confusing and boring, the songs were mediocre, the sets were janky and some scenes were outright odd.

Amélie is the story of a girl who, as a child, was extremely sheltered, leading to her being incredibly shy and socially inept. As an adult, she moves to Paris, where she talks to no one and works in a diner. However, after one good deed, she realizes that she wants to continue to help others. This leads to a blooming romance with a boy she has never met.

The movie (available on Netflix and Amazon) conveyed the love story and her journey much better than the musical did. In the musical, their love story was awkward and confusing; whereas, in the movie, it was much cuter and sweeter.

The musical starts in Amélie’s childhood. Here, the sets are very basic and cheap-looking; however, as the musical went on, the sets did get better, with a beautiful Parisian bridge being the main backdrop.

Another major problem was the fact that there was not an intermission. It lasted an hour and forty-five minutes, which was too long to sit in the cramped rows without stretching my legs.

Overall, this was a bust. I would give this a 1.5/5 stars. It was a disappointment to all of the hype and Soo’s performance was its only redeeming factor.

Official opening night is on April 6.