En Attendant Bojangles - Théâtre Comédie Odéon, Lyon

En attendant Bojangles at Théâtre Comédie Odéon

At Théâtre Comédie Odéon, we are delighted to welcome En attendant Bojangles, a radiant and daring piece that marries the musicality of language with the tenderness of live theatre. From our vantage point as host, the work’s blend of whimsy and ache feels tailor-made for an audience seeking the kind of shared emotion only a stage can conjure. Inspired by the celebrated novel by Olivier Bourdeaut, this production draws its strength from movement, rhythm, and the intimate electricity between performers and spectators. We have programmed En attendant Bojangles as part of our broader commitment to stories that breathe in real time—human-scale tales that grow larger than life through gesture, sound, and light. Here, the rituals of dancing, dreaming, and defying gravity become theatrical engines; you will see how a waltz can sketch an entire universe, and how a simple room can turn into a ballroom, a sanctuary, or a sky. Our team has shaped the space to foreground presence: voices resonate warmly, music unfurls with clarity, and every shift of light lands like a heartbeat.

A living, breathing story for Lyon audiences

En attendant Bojangles traces the arc of a family who choose imagination as a daily practice, composing a love song out of small, incandescent moments. On our stage, the narrative’s buoyant spirit emerges through precise staging choices—choreography that treats living as a dance, a scenography that embraces metamorphosis, and sound that glides between exuberance and hush. You will notice how the performers sculpt silence as eloquently as they sculpt laughter, how a glance carries as much weight as a flourish of music. The production honors the text’s fable-like lightness while never losing sight of the real stakes of devotion. Rather than reproducing the page, it translates feeling into space and time, letting the audience inhabit the couple’s luminous world. In recent years, the story has continued to inspire fresh adaptations across stage and screen, and this season’s iteration at Théâtre Comédie Odéon speaks to that vitality: it privileges proximity, letting gestures travel directly from actor to audience, so that the tiniest tremor—a hand lifted, a record spinning—echoes all the way to the back row.

As a venue, we love productions that keep evolving, and En attendant Bojangles arrives to us with the living pulse of a piece that has found new colors with each encounter. The creative team leans into the musical heart of the story, allowing rhythm to structure memory and hope; the score moves like a companion, sometimes playful, sometimes tender, always alive to the moment. Our stagecraft supports that musical architecture: transitions happen as if caught mid-breath, props become instruments of joy, and the floor itself feels primed for flight. For Lyon audiences, the experience is both festive and intimate, suited to after-work escapes, weekend rendezvous, and all those evenings when one longs to be carried someplace unexpected. We consider En attendant Bojangles a conversation with the city—about love’s audacity, about the delicate work of caring, and about the stubborn brightness that art can keep lit. As the season unfolds at Théâtre Comédie Odéon, this engagement stands as a highlight of our programming, an invitation to gather, listen, and dance—together—with a story that continues to move hearts wherever it lands.