Daniel Lavoie : the official website

Close-up on Le Petit Prince

Fan de magazine - 15/10/02
Sébastien Lucaire (SL)

The Paris smart set is rushing to see the musical show inspired by the world’s best-selling book. We have met the two main characters of this show: Daniel Lavoie, who takes the part of the airman, and Jeff, Le Petit Prince.

DANIEL LAVOIE

You will certainly remember the singer from Québec who played the dreadful priest Frollo in “Notre Dame de Paris”. Daniel Lavoie agreed with much pleasure to answer our questions about the musical show, “Le Petit Prince” due out this new season.

SL: How old were you when you read “Le Petit Prince” for the first time?
DL: I remember having read it for the first time at about age 8, and having found it very boring (laughs). Of course, later on I re-read it and I understood then its universal magical meaning. I believe it’s a book which one can re-read at any age and discover in it, each time, a new interpretation.

SL: When was this project first conceived?
DL: Richard Cocciante first spoke with me about it in London two years ago. At the beginning I had my doubts because it’s a very special world and I didn’t know how he could set about adapting it into songs. The result has gone beyond my best hopes.

SL: What do you make of Jeff, your young partner, who takes the role of Le Petit Prince?
DL: He’s a bewitching child with an unbelievable charisma. He truly is Le Petit Prince. He demands a lot of himself, is very professional and it’s most pleasant to work with him. And then, it’s a change from Garou! (laughs)

SL: When you were his age did you dream of becoming a singer?
DL: Oh no! I lived in a tiny village in the great Canadian north, that didn’t seem possible. At 8, since my Grandmother was very religious, I wanted to become a priest! And when I played the part of the priest Frollo, in “Notre Dame de Paris” it was a little bit for her, even if he wasn’t really a likeable person.

JEFF, LE PETIT PRINCE

Jeff, at 14, is the discovery of the show, adapted from the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. He’s placed himself in our journalist’s hands.

SL: Have you read “Le Petit Prince”?
Jeff: Yes, just like all the kids of my age, I think. But then I didn’t pay much attention to it. It was on re-reading it to prepare myself for my role that I realised the magic in the book. It’s like a child’s dream life.

SL: Was singing a childhood dream of yours?
Jeff: Only in as much that I was a member of several choir schools (Jeff sung in the choir school of Saint-Jean, of the Opéra de Lyon). I hadn’t decided already that it would be my career. Now, of course, I’m lost in my dreams.

SL: Do you think that fate led you to play this role?
Jeff: I don’t think so, but in Lyon I live in rue St-Exupéry, right opposite the house where he was born. Then ….

SL: Besides music, what interests you most?
Jeff: I’m not bad at sport: tennis and karate which I perform with Pierre Henry, a mate of mine who is also one of the understudies for Le Petit Prince.