You don’t have to have a huge sweet tooth to enjoy Amelie, but it will surely help if you do. Adapted from the 2001 whimsical French film of the same name, Amelie has been turned into an offbeat, cotton-candy musical by its American creative team, all of whom are experienced Broadway practitioners who know how to please large audiences. Amelie comes to the Ahmanson after its 2015 premiere at Berkeley Rep with Phillipa Soo replacing Samantha Barks in the lead role (and with Savvy Crawford playing her as a goldfish-loving child). Soo’s Amelie is shy, lonely, and fey, a girl who lives more in her imagination than in life, though she does try to do good by her pals, the raffish inhabitants of a cartoon-like Parisian neighborhood. In turn, they try to get her to fall for the suitably odd young man, Nino (Adam Chanler-Berat), whom she has met at a train-station photo booth where he is collecting photos for a collage. Romance follows, fitfully but inexorably, with these two misfits finally discovering what adult love is all about. Both as a film and a musical, Amelie is a fairy-tale, one that depends on charm and lightness of touch to succeed. Thanks to Pam MacKinnon’s skillful direction, the show flies on gossamer wings from start to finish, aided by David Zinn’s highly-colored, outrageous set designs and costumes. As for the music, it is a pastiche of styles ranging from rock to parody to ballad, but there is no mistaking its liveliness and appeal, even if none of the songs could be called memorable. But Soo’s soprano voice is thrilling and she carries the show effortlessly on her shoulders, giving a star-making performance.
