Jérôme Savary, born in Buenos Aires to a French father and an American mother, kept company with Thelonious Monk and Kerouac in New York before founding, in 1966, the Grand Magic Circus, a theatre of brass bands, festivity and provocation. His Cabaret triumphed in 1987 at the first Molière Awards. He went on to run Chaillot, then the Opéra-Comique — two state houses handed to the man who had made his name mocking them.
The story
Born in Buenos Aires on 27 June 1942 to a French writer and an American mother — a daughter of Frank Higgins, governor of the State of New York — Jérôme Savary trained at the Arts Décoratifs, then left for New York at nineteen, where he fell in with Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Kerouac and Ginsberg.
Back in Argentina for his military service in 1962, he founded the Grand Magic Circus in 1966: a theatre of carnival, brass band and provocation, set squarely against the state playhouses, and played anywhere, under canvas as readily as indoors.
His Cabaret of 1986 was the great success of his career: it swept the first Nuit des Molières, the French theatre awards, in 1987.
He ran the Théâtre national de Chaillot from 1988 to 2000, then the Opéra-Comique from 2000 to 2007 — two state houses handed to the man who had made his name mocking them.
He called himself a “grand mélancomique”, a great melancholy comic. He died at Levallois-Perret on 4 March 2013 and rests in the columbarium, niche 392, in Division 87.
The grave
A columbarium niche, number 392, in Division 87. No inscription is documented beyond the name, no sculpture, no sign of the theatre. The man who spent his life bringing brass bands and elephants onto the national stages rests behind a plaque a few square decimetres in size — and you need to know the number to find it.
On site, do not miss
A numbered niche in the columbarium — number 392 — for the man of brass bands and big tops. No sign, no colour: the exact opposite of his theatre.
Visitors' questions
Where do Jérôme Savary's ashes rest?
In the columbarium of Père-Lachaise, niche 392, in Division 87. Note the number before going in: the columbarium holds thousands of niches over several levels, and nothing marks out the director's.
The crematorium and the columbariumWhat was the Grand Magic Circus?
The company he founded in 1966: a theatre of carnival, brass bands and provocation, playing under canvas as readily as indoors, which set itself squarely against the institutional theatre of the 1960s and 1970s. The name has stayed attached to a whole way of making a show.
Didier BezaceWhich institutions did Jérôme Savary run?
The Théâtre National de Chaillot from 1988 to 2000, then the Opéra-Comique from 2000 to 2007: two state houses handed to the man who had made his name mocking official theatre. He called himself a “grand mélancomique” — a great melan-comic.
Manuel RosenthalWhat was Jérôme Savary doing in New York?
He went there at nineteen, after art school, and kept company with Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. That spell explains the place of music and disorder in all his theatre.
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