LAUREN FRAYER, HOST:
Etoile means star in French. Or if you're referring to ballet, it's the lead or principal dancer. There are several star dancers and many big personalities in the new television show "Etoile" that just dropped on Prime Video. It follows two renowned but struggling ballet companies, one in New York City, the other in Paris.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ETOILE")
CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG: (As Genevieve Lavigne) A generation of young people was lost. The pipeline is ruined. The seats are empty.
LUKE KIRBY: (As Jack McMillan) Not ours.
DAVID HAIG: (As Nicholas Leutwylek) No, that's right. Once we closed off the balconies, the house filled right up.
GAINSBOURG: (As Genevieve Lavigne) We have to fix this. Our jobs are on the line. Yours, mine, every person in here - their heads are on the chopping block.
KIRBY: (As Jack McMillan) OK, fine. Big talk. What do we do?
FRAYER: The Paris director comes up with an unconventional plan to bring audiences back to the ballet.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ETOILE")
GAINSBOURG: (As Genevieve Lavigne) We trade our top talent. Yours for ours.
KIRBY: (As Jack McMillan) Wait a minute.
HAIG: (As Nicholas Leutwylek) No, no. I'm cautiously intrigued.
FRAYER: That staccato exchange is vintage Sherman-Palladino, the writing team behind "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and "Gilmore Girls." Several of the actors from those shows are also in "Etoile," including Luke Kirby, who plays Jack, the director of the New York Ballet Company. I asked him to flesh out the plot for us a bit more.
KIRBY: I mean, Jack is pretty oppositional, I think partly by nature, especially with Genevieve, who is his, you know, Parisian counterpart. And though they have affection for each other, they also bristle if drawn too closely together. So I think he's a little bit reluctant at any idea that she has, even more so because it happens to be a good idea, and so I think he's a little bit envious that she came up with it first.
FRAYER: And a lot of the characters actually don't want to swap cities. There's a lot of drama just from the start.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ETOILE")
LOU DE LAAGE: (As Cheyenne Toussant) All of these years, I am here. I gave up everything - family, children.
GAINSBOURG: (As Genevieve Lavigne) Oh, you hate children.
DE LAAGE: (As Cheyenne Toussant) Because they are a drain on the world and are boring to talk to, but that doesn't mean I did not give them up.
KIRBY: Everyone's world is about to be spun into a tornado, but it's in the interest of saving this art form. You know, as Genevieve says, the pipeline has been cut off. I think there's something kind of - that I found very relatable in that story, just having come from theater and watching what happened throughout COVID and the shutdowns. And in sort of studying ballet to get ready for this, I learned that ballet - for centuries, their dances were not written down, that, in fact, they - the choreographies were things that lived in the dancers' bodies. And so there is this kind of real threat with these arts that should you even stop for a month, you really are threatening its sustainability.
FRAYER: Did you need to learn how to dance for the show?
KIRBY: I only have dance experience after midnight.
FRAYER: (Laughter).
KIRBY: So - and I'm very bad at learning steps. I'm more of a sort of, you know, interpretive, free-form kind of guy. I have a cousin who - she is a ballet dancer and watching her dedication, but also the sacrifices that life requires and the kind of attack on the body that it can have, was certainly something that I felt aware of. But on set, we have these incredible New York team of dancers and a Parisian team of dancers. And they brought this kind of kinetic energy to the set that was very informative, but also just being witness to their dedication is totally inspiring. And I think because of how Amy works - her direction is very choreographic, if that's even a word. She composes shots that involve a lot of movement and demand the whole company, including the crew - that they be present and awake to the moment.
FRAYER: And Amy, of course, is Amy Sherman-Palladino, and her partner, Dan Palladino - fans of Mrs. Maisel will recognize you. You played the real-life comedian Lenny Bruce. And actually, they created the role of Jack in "Etoile" for you. That's super flattering. What did you think when they first pitched this role to you?
KIRBY: It is flattering. I didn't think of it as flattering at the - in the moment because I - they had really just invited me out to dinner, and I kind of thought that they were just feeling sorry for me because we had just wrapped "Mrs. Maisel," and, you know, I was bummed to say goodbye to that endeavor 'cause it was a great adventure. And then, you know, we - they just sort of started talking about dance, and I shared my small affections for it. And then they introduced this character to me and this - presented this story that felt like it was ripe for the imagination, ripe for possibilities. And also felt very relatable in terms of the vitality of the need to try to keep something like this alive.
FRAYER: A theme throughout "Etoile" is the struggle to keep ballet funded, to keep the arts alive. The show picks up after COVID. But, you know, even today, we're seeing threats to the arts. What does it mean to put this show out into the world right now?
KIRBY: Right now, it feels doubly important, given that everything, everything feels tenuous. Everyone who works in it certainly knows how nigh on impossible it is to get anything made. And, you know, we're in an even more scary place now where it feels like the idea of patronage seems to be moving away from the arts. I don't know what it looks like from the precipice but feels like it's important to address it.
FRAYER: That's Luke Kirby, who stars in the new show "Etoile" out on Amazon Prime Video. Thank you for being with us.
KIRBY: Oh, it's a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS & SIR MEVILLE MARRINER'S "LES PETITS RIEN, K APP 10 (BALLET): IV ANDANTINO - ALLEGRO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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