The management of the Lido presented Thursday to the staff representatives “a reorganization project”, which will result in the disappearance of the permanent troupe.
Le Monde with AFP
A page turns for an emblem of Parisian nights: the Cabaret Le Lido will give way to a “musical performance hall”, decided its buyer, the hotel giant Accor, signing the upcoming end of the journals with feathers .
The management of the Lido presented, Thursday, May 12, to the staff representatives “a reorganization project”, which will result in the disappearance of the permanent troupe. She promises instead “the creation of a renewed musical theater program, as well as a recast of the dinner-spectacle and review model”.
created in 1946 by the Clérico family and famous for their house troop, the BlueBell Girls, dancers dressed in feathers, the Lido suffered a lot, like the whole sector, from closings related to the health crisis: the figure of cabarets affairs dropped by 80 % in 2020.
The new project at the Lido aims to “give this Parisian room its full place in the concert of French, national and international creative scenes (…) thanks to an ambitious new artistic line”, the management announced in a press release.
A dismissal plan provides “the abolition of 157 permanent positions” on 184, “mainly within the room and artistic services”, accompanied by “reclassification and retraining measures” of the employees, she detailed.
80 million euros in cumulative losses in ten years 2>
This concerns in particular “around sixty people” from the “artistic plateau”, underlined a union source with the agency France-Presse (AFP), according to which the majority of employees in the Champs-Elysées cabaret are close retirement. This project “will be done in agreement and in consultation with the social partners, there will be no storm”, assured this unionist at AFP. The artistic activities branch of the FO union will be “vigilant that the interests of employees are preserved”, assured the majority union at the LIDO to AFP, wishing that accor “reclassifies a maximum of employees”.
In December 2021, the French Hotel Giant Accor had bought the deficit cabaret for years for the collective catering group Sodexo, its owner since 2006. Sodexo had failed to relaunch the place whose “cumulative losses are raised at 80 million euros over the last decade, “said management Thursday.
The Lido will now create original shows under the direction of Jean-Luc Choplin, ex-director of the Châtelet Theater, who was also programmer of the Music Seine, according to concordant sources. His management assured Thursday planning “significant investments in the renovation of the facilities”.
In 2015, the establishment had started its metamorphosis by modernizing its review under the leadership of the Belgian director Franco Dragone, who had worked for the Cirque du Soleil and organized spectacular shows, including that of Céline Dion in Las Vegas . However, this revival had not collected the expected success.
At the beginning of December 2021, Sodexo announced to give in the cabaret, an “activity apart in the portfolio” of its subsidiary Sodexo Live! who “is more likely to have] in its growth strategy”. The group had explained wanting to refocus Sodexo Live! On the restoration and services developed with the Lenôtre brands, Parisian boats, Batobus and Yachts of Paris.