"One has to live today, tomorrow it will be too late", - this is the motto of Johnny Rockfort, whose image Bruno Pelletier has personified in the famous rock-opera "Starmania" at the stage of the Paris theatre "Mogador" in 1994. The role which has become a turning point in Bruno's career, the role which required not only actor's skill but also great emotional and physical strain of the singer.

It wasn't the first staging of the famous rock-opera, written as far back as 1979, participation in it wasn't only an honor but a serious trial as well. Bruno became a part of the Mogador-94 cast owing to Luc Plamondon, who had appreciated a beginning actor in "The Legend of Jimmy", and during two years he played Ziggy, Zero Janvier and Johnny Rockfort in more than 500 shows. But it was the part of Johnny, a ruffian and bandit, a person who confused his life with comics, that became a star part for Bruno. He managed to point out and emphasize contrast sides of one of the most contradictive images and to reveal a tragedy of a human who lived in a world that didn't suit him.

The action of "Starmania" takes place in future. The futuristic Monopolis - a horrible and terrifying parody of modern society, a city made of glass and concrete, in which people don't see the sun for years, spending their lives in underground catacombs. But in the depths of each system protest is born, and the person to express it is Johnny Rockfor with the gang of his ruffians. The streets of Monopolis have become the field of their activity, and the Underground Caf? - their meeting place -. There Johnny meets Sadia; force and cunning supplement each other well. Having took a liking for one another, Johnny and Sadia begin a dangerous game, the goal of which is to prevent Zero Janvier, the Nazi party leader, from gaining the power in Monopolis.

Under Sadia's supervision a gang of ruffians becomes a serious terrorist organization, which holds the entire city in terror and is a serious menace for Zero Janvier. Johnny, who lives only in the present and doesn't look further than tomorrow morning, doesn't notice that he is a pawn in the hands of the clever and prudent Sadia. But everything is ruined when true emotion comes - Johnny falls in love with a presenter of the TV channel "Capital", the pretty Crystal. She is just like him, in her life there wasn't enough love and now they would like to quit this dangerous game, but it's already impossible. And Crystal, who understands it better than Johnny, stays with him. "Quand on n'a plus rien a perdre" ("When there's nothing left to lose") is a hymn of crazy and reckless love on the edge of an abyss, regardless of everything and everyone - "when one has nothing to lose".

Sadia, moved by jealousy, gives Johnny up to Zero Janvier. Crystal dies, Zero's police arrest Johnny, who had stayed next to her body. His "S.O.S. d'un terrien en detresse" ("SOS of an earthling in despair") is the desperate cry of a human whose world had been lightened for a moment by true love, but plunges into darkness once again.

Johnny Rockfort's part is a role of a person too wild to be passive and too na?ve to survive, - it was a star part for Pelletier. Johnny's rebellious spirit corresponded greatly to Bruno's own character. "Quand on arrive en ville", 'Banlieue nord", "Quand on n'a plus rien a perdre" in Bruno's performance gained new power. Bruno's voice, which had grown stronger on the songs of Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and Genesis, was as if especially created to transfer rock energy. At the same time a great voice compass and a wonderful technique of voice control enabled him to perform "S.O.S. d'un terrien en detresse" - one of the most difficult parts - flawlessly and very convincingly.

...More than 25 years have passed since the first night of the rock-opera "Starmania", but the work of Michel Berger and Luc Plamondon hasn't lost its topicality at all. The play has been revived many times at the stages of France and Canada, further versions have had even greater success than the original. The emotional coloring, too gloomy even for rock music, didn't prevent "Starmania" from gaining great popularity. Images of integrity created by actors, the texts of L. Plamondon written under the influence of existentialistic theories of J.- P. Sartre and the divine music of M. Berger, inspired by the famous "Jesus Christ Superstar", have served their purpose. "Le blues du businessman", "Les uns contre les autres", "S.O.S. d'un terrien en detresse", "Besoin d'amour" have not only been number one in hit lists but have long since become classics of the genre.

"Starmania" is aspiration for glory, power and richness…. Not everyone can satisfy his arrogance. Those who step over themselves and other people and mount the top find nothing but emptiness. Is it worth a price like this?

CHARACTERS:
Zero Janvier. A prosperous businessman. He will gain power and subdue all Monopolis. The crowd at the square is already shouting his name. Is he happy? The prominent politician had dreamed to become an actor.
Stella Spotlight. A movie star. Crowds of fans, great success, fame and money never wipe out from her memory the humiliation she has had to bear in order to get to the top. In the evening of her life, when beauty and youth had gone, she understood clearly, without mercy, that true values were sacrificed for spangles.
Ziggy. The only thing he is interested in is music. They say about him that he lives in another galaxy. He doesn't divide the world into outsiders and friends, he doesn't care who he works with, the only thing he wants is the ability to do what he likes. That's why, initially being loyal to Les Etoiles Noires (The Black Stars), in the end he accepts Zero Janvier's proposal to work as a DJ at the Naziland disco. Isolating himself in the world of music, he is trying to escape the cruelty of the real world.
Marie-Jeanne - the only one who doesn't dream about fame. She would like to do what she loves and to be in harmony with herself. All the other characters understand that it may be the most important thing in life only at the end...

The plot of "Starmania" is too many-sided to be described in a few words. It's useless to search for one clearly expressed plotline - the characters' destinies are mixed but everyone has his own tragedy and everyone fights with this world alone….. "Starmania" brings up millions of questions, but every spectator should find the answer himself.

Pourquoi je vis? Pourquoi je meurs? Pourquoi je crie? Pourquoi je pleure?

Bruno Pelletier has dedicated to the part of Johnny two years of his stage career, two years of his life. The unavailing search of the character for harmony with himself was always understandable for the singer himself, and Bruno brought into his own work this aspiration for freedom, the aspiration to "live his own life".

He sings and his S.O.S. turns one's soul inside out. Even if you don't know French, be sure - you won't stay indifferent. Bruno Pelletier's voice will tell you more than the words.