“Let me tell you a story, let me sing you a song…”
- Julie D’Aubigny in JULIE: The Musical
ABOUT THE SHOW
JULIE is a brand new original musical JULIE - telling the life and adventures of historical LGBTQ+ icon Julie D'Aubigny
Julie D'Aubigny is down in history as one of the most chaotic characters to have ever lived - one of the first public figures to live as an openly bisexual woman, just some her adventures included seducing nuns, duelling multiple men at once, burning down convents, being bribed by Princes, innovating Opera - and this all before she turned 30.
JULIE is a musical celebrating not only this extraordinary life, but also queerness, found family and carving a place for yourself in a world not built for you.
Music, Lyrics & Book By Abey Bradbury
JULIE is a show that all started with a meme. After seeing a post about a random French Opera Singer / Swordswoman / Nun Seducer, we thought “what a great character for a musical”, and after a year of research we thought “Wow, what a really great character for a musical!”
The aim is to create a show that Julie herself would be proud of, and obviously the best person to tell her story is Julie herself. We also want to create a show as chaotic as she is, using different musical styles, stand-up, cabaret, even a sword fighting tap number!
We can’t wait to share more of JULIE, and help to tell this woman’s incredible story…
ABOUT JULIE D’AUBIGNY
Julie D’Aubigny is a fascinating character - and one we know both a lot, and surprisingly little, about. Even her name changes throughout her life - Julie, Emelie, La Maupin. No-one is quite sure where or when she born, but it was around 1673 and most likely near Versailles, where she grew up training with the young boys destined to be Pages. Her father was a talented Musketeer and Swordsman, employed by Count D’Armanac (the King’s Master of Horse), who passed his skills onto the lads and Julie. At around 14 Julie became D’Armanac’s Mistress, and was married to the timid Monsieur Maupin - who was very quickly packed off to Southern France for a riveting Tax Collecting job, leaving Julie free to have her own life in Paris.
At about 15, Julie ran away with Seranne, her fencing master hired by D’Armanac to keep her entertained - and this is where her true adventures began. By 17 she’d had a doomed relationship with a Merchant’s Daughter (famously taking the vows to enter the convent she was whisked away to and burning it down so they could escape), stabbed Count D’Albert through the shoulder in a duel before nursing him back to health and becoming lovers, meeting life-long friend and rival Gabriel-Vincent Thevenard and both joining the illustrious Paris Opera.
While there are lots of records about Julie’s adventures and escapades, we also have to take some of these stories with a pinch of salt. Julie was a Paris celebrity, and so lots of stories surrounding her are no doubt victims to exaggeration - some sources are the gossip columns and trashy mags of the time, or tavern songs made up by drunken revellers - but the fact that all these events are even connected to one person, and a woman in the 17th Century, is extraordinary!
But as well as being a joyous, unapologetic and chaotic icon, Julie D’Aubigny is also a tragic figure - by being true to herself she was often ostrasized and subject to viscous rumours, she attempted suicide at least once in her life, and at the end of her life - after finding happiness for just 2 years with the woman considered to be the love of her life - Julie was literally tossed into the rubbish, her body cast into a ditch with no proper burial or even a grave, an ironically unexpected ending for such a fantastical woman.
A (VERY) BRIEF TIMELINE OF JULIE D’AUBIGNY
WILD BOY - LAMPHOUSE THEATRE
ABOUT THE WRITER
Abey Bradbury (They/She) is a queer and neaurodivergent Theatre Maker, Writer, Actor-Musician, Director and general theatre Jack-Of-All-Trades based in the North. They’ve trained with Fourth Monkey Theatre Company, The Globe London, International School of the Comic Actor and Wise Children.
Abey has previously written and helped create music with Lamphouse Theatre (Wild Boy; Musical: The Musical Musical; Alan in Wonderland), Folly & Strings (Elysium), Motley-Minded Cobblers (The Elves & The Shoemaker), Cream-Faced Loons (Midsummer Night’s Dream; King John; The Complete Works Of Shakespeare* *But Just The Deaths (and the gory bits too!)
Abey is also part of Jezebel Folk Trio