Colette
Performed here · 1921–1922
The stage adaptation of Colette's Chéri premiered at the Théâtre Michel on 13 December 1921; Colette played Léa herself at the hundredth performance on 26 February 1922.
Théâtre Michel
Still standing
Hours or admission
Still the same
Where the stage version of Chéri premiered in 1921, and where Colette herself played Léa at its hundredth performance.
- 38 rue des Mathurins, 75008 Paris
- 1906–present
Illustration
The place, briefly
The stage adaptation of Colette's novel Chéri opened at the Théâtre Michel on 13 December 1921, with Jeanne Rolly as Léa and Pierre de Guingand in the title role. Chéri is the story of a long affair between the young man of the title and Léa, an aging courtesan, and its move to the stage carried one of Colette's best-known novels into the theatre.
For the hundredth performance, on 26 February 1922, Colette took the role of Léa herself — by then in her late forties, playing the part she had written. The theatre, inaugurated in 1906, still stands on the rue des Mathurins a few doors from the Théâtre des Mathurins where she had made her stage debut sixteen years earlier.
Key facts
- 38 rue des Mathurins, 8th arrondissement
- 1906
- The stage Chéri premiered here in 1921; Colette played Léa at the 100th performance in 1922
- Still operating as a theatre
In images
Timeline
The Théâtre Michel is inaugurated.
The stage adaptation of Chéri premieres on 13 December, with Jeanne Rolly as Léa.
Colette plays Léa herself at the hundredth performance, 26 February.
On the map
Writers who knew this place
People who knew this place
Charles Boyer
Boyer appeared at the Théâtre Michel in Charly during the Paris stage career that preceded his international film work.
Within walking distance
Théâtre des Mathurins
Where Colette made her public stage debut in 1906, the first step of the music-hall career that won her independence from Willy.
Visit the place
Lycée Condorcet
One of the oldest and most prestigious lycées in Paris, by the Gare Saint-Lazare. Marcel Proust was a pupil here, and it is where his first writing was done — in small magazines produced with schoolfriends.
Visit the place
4 rue Lavoisier
The studio Édouard Manet kept from around 1856 to 1859, in the first years after he left Thomas Couture's teaching and began working on his own.
Visit the place
102 boulevard Haussmann
The flat where Marcel Proust wrote most of In Search of Lost Time, in a bedroom he had lined with cork to keep the noise of the boulevard out. He moved in on 27 December 1906, after his parents' deaths, and stayed thirteen years. The room itself is now reassembled at the Musée Carnavalet.
Visit the placeReferences
References
The sources below include histories, archival materials, scholarly research, and official records that informed this page. They document Théâtre Michel, the people connected to it, and its place in Paris.
1Société des amis de Colette — Chronology
WebsiteUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Théâtre Michel page.
2Historique du Théâtre Michel, de 1906 à aujourd'hui
WebsiteThéâtre Michel, ParisUsed forThe theatre's own history of the house: built for Michel Mortier at 38 rue des Mathurins from 1906, and the Chéri adaptation Colette made with Léopold Marchand.
3OpenStreetMap
Map dataUsed forMap data used to verify addresses, geographic coordinates, and the placement associated with Théâtre Michel.
4Colette sur scène
WebsiteSociété des amis de ColetteUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Théâtre Michel page.
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Why these sources are here
These references provide the documented foundation for this page's history and context. Claim-level citations remain attached to the specific claims they support.
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Paris, one address at a time.
The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.