La Légende du Roi Arthur is a French musical written by Dove Attia based on (as the name indicates) the Arthurian Legend. It premiered in 2015.
It is loosely based on two major Arthurian sources, Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart and Thomas Malory's Le Morte D Arthur.
La Légende du Roi Arthur provides examples of:
- All Animals Are Dogs: Played with in that they aren't exactly animals, yet Méleagant's shadows behave like dogs when they're not fighting. Méleagant even pets them like dogs a few times.
- Angry Mob Song: "Delivre nous" in which the people of Britain call for Arthur to end the war
- Animal Motifs: Merlin is associated with birds.
- Bastard Bastard: Inverted with Morganne- she's Igraine's legitimate daughter, who resents and plots to destroy her heroic bastard half-brother out of jealousy at his succession into power and plenty.
- Bittersweet Ending: It's less bleak than the original ending, which adds the "sweet" part, but Guinevre and Lancelot are still exiled and Arthur is left completely alone- and it's entirely possible Morganne is pregnant with Mordred. (In the Takarazuka staging, she definitely is.)
- Courtly Love: Perhaps the most famous example
- Defeat Means Friendship: Or at least a grudging respect and willingness to accept a place of honor. Urien becomes one of the Knights of the Round Table even though he fought in Méleagant's civil war agains Arthur's claim to the throne. He seems very bitter about the whole thing.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Morganne taking Guinevre's form and sleeping with Arthur certainly isn't treated as a good thing, but she doesn't really face the degree of condemnation for it you'd expect, especially considering her Start of Darkness was witnessing Arthur's father using the same deception on their mother. The Korean staging, however, depicts it as traumatic for Arthur, rather than just upsetting — he actually curls into a ball and weeps after he realizes what has happened and how genuinely his sister hates him.
- Expy:
- Méleagant is one of Loki- specifically, the Marvel Cinematic Universe version. They look very similar, and both of them are resenters who ultimately ally themselves with the villain because they feel scorned by the success of a nobler, worthier rival (whose greater worth is proved by being able to wield a magical weapon Loki and Méleagant cannot even lift), though Méleagant never completes the journey to Anti-Hero Loki eventually went through.
- Guinevre is a milder example; she's physically modeled on Daenerys Targaryen and even wears a couple of similar dresses, but doesn't have much in common with her personally.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: A lot. The most gratuitous example is probably the fur-trimmed red ankle-length coats that the Knights of the Round Table wear as a sort of uniform. Said coats only cover the right half of the body/
- Hero of Another Story: Sir Gawain has plenty of stories about him in Arthurian legend, but he's mostly just a background character here.
- Heroic Bastard: King Arthur
- "I Am Becoming" Song: "Je me relève" for Arthur.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: "Nos corps à la derive" oozes it
- "I Want" Song: "Rever l'impossible" for Guinevre. Lancelot's part of "Si je te promet" could count as well
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Lancelot. He gave it up to save Guinevre.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Lancelot, again
- Love Hurts: The harsh reality of the Courtly Love between Guinevre and Lancelot, who not only can't be together, but feel extremely guilty for betraying Arthur.
- Love Makes You Evil: Méleagant got a lot more villainous after Arthur married Guinevre, though Morgan helped a lot with that.
- Mundane Utility: Méleagant can form his shadows into a chair/throne to sit on
- Pietà Plagiarism: When Lacelot and Guinevre are caught and Guinevre accepts execution.
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Romance on the Set: Zaho (Morganne) and Florente (Arthur) met during the production and are now married with a baby! - Red and Black and Evil All Over: Morganne's second costume and Méleagant's castle.
- Royal Brat: Méleagant is Prince of Gorre and was pretty awful to begin with.
- Surprise Incest: Well, it was a surprise for Arthur, anyway.
- Tenor Boy: Inverted with Méleagant. More or less played straight with Arthur.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Morganne to Méleagant, who was never a particularly great person to start with but had been considering a Heel–Face Turn before running into her.
- Tragic Villain: Morganne and Méleagant both.
- Two-Faced: Méleagant after selling his soul.
- Villain Love Song: "Nos corps à la derive"
- Villain Song: Plenty of them. "Tu vas le payer," "À nos vouex sacré," and "Advienne que pourra"
- Wrong Genre Savvy:
- Guinevre seems to think she's in a fairy tale rather than an Arthurian romance and acts like she's gotten a happily ever after before the first act even ends
- Méleagant thinks he's the hero and doesn't accept that he's the villain until he sells his soul to Morganne
