‘Étoile’ Review: Luke Kirby and Charlotte Gainsbourg Anchor Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Grand Dance Drama

Since “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” ended its 22-time Emmy-winning run in 2023, TV series have been awfully short on temperamental artists, fast-talking New Yorkers and whip-smart female characters. The new Prime Video series “Étoile” boasts all of those things — plus pouty Parisians, complex choreography and the most leg warmers you’ve seen since the 1980s.

For their much-anticipated follow-up to “Maisel,” husband-wife writing-producing team Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino chose to leap into the rarified world of classical dance, spotlighting two fictional companies, the Metropolitan Ballet Theater in New York and Le Ballet National in Paris. Their anxious but charismatic leaders — Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby, an Emmy winner for his turn as controversial comedian Lenny Bruce on “Maisel”) and Geneviève Lavigne (French actress-singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, impossibly chic), respectively — agree to a single-year foreign-exchange, swapping their top artists — dancers, choreographers, conductors — in order to boost ticket sales and revitalize interest in a centuries-old art form. “A lot of our dancers have abandoned toe shoes for TikTok, the dressing rooms are filled with screaming babies and asshole rescue dogs — a generation of young people was lost,” pleads Geneviève.

But it’s not as simple as coordinating a college semester abroad. The gifted but socially inept MBT choreographer Tobias Bell — played by Gideon Glick (Alfie the magician in “Maisel”), also a story editor on the series — goes into a transatlantic tailspin without his toothpaste. The Paris-bound Mishi (Taïs Vinolo), daughter of the minister of culture, is labeled a “knee-poh” baby. The “étoile” — aka prima ballerina — whom Jack demands, Cheyenne (Lou de Laâge), is a generational dancer with a hurricane-like presence and hair-trigger temper. And MBT’s aging artistic director, Nicholas (David Haig), spends an alarming amount of time talking about sex and drugs. The whole enterprise is funded by the Machiavellian billionaire benefactor Crispin Shamblee (impish British character actor Simon Callow), whose motives are as mysterious as his sources of income.

Packed with terrific choreography by “Maisel” alum Marguerite Derricks, the luxe-looking series — Season 1 comprises of eight hour-long episodes — is filmed on location at familiar, postcard-worthy locales: the Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Comique, Opéra national de Paris, Lincoln Center, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, P.J. Clarke’s, et cetera. While a few actors have doubles — de Laâge’s is Constance Duvernay, who’s also part of the “Étoile” MBT company — Vinolo, a French ballerina, does her own dancing. So does David Alvarez — a standout as Bernardo in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” remake and an original star of Broadway’s “Billy Elliot” musical — as Gael, an MBT persona non grata who returns to partner with Cheyenne. Sharp-eyed dance enthusiasts will also spot Tiler Peck and Robbie Fairchild, current and former New York City Ballet principals, respectively, in recurring roles. Super-hot choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, whose pieces are actually performed in “Étoile,” appears as himself in a couple late-season episodes.

Speaking of appearances: Fans of Sherman-Palladino’s 2000–2007 series “Gilmore Girls” will be tickled to see Yanic Truesdale, that show’s snippy French concierge Michel, as Geneviève’s snippy French co-worker Raphaël; Dakin Matthews, Headmaster Charleston on “GG,” as an MBT board member; and Kelly Bishop, the patrician Emily Gilmore, as Jack’s mother, the patrician Clara McMillan. And who else remembers Bishop’s and Sherman-Palladino’s previous ballet-themed show, “Bunheads” (2012–2013)? Fun fact: Long before she became an award-winning writer-director-producer, Sherman-Palladino was an aspiring dancer.

If you’ve never seen “Swan Lake” — or even “Black Swan” — don’t fret. If you don’t know a plié from a pirouette, not to worry. “Étoile” is about the people, not the bends, leaps and spins.

“Étoile” premieres Thursday, April 24, on Prime Video.

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