Théâtre des Variétés-Amusantes

The Théâtre des Variétés-Amusantes sits on the Boulevard Saint-Martin with a facade of carved stone and tall, arched windows that break the monotony of the surrounding streetscape. Built in seventeen thirty, it became the home of the Variétés-Amusantes troupe, a group that constantly tangled with the royal censors. In seventeen eighty-four, the playwright Beaumarchais stood in the wings here while his play, The Marriage of Figaro, was read aloud to the company, marking its first public reception before it scandalized all of Paris.