Frances Ruffelle performs Paris Original at the Crazy Coqs, London
Frances Ruffelle reprises her show Paris Original at the Crazy Coqs, London.
Having created the role of Eponine in Les Miserables and recently re-created Edith Piaf at Leicester’s Curve, Frances Ruffelle is no stranger to the musical world of Paris and its street life. For Paris is the milieu where her cabaret act is set and where she takes her audience to savour the charms, romance and heartbreak of that glorious city.
Her off-beat opening is slightly worrying, but those concerns soon evaporate as she gets into her stride. When not being herself, she presents a potpourri of personas – at times a saucy chanteuse, a dramatic Piaf or a wistful innocent.
The song ‘The Last Time I Saw Paris’ is used as a motif throughout the show and the city’s moods and associations are evoked in the choice of material. Some numbers are delivered in full, while others are just snatches within a medley. Many are French classics sung in their original language with occasional English lyrics interspersed. The lack of a printed song list makes it difficult to correctly identify some of the song titles, but numbers which describe ladies of the night and what it’s like to be lonely in Paris are particularly fine.
No such problem exists with the Piaf numbers ‘Mon Dieu’, ‘Hymne a l’amour’, ‘Padam Padam’ and of course ‘Je Ne Regrette Rien’. All of these are put over with passion and acted with Piaf’s emotional gestures. For ‘Les Tres Cloches’, Ruffelle is joined by young Cole Emsley (currently attending the stage school run by Ruffelle’s legendary mother Sylvia Young) who sings the verses beautifully. And matters remain in the family when a surprise comes in the shape of Ruffelle’s daughter, Eliza Doolittle, sitting unnoticed at the bar, who breaks into ‘Chanson d’Amour’.
From the American songbook, ‘I Got Rhythm’ is nicely jazzed up while ‘C’est Magnifique!’ is given the Cha Cha Cha treatment. Break-ups are reflected in ‘50 Ways to Leave Your Lover’ and in a rocking version of ‘Should I Stay or Go’. ‘The Windmills of Your Mind’ segues into ‘The Movie in My Mind’.
Humour is provided with a song that laments her childhood dreams of being a soprano and being forced instead to take up the piano. It’s a tongue-twisting patter song that is put across extremely well. The wistful innocent is delicately captured in Jaques Brel’s ‘Bang Bang’.
With regard to Les Miserables, Ruffelle tells of auditioning for the part of Eponine and being advised to sing a Piaf number. She chose ‘Hymne a l’amour’ and, as they say, the rest is history.
The evening is full of fine singing with excellent accompaniment from the musicians, led by musical director Ben Atkinson. And no visit to Paris would be complete without hearing the sound of an accordionist. Romano Viazzani fulfils that role with great dexterity.
Barrie Jerram
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