Frances Ruffelle - Paris Original

Crazy Coqs, London

*****

“You can’t have too much of a good thing” is the phrase and Frances Ruffelle is the proof. Barely four months after selling out London’s Crazy Coqs, she’s back with her Paris Original set and yet again the tickets are gold dust. Ruffelle believes in giving her audiences value for money and for the best part of two hours, with a five piece band and at least four costume changes, to say nothing of a set that smoothly links from jazz to rock to iconic Piaf with a sprinkling of musical theatre classics for good measure, she does just that.

Throughout, Ruffelle sparkles with an impertinent brilliance. Embodying the entente cordiale and opening with the ethereal romance of Un Homme et Une Femme, Ruffelle sets a coquettish style that’s simply way out of President Francois Hollande’s league. Her knowledge of Parisian culture and colloquialisms are a delight and whilst some of the Parisian connections to her material may be obscure, it doesn’t really matter. That her song selection includes segued nods to Boublil and Schonberg as well as Paul Simon and The Clash gives but a hint of her glorious un-conventionality and when talented daughter Eliza Doolittle sings a beautifully understated Chanson D’Amour, perched on a stool by the bar, it simply proves that every now and then even perfection can be improved upon. The young pop-star (who had loaned her mother some heels for the show!) did not upstage Ruffelle in the slightest and the kiss blown from mother to child after the cameo slot was fondly appropriate yet bursting with loving pride. 

The Piaf moments continue to wow and with schoolboy soprano Cole Emsley reprising his Jimmy Brown, Ruffelle’s sublime Non Je Ne Regrette Rien and Hymn To Love (the audition piece that won her the chance to create Eponine on stage), tears flow. There has been talk of Ruffelle’s 2013 Piaf touring, though in the turbulent world of theatre finance this has yet to be arranged. With the singer packing out the Crazy Coqs so emphatically, producers need to wake up. Frances Ruffelle attracts theatrical royalty (even Sir Cameron Mackintosh had brought his mum) and in front of such a star-studded audience Ben Atkinson’s musical direction and Romano Viazzani’s accordion grace the moment perfectly. 

Whilst this week may be sold out, Ruffelle can be seen on stage later this month in new musical The A-Z Of Mrs P that opens at the Southwark Playhouse. She only knows excellence in performance so its likely to be an outstanding show. 

Runs until 8th February and sold out. Contact the venue for returns.

Paris Original - Frances Ruffelle

Crazy Coqs, London

*****

Frances Ruffelle

Frances Ruffelle is a London diamond born and bred, yet with a remarkable affinity for the songs and the culture that hail from across the Channel. That she created the role of Les Miserables’ Eponine, on both sides of the Atlantic and has only recently been nominated for Best Performance in a Musical following her astonishing portrayal of France's legendary Edith Piaf,  suggests a delicious timelessness to her talent. So when Ruffelle emerges in the art nouveau basement of the Crazy Coqs, clad in chic mackintosh and shades and humming the quintessentially French melody from Un Homme Et Une Femme, there is more than a hint that the evening is going to reflect the singer's savoir faire.

On an evening that should have the smoking ban lifted (a haze of Gauloises/Gitanes smoke is actually de rigeur for an act like this), Ruffelle gives her own invigorating interpretation of cabaret. On record as wanting to ensure an audience is given damn good entertainment for their money, she does not disappoint. Her 4 piece band under Ben Atkinson are immaculately rehearsed and her routine is witty, eclectic and provocative. Never breaching the “fourth wall”, the actress rather stretches it, exploring how far she can let her French personae run wild through the course of an evening.

The set list is refreshing and like Ruffelle herself, almost petulantly unpredictable. She chooses songs special to her and with an early nod to Disney, her inclusion of the Sherman Brother's Scales And Arpeggios from The Aristocats is an unexpected and amusing choice. That she precedes that classic kid's (and her own childhood) favourite with Piaf's La Goualante Du Pauvre Jean, bravely picking up the accordion to accompany herself with the song’s famous melody, is testament to her confidence in taking on French culture and firmly placing her stamp on it. It is hard to think of another performer who could have the audacity to segue Noel Harrison’s 60’s masterpiece The Windmills Of Your Mind into a haunting The Movie In My Mind from Miss Saigon, poignantly suggesting that the anguish of a prostitute is global.

In a varied set list, every song was choice and performing with no interval save for some costume changes in and out of some wickedly provocative Parisian suggesting lingerie, her performance was breathtaking. But it was when Ruffelle sung Piaf that an electricity filled the room. It is London’s loss that the capital never saw the genius that she brought to Leicester’s Curve Theatre. (A link to that show's review is at the foot of this page.) Slipping between English and French versions of different songs, her The Three Bells, with young Cole Emsley as a heavenly chorister accompanying, had spines tingling and when Piaf’s L’Accordioniste was played by the instrument’s (Italian) virtuoso Romano Viazzani, the room was enchanted. Revealing that her audition piece for Les Mis had been Hymn To Love, to witness her take on that song, performing it again to an audience that included the show’s co-director Trevor Nunn (one of many UK musical theatre luminaries present) and immerse herself in an all-consuming performance, was to see and hear a truly special moment.

Ruffelle’s week-long residency is sold out, a hallmark of an excellent performer and also the skilled touch of her unsung producer Danielle Tarento. If you are lucky enough to have a ticket, you’re in for a treat. There’s talk of the run being repeated and so it should be. There is no finer example of excellence, in both cabaret and musical theatre, in town.

My review of Piaf can be found here.

My recent profile of Frances Ruffelle can be found here.