Edith Piaf is not widely known today. A French—but genuinely transatlantic—celebrity in the years after World War II, she was tiny (four-foot-eight, and nicknamed “The Little Sparrow”) yet renowned for the gargantuan passion she infused into songs, some of which—especially in her iconic renditions—are still popular standards.
On June 7th, an international touring production called Piaf! The Show brought the cabaret chanteuse to New York’s Town Hall. Nathalie Lermitte, in the title role, does not really impersonate Piaf. She performs Piaf’s songs much the way that Piaf did, but she also steps outside of the character, to declaim or comment in English on the idol’s life, loves, and motivations.
Act 1 of the show tracks her rise. Born poor in 1915, the teenaged Piaf sang for coins on street corners and sidewalk cafes. So Lermitte enters while Fréderic Viale plays a European “button” accordion (i.e., with no piano-like keyboard). The tune is in the vintage, almost stereotypically Parisian 6/8 rhythm known as “musette.” Lermitte picks up on it and, as she sings, we discover that the song is, appropriately, “Chante-Moi” (“Sing to Me”).
Lermitte draws her accompanists from the wings and serves them wine at a café table. (l-r) Claude Tedesco, piano; Daniel Fabricant, double-bass; Fréderic Viale, accordion; and Nicolas Castagnola, percussion. All photos by Moon Photography.
The Act 1 songs track Piaf’s early years, from the steps of Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, and streets in the northern fringe of Paris—”Entre Saint-Ouen et Clingancourt.” Along the way she drew boyfriends—“C’est un Gars” [It’s a Guy]—who didn’t treat her well. Eventually she got work in downmarket clubs—”Elle Frequentait La Rue Pigalle” (She frequented Pigalle Street)—where in 1935 she was “discovered,” and started to record.
Americans who know no French songs will quickly recognize the melody of “Sous le Ciel de Paris” (“Under Paris Skies”). Lermitte closes Act 1 by inviting the audience to sing “Padam… Padam…” with her; the song’s onomatopoetic refrain evokes a beating heart.
Act 2 is characterized in projections as Piaf! Le Spectacle. It limns the singer’s post-war performances and opens, a capella, with her musicians singing backup to “Les Trois Cloches.” That tune became a hit in the U.S. as “The Three Bells,” in a nearly line-for-line English translation.
Nathalie Lermitte in Piaf! Le Spectacle
Piaf performed at Carnegie Hall in 1957, and appeared on the Ed Sullivan show eight times between 1952 and 1959. At one of those appearances (I looked it up on YouTube) she told Sullivan that she took a popular American song to Paris where, translated into French, it became her favorite. So of course, Lermitte performs it here: “L’Homme à la Moto” (“The Man on the Motorcycle”) is Lieber & Stoller’s “Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots.”
Piaf had many lovers, including the international middleweight boxing champion Marcel Cerdan; photos of them together, as well as newspaper coverage of the plane crash he died in, accompany a performance of “Mon Dieu” (“My God”), a plea for just one more day with her lover.
But Lermitte declares that while “many men were in love with Piaf, she was in love with Love.” And if there were one true love in Piaf’s life, Lermitte is sure that it was for “you—the audience.”
A big shoutout to Fréderic Viale, whose full-length accordion solo in Act 2 brings down the house. Gil Marsalla, the show’s producer and director; Thomas Richeux, the stage manager; and Andy Guignard, the lighting designer, have been working together to bring this flawless Piaf tribute to audiences around the world. Marsalla also produces touring tribute shows to cabaret stars Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel, Gilbert Becaud, and Yves Montand.
As Act 2 draws to a close, Lermitte comes out in a drab black dress and wig—the only time she visually evokes what Piaf looked like on stage—to sing “L’Hymne à l’amour” (“The Hymn to Love”). It’s the standard that audiences around the world heard last summer on television, when Celine Dion sang it in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
Piaf died in 1963. The show closes with her two greatest hits. “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” (“No, I Regret Nothing”), which is considered Piaf’s signature song. But perhaps her most famous is “La Vie En Rose” (“The Rosy Life”), to which the audience gets to sing along, thanks to projected lyrics.
The show moves to Skokie, Illinois on June 10, and to Miami, Florida, the following day. It will tour Europe in the Fall.
Photos by Moon Photography
