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Nottingham PlayhouseJenna Russell captures the tragedy in this rags-to-rags story but the power of the songs can’t hide the play’s weaknesses
From the moment Jane Lapotaire stepped out as “this dumpy little woman with a big forehead” more than 40 years ago, Pam Gems’ bio-musical about Edith Piaf has been a cronky old vehicle, a low-rent musical towed along by its stars. They are rewarded with a bravura role, which tells a heart-wrenching life story through some of the most emotionally powerful songs of the 20th century.
In Adam Penford’s reopening show at the Nottingham Playhouse, it’s the turn of Jenna Russell to carry Piaf’s rags-to-rags tale, from prostitution in Paris via global superstardom to a shrunken, drug-addled death at the age of 47. The songs are performed in a mixture of French and English, and a strange thing happens: in French, Russell captures a voice, and a sensibility, marinated in brandy and cigarettes, but in English she’s gin and tonic on the lawn. Continue reading...