PIAF, rarely staged revival of Pam Gems’ Broadway bio-epic to kick off Delray Square Performing Arts’ 2014-2015 Season
French singer and cultural icon Edith Piaf is celebrated in this powerful musical drama following her rise from the streets of Paris to the international stage.
The life and career of Edith Piaf was as unique and disparate as her distinctive singing style. Although the details of her early life were never quite clear and completely undocumented, legend has it that the young Edith Gassion was raised in a brothel by her grandmother while her parents worked as performers. She sang in public for the first time in 1929, aged 14, when she joined her father in his acrobatic street shows. The years that followed were spent as a street singer and it was in 1935 that she was discovered by nightclub owner, Louis Leplee and starting her career in his exclusive Cluny Club off the Champs-Elysees.
It was Leplee who coined the Piaf moniker as he saw her as the ‘little sparrow’, for her petite frame and extreme nervousness at singing on stage, her fragile appearance creating a striking contrast against her powerful and mesmerizing voice. And it was the murder of Leplee by gangland thugs and acquaintances of Piaf that actually catapulted her career, even though she was quickly dismissed as a suspect in the slaying. Still, as her popularity and fame increased so too did the drama that was to shape her life. Connections to the French Resistance, addictions to morphine and alcohol, a dramatic love life that was to end in tragedy all to contribute to her enigmatic and ill-fated life.
PIAF was performed for the first time in 1978 at the RSC before moving to the West End and then transferring to Broadway where Jane Lapotaire’s portrayal of Piaf won her the 1981 Tony Award as Best Actress. The show had two West End revival productions, the first in 1993-94 starring Elaine Page, and another from 2008-2010 starring Argentinian actress /singer, Elena Roger who won the Olivier Award for her portrayal. PIAF is very, very rarely presented in a regional theater setting.
The Delray Square Performing Arts production, helmed by director, Gary Waldman is considered a re-working of the piece using elements of the original West End and Broadway scripts and sections of a revamped script by Gems written for the 2010 West End revival shortly before her demise in 2011. As all of the music in PIAF is taken directly from the chanteuse’s songbook (there are no “original” songs in the score hence the reason it is generally referred to as a ‘play with music’ as opposed to a traditional musical), Waldman has also made some adjustments to the score and has added a major new element with his English translation of many of the lyrics. Waldman’s credits as a published lyricist go span over twenty-five years and include his five original musical-comedies and the literally hundreds of Yiddish-to-English translations he has penned over his celebrated career in the ‘American-Jewish-Yiddish Theater’.
The Delray Square production will feature VICTORIA LAUZUN in the iconic Piaf role. Lauzun is a recent south Florida transplant with several New York credits including regional and off-Broadway productions of Ragtime, Urinetown and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!
South Florida favorite, COURTNEY POSTON plays Piaf’s oldest friend and confident who comes in and out of her life at various stages. Other well know figures include VICTORIA ANDERSON as Josephine Baker (a close friend and confidant of Piaf’s who toured with her extensively in the 1950’s), WALDMAN in a cameo role as Leplee, RICHARD FORBES (seen in almost every Delray Square production to date) who will portray World middleweight champion boxer, Marcel Cerdan, the love of Piaf’s life who was killed in a plane crash while returning to Paris to see her. JACOB GRANT ALEXANDER, SCOTT GUNNER, JONATHAN EISEL, LISA GLASSMAN and JUSTIN SCHNEYER make up other characters in Piaf’s life as the show spans a period of about thirty-five years from her discovery until her death at age forty-seven.
Featuring the iconic torch songs, La Vie En Rose, Ne Me Quitte Pa, Non, Je ne Regrette Rien and about a dozen others performed live on stage with Hinton’s accompaniment, PIAF vividly portrays the rise and fall of this charismatic and unforgettable performer.
PLEASE NOTE: PIAF contains some very strong language that some may consider objectionable. Some customers might consider this play to be unsuitable for children.
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
PIAF – by Pam Gems
Reduced-price previews: November 7th – 9th
Official Run of Show: Nov 12 – Dec 14, 2014
Wednesdays – Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm
DELRAY SQUARE PERFORMING ARTS
4809 W. Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach, 33445
Box Office: 561-880-0319
Website: www.DelraySquareArts.com
Presented by: Delray Square Performing Arts, Florida Theater Productions, Inc., Jamison Troutman & Gary Waldman, Producers
Music Director:
Phil Hinton
Production Stage Manager: Joseph Long
General Manager: Margot Burrall
Assistant Director: Lisa Glassman
Set/Technical Direction: Richard Forbes
Executive Producer: Jamison Troutman
Directed by GARY WALDMAN
Tickets: $37.50 p/p (3 or 4 part series $30/performance)
Discount for Groups of 10+
