The evocative and haunting melodies of French singer Edith Piaf, known as the “little sparrow,” are brought to life by French chanteuse Annie Royer in her new cabaret show, Piaf! The Tribute, premiering at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, April 8.
Royer, who calls herself a “French cabaret chanteuse with a twist of jazz,” revisits Piaf’s musical career, accompanied by original scenography.
Piaf, who died in 1963 at the age of 47, is regarded as France’s greatest popular singer and is one of the most celebrated performers of the 20th century. Specializing in “chanson réaliste,” she sang from her own life about love, loss and sorrow.
Singing in English, Piaf crossed over to America, where she had a following, sang at Carnegie Hall in the mid-1950s and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show eight times.
“I’m excited to bring this show to our premiere in Palm Beach,” says Royer, who plans to take the show on the road through New England this summer. “Edith Piaf has a wonderful voice and left a legacy in America, where many people still love her music.”
Popular songs of Piaf’s included in the show are “La vie en rose,” “Non, je ne regrette rien” and “Hymne à l’amour,” each of 24 songs representing a chapter of Piaf’s brilliant but short career.
Now splitting her time between New England and Palm Beach, Royer grew up in Paris studying theater, dance and music and came to the Boston area 30 years ago when her husband took a new job there.
Mostly interested in theater and acting, she trained in vaudeville and studied at the Paris Enco Acting Studio. She found an agent and began working in the theater, landing parts on TV, film and commercials.
“When I’m on stage, I am where I love to be,” she says. “Whether I’m singing, dancing or telling a joke, I just love to be on stage.”
In 1990, when she arrived in Boston, she auditioned for the Big Apple Circus, and while she didn’t get the part she auditioned for, the manager of the Diamond Jim Club at the Hotel Lenox on Boylston Street in downtown Boston saw something in her and asked her if she knew any songs.
She sang “Frère Jacques” and Piaf’s “La vie en rose,” and the manager, impressed, asked her to put together an Edith Piaf revue for them.
Royer hired a piano player and other musicians and found a vocal coach at the Berklee College of Music, who helped her create a show.
She brushed up on Broadway tunes and went back to the Lenox for another audition. She sang three songs for them and a month later, she was performing a cabaret act at the Hotel Lenox. It was 1994, four years after she’d landed in the country.
She made a name for herself in Boston, appearing at many well-known jazz clubs, including Cambridge’s Kendall Café, the Regatta Bar at the Charles River Hotel, Scullers Jazz Club and Ryles Jazz Club in Inman Square.
Her repertoire includes not only an homage to the cabaret songs of Piaf, but those of Jacques Brel, Maurice Chevalier, Yves Montand, Charles Trenet, Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois (Mistinguette), Gilbert Bécaud and Charles Aznavour.
Royer notes that in America, music comes first and lyrics come second, while in France, she says, the opposite is true — you tell a story through the lyrics and the music is secondary.
With Piaf! The Tribute, Royer hopes to tell a story and called on old friend, actor and director Tangi Colombel, also a native of France, now living in Palm Beach Gardens.
Colombel, who won a Carbonnel award in 2004 for his role in the Palm Beach Dramaworks production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, appears in many regional theater productions as well as in commercials and TV series for Telemundo and others.
In 2019, he starred in Pardon My French, a French cabaret show (in English) which toured a number of major cities, including New York, Chicago, Miami and Palm Beach.
Colombel and Royer first collaborated in 2018 in a show titled Tribute to Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel, and developed a good creative synergy.
“Working with Annie is a pleasure,” says Colombel. “When she asked me to stage this new show, I immediately said yes. We have a good connection.”
He says Royer wanted to bring the show to life with humor, emotion, drama and banter with the musicians in her band, Les Garçons Musette. “My job was to add that extra bit of je ne sais quoi,” he says.
They interspersed Piaf’s original recordings with videos so audiences can see and hear the real Edith Piaf from the 1940s and 1950s and listen to dialogue (narrated by Colombel) by one of Piaf’s many lovers, Marcel Cerdan. Colombel is pleased with the results of the collaboration.
“Annie is very talented, and put her heart and soul into the show,” he says. “She’s not only a great singer, but a great actress, performer and storyteller, and the show is funny, emotional and touching.”
Among her musical influences, Royer admires Liza Minelli’s skills as a cabaret singer, loves jazz and enjoys a wide range of musical styles from singers such as Celine Dion, Adele, Maria Callas and Dolly Parton.
With grandparents who came to France from North Africa, she’s also influenced by Middle Eastern music and went every summer to a gypsy music festival in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in Provence to hear the Gypsy Kings and other singers perform.
Does she see any similarities between herself and Edith Piaf, the character she inhabits on stage?
Aside from the fact that both singers worked very hard to fight for what they wanted out of life, Royer says, “We’re both very passionate. When we sing, we sing with passion.”
And, while she says people admire her voice and what she brings to the role, what they love the most is her dramatic presence on stage and watching her perform.
“This is my gift to the audience,” she says. “I hope to capture their hearts and give them something to remember. I wish to make an impact and touch their lives in some way.”
Or, as Piaf herself said, “I want to make people cry even when they don’t understand my words.”
If you go
Piaf! The Tribute takes place at the Rinker Playhouse in the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, April 8, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $35 and are on sale now. Visit www.kravis.org or call 561-832-7469.