Edith Piaf is perhaps the most famous French singer ever to exist. With so many iconic songs, it was an exciting occasion when Piaf The Show, a tribute to her life, rolled into Sydney for the first time. Held at the beautiful State Theatre, it promised to be an iconic performance, led by Nathalie Lermitte, an accomplished French theatre performer, as Piaf. 

To the surprise of many in the audience, this was not so much a theatrical show about the extraordinary life of Piaf but rather, was a tribute to the singer, with very little narrative in between the songs. In the first act, this meant that the energy was quite stilted and it was difficult to follow the performance cohesively. Some limited set was used however, the performance relied on a backdrop of slideshow images which perhaps did not provide the requisite amount of context for those not intimately aware of the Piaf biography. 

Additionally, while many of those in the audience were French-speaking, for those without knowledge of the language, it would have been even more difficult to follow as the lack of dramatic context meant that the production relied on the songs of Piaf to tell the entirety of the story. In a country like Australia, where a large proportion of the country is monolingual, it would have benefitted to have English subtitles so that the audience could have followed on and grasped more of the story. 

It also seemed as though many of Piaf’s more well-known songs were saved for the second half which meant that the first act felt a little flat and dragged on, resulting in somewhat of a lack of energy in the audience. While this was recovered to some degree towards the end of the act, when Lermitte got the audience to sing “Padam Padam” with her, it was, overall, a fairly disappointing start. 

The contrast between the first act and the second act was so pronounced it was almost beyond belief. As the second act recreated Piaf’s iconic concert in Carnegie Hall, Lermitte came into her own, giving a superb performance which demonstrated her ability to embody Piaf extremely well. The energy in the room clearly lifted as Lermitte performed the classic “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” which was stunning. She continued on to “L’Hymne à l’amour” which was powerful in its fragility and truly connected with the audience. She finished on “La Vie En Rose’ which was performed with the audience and meant that the show ended on a truly positive note. 

The band behind Lermitte was strong, with an accordion solo being one of the highlights of the second act. The consistency of the band allowed Lermitte to shine towards the end of the show, which was well received by the audience. 

It is also worth noting that the show commenced over half an hour late, for which there was very little communication as to the delay between the scheduled start time and the eventual commencement. While things do happen, better communication would have assisted the audience, who were quite confused by the delay especially given that it resulted in a very late Thursday night. 

Overall, this was a performance of two halves, with a strong second half and a somewhat underwhelming first half. To call this a theatrical show would not be quite accurate as it felt a lot more like a tribute performance with some minor narrative points interspersed throughout. Ultimately, the highlight was Lermitte’s voice on some of Piaf’s greatest hits and leaving having heard that, the audience were quite content. 

Rating: ★★★

Piaf The Show – State Theatre – 23^rd May, 2024

Photo: Supplied