Stephanie Rummel is clearly very passionate about France. Her face lights up when she talks about it in Chansons: Piaf, Brel & Me – a musical cabaret about France currently at Adelaide Fringe 2023.
Unfortunately, Chansons: Piaf Brel & Me felt disjointed and some of the anecdotes seemed to lead nowhere except into a song, which wasn’t even relevant to the French theme of the show. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend seemed quite out of place among Piaf and Brel and followed a story about shopping in a French boutique in Geneva, which is not even in France but over the border in Switzerland.
Rummel’s own song “Art“, which is played through a recording of her singing rather than her signing it live for us, was perhaps one of the stranger parts of the show where lights went down and Rummel performed a sort of dance with colour-changing spheres. While visually it was appealing, it just didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the show.
Rummel’s voice showed strengths when she performed Amsterdam and perhaps, she is better suited to these sorts of dramatic songs. It was interesting to hear well-known French songs such as Brel’s Ne Me Quitte Pas sung in English, French and Rummel’s native German. She seemed comfortable moving between the languages. Unfortunately, though her voice just didn’t do justice to most of the songs that she chose. For the most part, Rummel did not appear to be singing deep into her diaphragm, which was made worse by the fact that she chose to sit down to sing a number of the songs.
Rummel was keen to engage with the audience, and had some success doing so, having them sing along to Frère Jacques and asking them if they knew the writer/singer of various songs. We were left scratching our heads when she wanted us to try to sing a tune while she played a kazoo.
Sadly, the confusion continued throughout right to the final moments of Chansons: Piaf Brel & Me. To mention she would then perform a song as she holds up the illuminated rose prop for La Vie en Rose but then not actually sing the song at all was quite a strange choice. Rummel commented at one point during the performance that “music unites us”, but unfortunately, I think many were united in their confusion about just why certain songs were included or others mentioned not performed at all.
2 CROISSANTS
Matilda Marseillaise was a guest of Adelaide Fringe.
Read about other French linked shows at Adelaide Fringe 2023 here
