Musical Director: Charlotte Gaultier
The best cabaret shows not only have a theme to draw together what could be a disconnected list of songs but they also have purpose, a resonance that sets them apart and gives the performer a platform to build what needs to be a conversation with the audience. Melissa Errico and Isabelle Georges understand this extremely well in their new show Deux Grandes Dames which arrives at the Crazy Coqs for its UK premiere direct from a handful of performances in Paris. It is a show not only built on its bilingual, transatlantic merger of two schools of music writing but also on the very obvious friendship between the co-stars who share the limelight.
They met, Errico and Georges explain, a few years ago but connected regularly during the pandemic and became great pals, having both appeared in Michel Legrand’s musical Amour in the French and American productions, and both are credited with being his ‘muse’. And Legrand’s music features at the top of this 80-minute performance with the opening duets Chanson des Demoiselles and Passé Muraille, sung here in both languages that set the tone for the show to come, filled with recognisable tunes from classic musical theatre and less familiar French tunes that showcase the richness of the two cultural influences.
There are some big hitters like Sondheim with Errico delivering a version of Everybody Says Don’t from Anyone Can Whistle that is full of character within a more upbeat selection of songs that the singer performs alone. Errico similarly takes on a bouncy combination of Wouldn’t It Be Loverly from My Fair Lady and My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music in a tribute to Julie Andrews as well as a feisty version of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s The Lady is a Tramp for which a full costume change into a stunning sparkly gown is required.
And while Errico’s set tends to the breezier sounds of US writing, she offers a more contemplative version of L’Hymne de L’Amour originally performed by Edith Piaf in the second part of the show, sung mostly in French with a verse or two in English. For much of her performance, Georges delivers the more introspective numbers, also starting with Sondheim with a sensitive Send in the Clowns and classic breathy jazz version of I Love Paris by Cole Porter before concluding her own solo set with a similarly jazzy Rhythm is My Business by Ella Fitzgerald, creating the feeling of those basement Parisian clubs that emerge from the intimacy of her vocal.
But Georges has lightness too with a jaunty version of Les Poitrines, also by Cole Porter, that requires a comedy flourish aided by some jaunty costume and, unusually for the Crazy Coqs, there is a tap dancing interlude at the end of this song, repeated later with Errico in the final duet You and Me which closes the show with the friends side-by-side.
With plenty of bilingual riffing and a clear affection for each other, Deux Grandes Dames with Melissa Errico & Isabelle Georges is an often-fascinating blend of two different but complementary musical traditions and finds its chemistry in the strong personal and professional connection between the leads.
Runs until 13 July 2024
