Gay Marshall, a BILLBOARD Top World Music Artist, reprises her smashing concert - PIAF: Queen of Heart - at Joe's Pub on Friday, October 1st at 7:00 PM.
Gay Marshall has been enchanting audiences with her extraordinary take on the late French icon: a celebration rather than an imitation, Gay presents Piaf as a versatile powerhouse of heartwarming and heartbreaking emotion, full of personality and humor.
As Marshall told NPR's Scott Simon recently, "Piaf is always portrayed as 'the poor thing,' but I find her much more magic than tragic."
PIAF: Queen of Heart is based on Marshall's CD, Gay Marshall Sings Piaf, La Vie l'Amour, which listed in BILLBOARD in January 2010 as a #12 Hot Shot Debut. Marshall's previous engagement of PIAF: Queen of Heart landed her on Time Out's 2009 10 Best music list. "It takes a brave singer to take on the Edith Piaf songbook," wrote Adam Feldman of Time Out New York, "it takes a special one to pull it off so heart-piercingly."
Marshall delivers the dramatic repertoire - including her own English adaptations - with an unusual mix of the well known (L'Accordeoniste and Padam Padam) and the rare (Avec Ce Soleil and The Lady From Pigalle), accompanied by a superb five piece ensemble. The original arrangements by Marshall and Paul Bevan put a modern twist on a classical theme.
Marshall played DiAna Morales in "A Chorus Line" on Broadway, created Grizabella in the French production of "Cats," and has written and performed two one woman shows which have played at theaters in Paris as well as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Missouri Rep, The Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival and Dayton's Victory Theater. She has worked frequently in European theater since falling in love with French photographer, Jean-Louis Blondeau (Man On Wire). She appeared recently in The Zipper Theater's year long revival of "Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris." Charles Isherwood wrote of Marshall in the New York Times, "To hear her sing Brel's despairing 'Ne Me Quitte Pas' ....is to experience Brel's art in its purest and most persuasive form."
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