Marshall Brings Piaf To Metropolitan Room

It's no secret that we all have our favorite singers...performers who just make your skin tingle when they open their mouths and the heavenly music just floats throughout the room, leaving you totally and completely seduced.  Well, I want you to add to that list the talent known as Gay Marshall, who is celebrating her new CD release, Gay Marshall Sings Piaf, at the Metropolitan Room on October 11^th and 18^th.  I first saw her in the off-Broadway revival of Brel and was hooked.

Marshall made her Broadway debut as Diana Morales in A Chorus Line. Her one woman show "Piaf : La Vie l'Amour" played in the States and took her to Paris where she played Grizabella in the original French production of "Cats", and did many shows in theaters and on television there.

Living in Europe inspired her to write "If I Were Me", a comedy that she performed in Paris and took to the Edinburgh Festival where it was voted #2 on the Fringe. Most recently here in the States, she did "Jacques Brel" at Capital Rep, Denise in the Goodspeed, York Theater and Paper Mill's productions of "The Baker's Wife". During her recent appearance in the Off Broadway production of "Jacques Brel" she received a nomination for the Drama League's "Distinguished Performance Award" and named as one of the "Top Ten Divas" by Playbill. Her CD of Piaf songs will be available online this fall. 

So, friends, I talked to Ms Marshall the week of her first Metropolitan Room gig, which opened the 4^th of October and she was so excited as her new CD's had just arrived...

TJ:  So what's new, my dear?

MARSHALL:  I got my CD's. They're so pretty!!

TJ:  Are they pretty?

MARSHALL:  They turned out so beautifully. They came a week early because they told me I wouldn't have it until after my first show. Everything's falling into place. It's just like this huge relief. It looks so good. And the thing that makes me happiest about it is the whole black and white side of the jacket is photographs that my husband took of Paris. So it's kind of nice to have it be us, you know.

TJ: It's very personal.

MARSHALL:  Yeah! And everybody that has looked at so far has said, "Wow! Where did you get these photos?"  He's an amazing photographer. In fact, he is having a showing at the National Arts Club from October 22^nd to November 1^st for his photography.

TJ:  That's great!

MARSHALL:  Have you heard of the documentary Man On A Wire? Well, he's in that because he pulled that wire across the World Trade Center in 1974. A lot of his still photos appeared in that and someone who saw the show just went crazy over his photography. They asked him to do a show. It's just great.

TJ:  So, Gay Marshall Sings Piaf...tell us how you made this connection to Piaf.

MARSHALL:  It's kind of almost not my style in that been sort of a stalker, if you know what I mean. I've never been a fan. I've never run after people for pictures or autographs or things like that. I read this book about her and was so overwhelmed by the story of her life that I went searching for the music. I just had to sing those songs.

It's hard to describe what an incredible impact her interpretation had on me. It wasn't that she had such a beautiful voice although I love her voice. There was something so moving about her interpretation that it just drove me to want to learn those songs and to sing them. I find that to be so inexplicably beautiful, that someone reaches to inspire you from the grave, if you will. Obviously, it was recordings that's easy to do, but I've never been that moved or that inspired before. I've admired people.

There are many singers that I absolutely adore. And I just had to learn to speak French. It just became a whole direction of my life that I had not expected at all. And I certainly never expected to go live in France. That was not on the books. It's funny to be a part of an ex-patriot community over there where everyone's there because they love Paris. I was sort of there because I fell in love and I had to move there.  A very different feeling versus someone who has dreamed of it all their lives.

TJ: Your husband is from there and home is where the heart is, right?

MARSHALL:  Well, this is the thing about the whole Piaf connection in that I followed something that was so unpredictable and it did lead me to the love of my life. I think it's so ironic that someone who lost the love of their life and who searched for it for the rest of their life led me to mine. Something she never got and she sort of gave it to me, if you will, in a very oversimplifiEd Manner of speaking.

TJ:  It sounds like this CD is a tribute to her and, in some way, a thank you?

MARSHALL:  Well, I did dedicate the album to her and my husband, because I really feel like she made me a singer. I always wanted to sing but I never thought I could, basically, even though I've been musical since I was a kid. I just never felt like I was good enough. And there was something about that music that just drove me to sing and sing and sing. Once I started singing Piaf, literally a week after I got a job singing Piaf one night a week, I found four other jobs. I was singing five nights a week.  Different styles...I had a Dixieland band gig. I sang Broadway standards. And blues and jazz.  It was unbelievable! It changed my life! [laughing] It sounds so corny!!

TJ:  Not at all! When I saw you in Jacques Brel, I didn't know you and I was just so moved with the way you interpreted the music. I couldn't get enough of the voice. I think I burned out my Jacques Brel CD.

MARSHALL:  The songs on the CD...this is something I've always wanted to do that I never did. And then I had the opportunity to do it here in New York and I grabbed it. It's so exciting for me to have finally recorded my translations of the songs. A lot of them go in and out of French to English, which I think makes it a lot more available to an English speaking audience, yet it keeps the French atmosphere intact.

TJ: And you are going to be at the Metropolitan Room October 4^th, 11^th and 18^th. Are you just going to be doing the music from the new CD?

MARSHALL:  Right. Actually, I am doing a couple of extra songs. I'm not doing all the songs that are on the CD. There are a couple of things that I really want to do which didn't fit on the CD.

I'm really happy to be playing with Eric Svejcar. He is the one who did the arrangements on the Brel CD. He's a genius...he really is...he's a genius!  He's a composer, a conductor and an unreal accompanist. He breathes right with you...I really love working with him. 

And I have amazing musicians on this gig. For some reason, I felt like you couldn't do a show that was a CD release and not have the instruments that you had on the CD...which turned out to be wrong. I could have just done this piano and voice. But I have a beautiful cello player named Peter Lewy and Deni Bonet is playing the violin. She played with Cyndi Lauper for a while...she's incredible. And Bill Schimell is an amazing accordion player. He kind of lives and breathes the accordion. Then there's Steve Gilewski, who has done all the shows I've done so far, on bass.

TJ:  Sounds like it's going to be quite the evening. Have you played the Metropolitan Room before?

MARSHALL:  You know, Jamie DeRoy is a good friend and she is just the most generous person. She has evenings called Jamie DeRoy and Friends, to which she has invited me several times and she's asked me to participate several times. So, yes, I have been on stage at the Metropolitan Room, which was really a blast. It's thanks to Jamie and Lenny Watts, who runs the joint...he is a doll, which is unusual. Usually you don't have a personal contact with the club director but he's a doll. I'm so looking forward to it!!!

And let me tell you, Gay Marshall is a doll, too!  She is an amazing chanteuse and I highly recommend you go see her at The Metropolitan Room at 34 West 22nd Street.  This is a five star recommendation from yours truly. She is a performer extraordinaire and does bring it every time. And her CD will be available on cdbaby.com or check out her website at www.gaymarshall.com. I just listened to it and it is a glorious expression of the music of Piaf that will keep you spellbound. Her Piaf show has two more performances at the Metropolitan Room on October 11^th and 18^th at 9:45PM. There is a two-drink minimum per person for all shows.  For reservations call 212/206-0440. For more information on this show, you  can visit  www.metropolitanroom.com.  For now, ciao and remember, le théâtre est ma vie!!!

Photo Credit Karen Marshall

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