Picture: Debbi Clark
Frankie and Beausy: Frances Ruffelle and Norman Bowman at the Crazy Coqs, London.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
It was a neat idea to make a 65-minute mini-musical out of a long, loving friendship that began at a railway station in Scotland on Valentine’s Day 26 years ago as it gave Frances Ruffelle and Norman Bowman a good reason to sing many of the songs that have meant so much to them down the years “from Brigadoon to Broadway and from the Highlands to Hollywood”.
Both have musical theatre in their blood, Essex girl Ruffelle as the original Éponine in the West End and on Broadway in the 1980s (‘On My Own’ was specifically written for her very individual voice), then success in films and as a writer; Arbroath-born Bowman with a whole list of credits, Les Mis, Sunset Boulevard, Guys and Dolls and Mamma Mia! among them.
The reason for Bowman wearing a kilt was quickly apparent as he launched into a personalised version of Andy Stewart’s comic song ‘Donald, Where’s Your Troosers?’, about the Scotsman deliberately wearing a kilt on the London Underground to whet the ladies’ curiosity about what was underneath it. The witty ditty was a big hit back in the 1960s and an even bigger one when reissued in 1989.
It got a bit more romantic after that with ‘Almost Like Being In Love’ from Brigadoon, Elvis Costello’s ‘You Shouldn’t Look At Me That Way’ and ‘Something Good’, that schmaltzy duet from The Sound of Music.
But it wasn’t all sweetness and light: cue Stephen Sondheim and the waspish ‘The Little Things You Do Together’ (“It’s not so hard to be married, I’ve done it three or four times”). That gem from Company went down a treat but they got into a state over ‘Country House’ from Follies, inadvertently missing out a verse.
That seemed to unsettle Ruffelle momentarily though like the professionals they are, they were quickly back on the horse and riding a strong finish, Bowman thanking the audience at the end for “sticking with us through thick and thin”!
While loving her husky, feline, distinctive voice, I have heard Ruffelle sing better although she got everything out of ‘Gotta Move’ (from Streisand’s second album) and the torch song to end all torch songs ‘The Man That Got Away’ (Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin for A Star is Born).
They moved from stage to bar for that gorgeous Maury Yeston number from Nine, ‘Unusual Way’ (“In a very unusual way you’ve made me whole”). And picked the right all-join-in note to finish on with the Proclaimers’ worldwide hit from 1988 ‘I’m Gonna Be’ (or ‘500 Miles’ as most remember it).
One of the great folk-rock anthems – “and if I grow old, I’m gonna be the man who’s growin’ old with you”. A lovely line. Given that the Reid twins who wrote and sang the song hail from Auchtermuchty, no prizes for guessing who chose that one…
Backing Ruffelle and Bowman were Ryan MacKenzie (MD and piano), Kate Shortt (cello) and Nick Anderson (drums). And, for one number, Norman Bowman on triangle!
The show itself was, like the curate’s egg, good in parts. Co-written by the two stars, it was flat at times and, hard as Ruffelle tried, I didn’t sense much chemistry. Clearly a work in progress, it will surely be slicker by the time they take it to famed Manhattan nightspot 54 Below in November.
Jeremy Chapman
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