France Gall

Right ahead, we must say that it is far from being a hard-hitting news piece. And more, it will probably only have a limited impact call to mind that among the roll call are those which are familiar to the French, or French ex-patriots, Francophiles, Francophones and France fans.

Again, there are some that will have a resonance in the world, so forgive the indulgence. And if you're in the least bit curious Read on to discover the story of a very joyful evening spent watching a show that had the audience proverbially "rolling in the aisles", whooping with laughter and grinning from ear to ear for more than two hours.

All rights was probably a public easily won and who came to see the launch of a very particular kind of one-man show. Or perhaps better said, a one-woman show, performed by Liane Foly.

She is no stranger to the French, and it is as a singer 45-year-old made his name over the years, his first album in 1988 and followed by a series of hits and the occasional appearance in films made for television.

But in her one-woman show "La Folle Parenthesis" Foly made his first real business in another area of entertainment entirely as an imitator, and she is doing brilliantly professional.

She gathers itself some major - past and present - from the French musical scene, with international artists thrown in for good measure with politicians, TV stars and actresses.

The 19th Century Theatre Marigny just off the Champs Elysees in Paris, with a capacity of over 1000 was packed every night of the recent opening Foly Run as she sang, strutted, croaked and danced her way in 30 more characters, interspersing her performance with biting wit and wicked social commentary and politics.

Whether as a swooning parody of France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, or as a majestically strutting Socialist politician Segolene Royal, Foly slipped effortlessly from one imitation to another with a minimum of costume changes, no of stuff, and a simple diagram of gesture and mannerism to convince the audience that she really brought a cast of characters.

Accompanied by only two musicians - the pianist Jean-Yves d'Angelo and his brother, Peter, saxophone and percussion - Foly presents a simple plot to hold everything.

She joked as actresses gravel voice of Muriel Robin and Line Renaud, and later as Celine Dion in her rapid-fire French, with the imaginary Pedro somewhere in the back of the theater.

Pedro wanted her to provide a possible line-up of stars for a cabaret unlikely to perform the following evening in St Etienne, one of the least fashionable city in central eastern France better known perhaps as the former capital of the bicycle industry in this country and its football team in the 1960s and 70s dominated the French league.

A most unlikely place for some of the biggest names past and present of French music and films from the world and certainly not a place for international stars would head their list of show dates.

The stage play, Foly used the hearing "as a vehicle for a spot of satire, a social and political commentary and belting good songs - never letting the audience forget that not only can Foly take a song like it, she can do a lot of other people too.

In France Gall, she sang conifers such as French and Sylvie Vartan, she flounces about the stage, rocking a microphone and flipping his wandering nonexistent gorgeous blond hair

Actress Jeanne Moreau growled, English-born wife, the late Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin, sang a tribute to her husband in his beloved.