Frances Ruffelle is a Tony Award winning actor and recording artist. She caught up with Andrew Keates to discuss growing up as the daughter of Sylvia Young, the formation of her mother’s famous theatre school, her early influences and her remarkable family. The two chatted about her early work, including playing the Narrator in Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, being fired from that production and her delight going on to originate the roles of Dinah in the original West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express and Eponine in Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Les Misérables – both in the West End and on Broadway – where she would also meet her now ex-husband, Director John Caird.Other roles discussed include Queenie in Michael John LaChiusa’s The Wild Party (The Other Palace), Piaf in Pam Gems’ Piaf (Leicester Curve), Bella in the A to Z of Mrs P (Southwark Playhouse), Frastrada in Pippin (Menier Chocolate Factory), Roxie Hart in Chicago (Adelphi and Cambridge Theatre), Angelique Picard in Songs from a Hotel Bedroom (Royal Opera House), Mathilde in Mathilde (Edinburgh – directed by Simon Callow) and her time developing iconic Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals in their early stages at his Sydmonton Festival, where she played Betty Shaefer in Sunset Boulevard, Candy in Whistle Down The Wind and even laid down the original tracks for the development of Miss Saigon too.Andrew also asks her about her time representing the UK in the Eurovision Song Concert, her many film and television appearances, her upcoming album, one woman shows and so many other remarkable experiences from Frances’ life and career.Episode features include:Dramatic News: Andrew covers the latest dramatic news, including stories about the the new Kenwright tour of Blood Brothers, the West End production of Bat Out of Hell, the National Theatre’s production of Network and a new patron joins Arion Productions.The Platform: Today’s platform is given to Triangle – A New Musical with music by Curtis Moore, lyrics by Thomas Mizer, book by Thomas Mizer, Curtis Moore and Joshua Scher and we hear a song from this show called 9 Floors Up performed by Adam Halpin.

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