When Piaf Died

October 1963. Rough-and-ready Pierre is proprietor of the Mimosa Club, a downmarket Parisian gay club. Posh boy Paul is his female impersonator lover, twenty years his junior. Both have had love affairs with Edith Piaf, arguably the greatest French female singer who ever lived: Pierre during the 1930s when she was starting out, Paul in the 1950s when she was at the height of her powers. Now it is the eve of her funeral, a time for reflection marred by the arrival of Fabienne, Paul's upper-crust mother who disapproves of Paul's lifestyle, and who does not get along with the vulgar but loveable Pierre. The action alternates between Fabienne's visit and events of the past-Pierre's meeting with Piaf at a seedy nightclub in Pigalle-her launching of Paul's career which he has held in check because of his attachment to the man who took him in when he dropped out of college-and Paul's eventual decision to take Piaf's advice and accept the provincial tour which she personally arranged shortly before her death-which sees him sacrificing the great love of live, as Piaf herself did many times. The play contains eleven Piaf songs, adapted into English by David Bret, plus one original composition.