It's fashionable at times to dislike certain people. Be they entertainers, politicians, athletes, people from your home town...it seems like there are certain folks that others pick on when they want to trash someone.
9 times out of 10, the someone being picked on is someone that I like or adore. Even if I don't know them personally...well, everyone has their favorite celebrities, right?
I was brought up listening to a lot of musicals, and my love for them continued once I was old enough to make my own listening decisions (i.e. when I was tall enough to reach the entirety of the stereo.) I had been mostly brought up with the Rodgers and Hammerstein classics, but while I was still very young, I discovered the joys of 1980s Mega Musicals. And among those, I found one I loved best. Les Misérables.
I had read the novel on which the musical is based when I was between the ages of 7 and 9 (what? I was advanced!) and when I learned that there was a musical, oh, I was so on board!
The first version of the Les Misérables soundtrack I ever heard was the Original London Cast. Lot of good performances there: Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean, Patti LuPone as Fantine, Rebecca Caine as Cosette...but the voice I fell hardest for as a kid was that of Frances Ruffelle, who played Éponine.
The other performers had perfect voices for their roles, and they all just seemed to fit. It was, as Patti LuPone has often said in explanation of her choice not to continue as Fantine on Broadway, the London production was "the perfect theatrical experience." Everyone was great, and their performances would influence how the parts were played by other performers for ages on. But something in Frances' voice, some little edge, really caught me. Music is a big part of my life, and good singers are always to be adored in my universe. Frances simply sold me on the idea that she WAS this street urchin girl with an unrequited crush on a boy who never noticed her as more than a friend. Something about that voice, about the characterization overall, also suggested that the character was, as in the novel, ever so slightly off-kilter mentally (actually, in the novel, Éponine is pretty much BATS after a certain point, but...) It was a big deal to me that a character who is so often left out of adaptations of the story was portrayed so correctly.
Also, my rabid interest in this Frances Ruffelle was helped along by the fact that she was gee-golly-gosh adorable...
So, Frances originated the role in London (she'd also originated the role of Dinah in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express) and then, she actually got to carry on playing Éponine on Broadway when the show transferred. She must've been doing something right, eh? Heck, she won a Tony Award for that.
I learned fairly quickly, as I scrambled to get my hands on every recording I could of Frances' voice, and to see every film or television show she might have done, that other people did not appreciate her talent in the way that I did. Still, I understood. Not all people like the same stuff. Different strokes for different folks, as they say. But then...then I started to notice that a lot of people didn't just dislike Frances; they had a burning need to trash her at every turn! Seriously, it's next to impossible now, in this age of internet media, to find an article about her or a YouTube video featuring her or a message board thread that mentions her without the absolute HATERS coming out of the woodwork.
I know that's normal. It happens. But...but...she seemed like such a cool person, besides having talent. How could they so strongly dislike a cool person? They weren't just dismissive of her singing...they were sort of dismissive of her as a whole. I think you can't really judge a person unless you know them, so maybe they were wrong and I was wrong and there was no end to it.
But then, lately, I've been following Frances on Twitter. And you know what? Turns out I was right. She's a cool person. So maybe I was right about her talent too!
That's right. I'm right and the haters are just haters.
Guess I should finish this out by giving the key to the entry title. Why I'm a Fan of Frances Ruffelle.
I suppose I am a fan because she is talented, and I like talent, and she manages to carry such emotion in her voice, and she comes across as a very genuinely good person.
You can't ask more, really. No, you can't. Shut up, I said you can't!
If you wanna find out first-hand just how cool Frances can be, you can follow her on Twitter: @francesruffelle and check out her website.
Frances' daughter, pop singer Eliza Doolittle, is worth a listen (she's as talented as her mum, and as lovely, and her website is pretty) and you can follow her @elizadoolittle.
You might also follow another awesome LesMis alum, Rebecca Caine, @RebeccaCaine (she's got a website too; doesn't everyone?)
Oh, and you can catch Frances' best friend since childhood, Sadie Frost (who I've mentioned before is a Lady I Adore; she's part of the FrostFrench design experience along with her pal Jemima French) @Sadieliza.
9 times out of 10, the someone being picked on is someone that I like or adore. Even if I don't know them personally...well, everyone has their favorite celebrities, right?
I was brought up listening to a lot of musicals, and my love for them continued once I was old enough to make my own listening decisions (i.e. when I was tall enough to reach the entirety of the stereo.) I had been mostly brought up with the Rodgers and Hammerstein classics, but while I was still very young, I discovered the joys of 1980s Mega Musicals. And among those, I found one I loved best. Les Misérables.
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| The letters appear to be suffering from a palsy... |
The first version of the Les Misérables soundtrack I ever heard was the Original London Cast. Lot of good performances there: Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean, Patti LuPone as Fantine, Rebecca Caine as Cosette...but the voice I fell hardest for as a kid was that of Frances Ruffelle, who played Éponine.
The other performers had perfect voices for their roles, and they all just seemed to fit. It was, as Patti LuPone has often said in explanation of her choice not to continue as Fantine on Broadway, the London production was "the perfect theatrical experience." Everyone was great, and their performances would influence how the parts were played by other performers for ages on. But something in Frances' voice, some little edge, really caught me. Music is a big part of my life, and good singers are always to be adored in my universe. Frances simply sold me on the idea that she WAS this street urchin girl with an unrequited crush on a boy who never noticed her as more than a friend. Something about that voice, about the characterization overall, also suggested that the character was, as in the novel, ever so slightly off-kilter mentally (actually, in the novel, Éponine is pretty much BATS after a certain point, but...) It was a big deal to me that a character who is so often left out of adaptations of the story was portrayed so correctly.
Also, my rabid interest in this Frances Ruffelle was helped along by the fact that she was gee-golly-gosh adorable...
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| I believe the word you may be looking for is D'AWWW |
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| Frances with Michael Maguire (who portrayed the student revolutionary leader Enjolras) and the lovely shiny Tonys they won. |
I know that's normal. It happens. But...but...she seemed like such a cool person, besides having talent. How could they so strongly dislike a cool person? They weren't just dismissive of her singing...they were sort of dismissive of her as a whole. I think you can't really judge a person unless you know them, so maybe they were wrong and I was wrong and there was no end to it.
But then, lately, I've been following Frances on Twitter. And you know what? Turns out I was right. She's a cool person. So maybe I was right about her talent too!
That's right. I'm right and the haters are just haters.
Guess I should finish this out by giving the key to the entry title. Why I'm a Fan of Frances Ruffelle.
I suppose I am a fan because she is talented, and I like talent, and she manages to carry such emotion in her voice, and she comes across as a very genuinely good person.
You can't ask more, really. No, you can't. Shut up, I said you can't!
If you wanna find out first-hand just how cool Frances can be, you can follow her on Twitter: @francesruffelle and check out her website.
Frances' daughter, pop singer Eliza Doolittle, is worth a listen (she's as talented as her mum, and as lovely, and her website is pretty) and you can follow her @elizadoolittle.
You might also follow another awesome LesMis alum, Rebecca Caine, @RebeccaCaine (she's got a website too; doesn't everyone?)
Oh, and you can catch Frances' best friend since childhood, Sadie Frost (who I've mentioned before is a Lady I Adore; she's part of the FrostFrench design experience along with her pal Jemima French) @Sadieliza.
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