As I pointed out on my front page, there’s a heck of a lot I don’t know about Frances Ruffelle’s career. A lot of what I do know I don’t plan on putting down here because I learned it from other people’s sites and it wouldn’t be fair to take information gathered by others. What left is a lot affectionately made opinions, comments, and fan rants, peppered with a bit of musical theatre knowledge. Enjoy!
Starlight Express
When Frances Ruffelle was only nineteen years old, she played the role of Dinah in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express. This amazing musical tells the story of a magical train race conceived in the dream of a little boy. The entire play is performed in roller skates, and all in all it is a fun, fast paced adventure.
Dinah is your basic anthropomorphic dining car. She’s an adorable country western gal who’s madly in love with Greaseball the diesel engine. Although she’s not the lead, she’s one of the largest female roles in the show. Frances’s big solos in the musical include her verse in “Lotta Locomotion”, “U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D.”, and “He Whistled At Me (reprise)”. She also has smaller solo bits in Call Me Rusty, Rolling Stock Reprise, The Rap, There’s Me, and Only He (The very end… “Greaseball you’re hurt!…). Besides that, she sings back up with the other coaches.
Frances Ruffelle was the first Dinah I ever heard, and she’s still my favorite (out of the nine I’ve listened to). In my opinion, she brings a certain innocence to the roll that the others I’ve heard just don’t have. She makes a very whiny Dinah, but I mean this in the best way possible. Dinah is supposed to be whiny, and Ruffelle does a good job of it! I especially love the way Frances Ruffelle delivers “He Whistled at Me Reprise” and her little bits in “The Rap”.
There is also a very nice single out of Frances Ruffelle singing the song “Only You” with Michael Crawford.
Les Miserables
Not long after her time in Starlight Express (I think she was twenty at the time), Frances Ruffelle landed the role of Eponine, in the first ever London cast the play “Les Miserables”. Les Miz, as it is referred to by it’s fans, tells the story of the trials of Jean Veljean, a noble ex-convict who’s only crime was stealing a loaf of bread, and the other miserable people of eighteenth century France.
Eponine is one of the female leads, though she is only seen in the first half of the second act. She is hopelessly in love with the handsome Marius. However, Marius can only think of his own lover Cossette, and sees ‘Ponine as a dear friend and nothing more. Eponine finds Cossette for Marius, and soon becomes his errand girl. This results in her death, when she is shot carrying a love letter across the barricade.
Although Eponine is strong, intelligent, and street wise, she is ultimately the personification of misery. The closest she comes to ever requiting her love for Marius is when she dies in his arms.
After playing Eponine in London, Frances Ruffelle continued in this role on Broadway. She can be heard in both the Original London Cast recording of Les Miz, and the Original Broadway cast recording.
Although Eponine is not my favorite character that Frances Ruffelle has portrayed (I’m a hopeless Dinah fanatic, what can I say?), I think it’s the role she did best in. Her delivery of “On My Own” was so incredibly heart felt it made me cry the first time I heard it, something I did not do when I saw the show live (before I even owned any cast recordings). I also love the way she pronounces the word “river” in On My Own (Yes, that was an incredibly random comment).
Children Of Eden
Another musical theatre roll that Frances Ruffelle portrayed was Yonah in the play Children Of Eden. Children Of Eden is a biblical tale that goes from Adam and Eve to Noah’s Ark. Although it is a wonderful musical that many theatre groups still perform today, it was originally a flop on West End. This in part accounts for the extreme rarity of the Original London Cast album of the show, which features Frances Ruffelle’s voice.
Yonah is only seen in act two of Children Of Eden. She is a daughter of the cursed race of Cain, and bares a mark on her forehead announcing her grim lineage to the world. When God (“The Father”) decides to flood the world, one of his main purposes in doing this is to destroy the race of Cain. However, Noah’s oldest son falls in love with Yonah, and hides her on the ark despite everyone’s wishes. This angers God, which needless to say is not a good thing.
None Musical Theatre Stuff
This is the harder part of the site to write, as for the most part I don’t know much about Frances Ruffelle’s none musical theatre work. What I do know is that she released two pop albums, “Fragile” and “Frances Ruffelle”. I also know that they are out of print, and rather difficult to come across (Hence my not owning them…). She’s also released some singles such as “I Will” with Chris Cross.
Besides music, I know she’s also made a few TV appearances.