The setting is the ballroom of New York's Waldorf Astoria, the year is 1961. Edith Piaf is scheduled to appear in concert to a sold-out crowd. The crowd is seated and awaiting her entrance on stage. The stage is set for a 9 piece orchestra and the lights over the audience dim slightly in anticipation of a start. However there is a 3 to 4 minute delay which creates a realistic feeling of concern from the audience. Photo by Zale Dalen at www.volksmovie.com At this point in time, Piaf is 45 years old ( she died at 47 years of age), and has just spent one week in a New York hospital undergoing her 4th stomach operation. After checking herself out of the hospital, against the advice of her doctors and manager Lou Barrière, Piaf has arrived back stage wanting to start her concert. The Waldorf's announcer is also back stage, on microphone, having started his speech about the cancellation of the show due to Piaf's illness. An argument ensues between Piaf and her manager which can be overheard by the public. After much hesitation and several tense moments, the announcer's voice returns with "Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Edith Piaf!" Piaf's entrance on stage is still hindered by confusion for her pianist had previously told the guest orchestra to leave, thinking there would be no show. This does not deter Piaf, for she launches into song as the others scramble to join in. This entire beginning of confusion and tension sets the stage for an evening of intimacy, for the public has now become part of the show. Throughout the concert, Piaf has her emotional highs and lows for she is under the influence of morphine for the pain. She performs her songs like never before in order to prove that she can get through it but most importantly so that she can cleanse her soul of the ghosts that have haunted her all her life. With a thick French accent and amusing grammar, Piaf talks to her audience in anecdotal style. The public shares in her laughter, her life, her tribulations and she damns the press more than once for their inaccuracies and lies about who she really is. Tonight, Piaf is wanting to set the record straight and give her entire self, unashamedly, to the people who mean the most to her: her public. Photo by Zale Dalen at www.volksmovie.com AUTHORS' NOTE TONIGHT...Piaf was written by Joëlle Rabu and Ted Galay in 1989. The authors had seen several theatrical presentations of Edith Piaf's life and felt that the question of why this woman sang the way she did was never really answered. The time had come, they felt, to offer a new generation an in depth look into the heart and soul of one of the world's most passionate songstresses. Through a great deal of research and a small degree of poetic license, the writers decided to build a musical play on an actual event in order to offer the most honest and intimate portrayal of this great singer and formidable person. The concept of time, venue and circumstance in which the play takes place is real. This concert actually happened and Edith Piaf was, in fact, in very poor health. However the many people who saw Piaf in her final years all state that her last shows were the most poignant, dramatic, emotional and honest ever. Therefore the reason for choosing this concept as a dramatization of Piaf's life became clear.