Harnessing the enduring, if largely concocted, mutual rivalry between the British and the French, comedy French Toast puts failing British theatre director Simon Monk in charge of an English musical comedy version of the 17th century classic French tragedy Phaedra by Racine.
What could possibly go wrong? Well, almost everything when, against his will, Simon’s former lover, the overbearing French superstar tragedienne Jacqueline Brémont who can't sing and can't dance, becomes the producer, thus buying herself the title role in Fifi.
The show within a show construct is clear and works well. The rehearsals for the musical expose a delightfully ludicrous mixed genre approach to the score (“jazz fusion, disco and Englebert Humperdinck”), and the behind the scenes politics between diva, her coterie of sycophantic fellow actors plus a has-been punk rock star and a bemused American feminist actress cause all sorts of havoc and tensions as the director tries to hold it all together.
The action of this adaptation remains set in 1977 and suffers a little from being burdened by its historical roots. Jokes about baked beans and the antics of lecherous toady Geoffrey have long been jaded, and who now knows or cares about Charles de Gaulle? Were this a full-on farce, it is possible that it could all be swept along on a wave of hilarity, carrying with it the ghastliness of Jacqueline’s egotism, but this comedy is not of that breed, and some very funny lines are alone in providing the crispiness to some otherwise soggy French Toast.
The original play was written by the creator of La Cage Aux Folles, Jean Poiret, under the title Féfé de Broadway, and the present adaptation aims to counteract the strongly Gallic with a twist of Anglo-Saxon sensibility.
For all that, there isn't much in the way of British versus French culture wars, nor is there sufficient frisson between former lovers Jacqueline and Simon, and here director Marianne Badrichani has missed an opportunity to make Jacqueline a little more likeable.
Josie Benson provides a watchable and sympathetic Faye Rose, a jobbing actress who has hopes for a bigger role in Fifi but once again gets cast as a stereotyped, worn-out prostitute. Benson and Suzy Kohane also in support as the American Kate both get the chance to show off their comic as well as their vocal skills, although for a show about a musical comedy, it doesn’t deliver much in the way of songs, although it is tightly packed avec des moments très amusants.