Arts & Events

Play About Dietrich and Piaf at Alterena

Friday July 20, 2007

Dietrich and Piaf, La Chanson Intime (The Intimate Song), the story of two great stars and their friendship, with cabaret music and song, will be performed just this Sunday at 7 p.m. by the authors, Ellen Brooks as Piaf and Shannon Nicholson as Dietrich. The play will be at Altarena Theatre, 1409 High St. in Alameda, with music director and accordionist Deb Cimbellon, Armando Fox on piano and Ted Barker as announcer. Set just after World War II, when Piaf was in the Resistance and Dietrich was entertaining (and risking her life), the play expresses the sympathy between “two icons who both led intensely private lives.” Piaf, at whose first wedding Dietrich was matron of honor, died in 1963; Dietrich lived on for decades after. Tickets are $18-$20. Reservations recommended, 523-1553.