Frances Ruffelle was born on 29th August, 1965 in London and she trained at her mother’s school, the Sylvia Young Theatre School. Ruffelle began performing at the age of seven, and appeared in the children’s musical ”Gavin the Monster” when she was sixteen. At eighteen she originated the role of Dinah in the first West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Starlight Express”. It was during this time she was invited to originate the role of Éponine in the original London production of “Les Misérables”. She received rave reviews and was also invited to be in the original Broadway production. Frances can be heard on both the London Cast recording and the Broadway cast recording. For her role as Éponine she received four awards and she also released a single of “Own My Own”.
In 1988 she appeared in ”Mack and Mabel” in concert, Save the Children – Christmas carols (with Elaine Paige, Michael Ball, Claire Moore, Dave Willets and many others); three years later she starred as ‘Yonah’ in Stephen Schwatrz’ West End musical “Children of Eden”, and also appeared in the musical “Apples”.
Since then she has released several pop singles, guest starred on various television shows, and represented the UK in 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. The song was ‘Lonely Symphony’ and it came 10th on the night. In 1994, she also released her first solo album, ‘Fragile’, containing many songs written or co-written by her. In March 1998 her second solo album, ‘Frances Ruffelle’ was released, containing mostly musical theatre songs. To promote that album she made a return to New York City to perform two cabaret-style performances. She also did some similar shows in London. Frances and her sister Alison appeared on BBC TV’s ‘This Is Your Life’ recently when their mother Sylvia Young was the subject.
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