The best cabaret shows not only have a theme to draw together what could be a disconnected list of songs but they also have purpose, a resonance that sets them apart and gives the performer a platform to build what needs to be a conversation with the audience. Melissa Errico and Isabelle Georges understand this extremely well in their new show Deux Grandes Dames which arrives at the  Crazy Coqs for its UK premiere direct from a handful of performances in Paris. It is a show not only built on its bilingual, transatlantic merger of two schools of  music writing but also on the very obvious friendship between the co-stars who share the limelight.

They met, Errico and Georges explain, a few years ago but connected regularly during the pandemic and became great pals, having both appeared in Michel Legrand’s  musical Amour in the French and American productions, and both are credited with being his ‘muse’. And Legrand’s  music features at the top of this 80-minute performance with the opening duets Chanson des Demoiselles and Passé Muraille, sung here in both languages that set the tone for the show to come, filled with recognisable tunes from classic  musical theatre and less familiar French tunes that showcase the richness of the two cultural influences.