'Parlez moi d'amour," sang Karen Egan. "Redites moi des choses tendres." (Speak to me of love, tell me tender things.) The opening night of her show, Café Cabaret, in Bewley's Café Theatre, Grafton Street, Dublin, drew cries of "fantastich" and "terrifique" from many in the audience.
The former Nuala comedian, who sang with great feeling of Mein Herr and mon coeur, drew multilingual responses from the international audience celebrating St Patrick's Day late into the night.
Writer and actor Mark O'Halloran, who is currently working with the Corn Exchange Theatre Company and whose film Adam and Paul has just been completed, was one of those who loved the show. Another was fellow cabaret diva Susannah de Wrixon.
Egan and de Wrixon will be staging a new play in four weeks' time at the same venue about Dorothy Parker. The play will be based on Parker's short stories and poems, with music by Trevor Knight.
The singer dedicated the show to her father, Séamus Egan, the former Supreme Court judge, who died earlier this year.
Among those at the gig were Wolf Güsser from Berlin and his French girlfriend, Johanna Guinard. They loved the French, German and Turkish songs, which included nine of Egan's own compositions. Others present on opening night were the artist Jessica Greahan and RTÉ broadcasters Yvonne Judge and Karen Ward with her husband John Cantwell.
Karen Egan's Café Cabaret continues tonight and runs next week from Wednesday to Saturday at Bewley's, Grafton Street, Dublin