Frances Ruffelle - Award Winning Musical Star

Frances Ruffelle was born in Wanstead on the 29th of August 1965.

From an early age Frances trained at the Sylvia Young theatre school (founded in Wanstead by her mother), and began performing at the age of seven. At 16 she appeared in the children’s musical Gavin the Monster.

In 1984 Frances originated the role of Dinah in the first West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express.

1985 saw the part for which Frances has become most well known, Eponine in Les Miserables. Frances played the role in the original casts of both the London and Broadway productions of this show, winning four major awards, namely the Tony Award, the Helen Hayes Award, Theatreworld Award and Outer Critic's Circle Award for Best Actress.

In 1988 Frances appeared in Mack and Mabel in Concert and Save the Children--Christmas Carols and Festive Songs (with Elaine Paige, Michael Ball and many others).

In 1991 Frances played starred as Yonah in Stephen Schwartz' West End musical Children of Eden, and also appeared in the musical Apples.

In 1994 Frances represented The United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Singing and songwriting form an important part of Frances’ career. As well as the soundtrack recordings  for Les Miserables and Children of Eden, Frances has recorded two solo albums (Fragile, released in 1994 and Frances Ruffelle released in 1998) and has a third in production. To promote her second album, which contained mostly musical theatre songs, Frances made a return to New York City to perform two cabaret-style performances. She also did some similar shows in London.

Frances has appeared as Kitty in the TV series Headless (she also co-wrote the soundtrack. Other TV and Film Credits have included the film Road to Ithaca, The Further Adventures of Robin Hood, The Invitation and Sky One’s Dream team. She has also guest starred on a number of television programs, most notably singing a love duet with Ricky Martin on LWT’s An Audience With Ricky Martin.

Frances married director John Caird in 1990 and had two children, Eliza and Nathaniel by him. The couple separated a couple of years later.

In 1995 Frances had a third child, Felix, with her then boyfriend Rob Manley.

 Frances continues to work on material for her solo albums and is rumored to be planning a return to the musical stage.