Parlez vous Dire Straits? Seattle's 'The French Project' does, in a silly, sublime new show

Sublimely silly, and sometimes simply sublime, "The French Project: The New New Wave" is an evening of chansons with a difference.

Yes, the songs are in French — for a while, anyway. And the performers couldn't be more Piaf-dramatic or shoulder-shruggingly Gallic.

But that repertoire ... some of it sounds so familiar ... I could swear I knew that second tune. No way was it Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg or Françoise Hardy.

But surely it's a vintage Europop hit of some kind?

Oh, wait.

It was Dire Straits' "The Sultans of Swing," being sold by singer Basil Harris as if it sprang straight from the Gitane-fogged streets of Montmartre.

"The French Project" is the brainchild, I'm told, of Seattle's Erin Jorgensen, a self-described "punk-rock marimba player" who's working in close cahoots with Harris of "Awesome," Charles Smith of Greek Active Theater and arts-gal-around-town Sara Edwards. In this show she's getting stellar accompaniment, too, from drummer Kirk Anderson, also of "Awesome," and Sari Breznau of Circus Contraption.

The sextet's poker-faced delivery of English-language oldies in French, some of them instantly recognizable, is a great joke. But the joke is backed up with some great voices and top-notch musicianship. The musical numbers are interspersed with locally made film shorts that pay homage to Truffaut and others. The high point: what looks like a 1950s American TV clip manipulated by Shane Wahlund and Michael Anderson (the mischief-makers behind some of Dina Martina's videos) to wangle two outrageously different stories, in three languages, from the same footage.

There are some great musical gags in the show, most of them best left as a surprise. Suffice it to say that something awfully strange happens to "La Vie en Rose," when the evening's promised "special guests" take things in a far-from-bon-vivant direction. ("This is the first time," Jorgensen quipped after the show, "we've had another country be our guest.")

But along with the gags, there are some beautiful moments. Jorgensen's touch on the marimba is dapper and delicate — nothing "punk rock" about it. And her cover of Boris Vian's war-protest song, "The Deserter" — just her and her lightly-wielded mallets — is perfection.

Multi-instrumentalist Breznau, full of musical surprises, is a treat, too. Harris (on bass), Smith (on autoharp) and Edwards (on guitar) all share vocal duty, and all shine in their limelight moments.

If there were a soundtrack to this show, I'd snap it up. And if you're looking for a deftly delivered distraction from midterm electoral politics, this may be the bonbon you need.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com