Nathalie Mentha is utterly passionate as she embodies the heart and soul of Edith Piaf, a French singer-songwriter, cabaret performer and one of the country's most widely known international stars of the 20th century.Mentha, a member of Italian theater company Teatro Potlach of Fara Sabina, collaborated with Touchstone Theatre on the enthralling and moving “Edith Piaf: Hymn to Love” at the Bethlehem theater through Sunday.
The hour-long cabaret-style show tells the story of Piaf’s life as well as those of her collaborators and lovers, through her tour of America, up until the end of her life. 
Mentha is accompanied by musician and Touchstone ensemble affiliate Jason Hedrington and Touchstone ensemble member Emma Ackerman.Hedrington proves himself a talented pianist, dramatically opening the show by walking down the aisle to the onstage piano and immediately tossing off a string of glissandos.Director Pino di Buduo of Teatro Potlach elevates the sense of high drama with clever use of the spiral staircase at the rear of the stage down which Mentha as Piaf descends through the mists of a fog machine.Ackerman acts as a narrator, telling the story of Piaf’s life as she flitted from love affair to love affair and discovered performers and composers with whom she could make her art. Ackerman’s narration ties the performances of songs by Mentha together and puts them in context ot what was happening in her life. Ackerman also is sort of a fly-on-the-wall every-fan of Piaf, gazing with admiration on the French chanteuse as she performs.As Piaf, Mentha is electric as she delivers Piaf’s signature torch ballads about love, loss and sorrow.She conveys the emotionally wrought and often autobiographical songs using her whole body, her hands clenching and her face shining.The show begins in the early 1940s with Piaf’s relationship with Raymond Asso, who was her lover and composer, but whose jealousy destroyed the relationship.Hedrington does double duty skillfully portraying Piaf’s string of men.Piaf then met Marguerite Monnot who became a close friend for the rest of her life. The two women wrote songs together that would be part of Piaf's repertoire for years to come. Some of these included her hit songs “Milord” and her signature song, "La Vie en rose." Monnot also wrote the French musical “Irma La Douce” which went to Broadway after being staged in Paris.Next Piaf met Michel Emer who wrote “De l'autre côté de la rue” for her, and then she discovered the French singer Yves Montand and she wrote “Mais qu’est-ce que j’ai '" for him.However, she was jealous of his popularity causing her to break it off with him.Hedrington shows his versatility when he plays accordian for “L'Accordéoniste" written for Piaf by Michel Emer,On her tour of America, she is at first not embraced by American audiences, who were disappointed by her simple presentation, but a glowing review turns things around. While in America she meets the love of her life boxer Marcel Cerdan.Mentha demonstrates Piaf’s overwhelming ardor in a fateful phone call with Cerdan who was killed in a 1949 plane crash.Her performance of "L'Hymne à L'Amour" which she wrote in memory of Cerdon is painfully heartfelt with the devastated Piaf falling to the ground at the end.We learn her life-long friend Monnot died tragically of a burst appendix and Piaf succumbed to addition, even losing her voice for time.However, despite her decline, Piaf has comeback with "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien," by Charles Dumont and the song became her anthem is her later years.Mentha conveys Piaf’s inner strength and determination in her final song ending the show on a powerful note.“Edith Piaf: Hymn to Love,” 8 p.m. March 7 and 2 p.m. March 8, Touchstone Theatre, 321 E 4th St, Bethlehem 18015. Tickets are $25 adults and $15 students and seniors.For information call 610-867-1689, or go to www.touchstone.org.