Network: 
Interview - The French-Irish girl who ran away with the circus (well, La Clique) has settled into a massive six week run at the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. Her new show The Dark Angel is an exploration of dark and light in the human condition. Short vignettes, told through song, inspired by Weimar cabaret and rock, presented by a consummate actress and storyteller.
Describing Camille, by her own admission, is no mean feat, which is why most reviewers will settle for giving her 5 stars (no such luck here).
On defining herself, she says: "Burlesque is wrong. Cabaret has so many different connotations, it can put some people off, others, it turns them on."
I suggested that 'queer' is a good alternative word for describing something 'other'.
"I think I might have to mix it with something. I find it interesting that groups can take a word that might have been slanderous then empower themselves by using it in a different way."
We decide between us that the new term for outsider cabaret is "Queerabaret".
Camille's song choices range from the camptastic 'In These Shoes', to the unnerving 'Little Water Song' and the tearjerking 'Look Mummy, No Hands' (seriously, three times of seen this and sobbed like a crazed 'mo). Jacques Brel is clearly her passion, and she is so adept at embodying these difficult songs that for 'Amsterdam' and 'Marieke' she needs no accompaniment at all.
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For all her elegance - wearing a sparkly dress, swaying on a fairy-lit swing - she is just as comfortable smearing her face with white make-up, growling and grabbing her crotch like a horny old man.
Just across the road from the Apollo is the sight of the old Windmill Theatre, the only theatre not to close during WW2, which led me on to ask her about performing alongside Will Young in 'Mrs Henderson Presents'
"That came after my first year in Edinburgh doing La Clique. I got spotted by Ewan Bremner and he told Stephen Frears. It was like a lottery ticket to be chosen to be in that film - my favourite era. Luckily I didn't have to remove any clothes."
"Would you have?" I asked.
"I think people would die of shock. I know how to contain my body in a really good way, it's not a pretty picture in real life."
"[Will Young] as we say in Ireland is a dote (a really lovely person). He is just adorable. I remember when I first came to the set he left me a little note welcoming me. We hung out because we had to learn dances together that never made the cut...but they were good! He was scared because he had more to lose than me. I was just a singer in the Spiegeltent - he's Will Young. Everybody loves a downfall for somebody that's well loved in the industry and I think he is. We just had a laugh together."
She's not 'just' a singer. She's recently supported Jools Holland on tour, including the Royal Albert Hall, played the Sydney opera House, she's acted, been an accomplished architect and painter, ruled Edinburgh Fringe for several years, and now looks set to make a permanent mark on the London scene. She tells me she's nervous, because London is a more cynical crowd (and it's no wonder, having seen some of the tacky cabaret foisted upon the capital in the East End). But Camille is a world apart, and a must see this season.
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The Dark Angel runs at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue until the 16th January 2010.
