Lorna Dallas is a rare breed. Her muscular soprano exhibits the formal training and stage authority of an opera singer, yet with guidance from director Barry Kleinbort, she performs with the intimacy of a veteran cabaret performer.
This show is a tribute to two of the artist’s leading ladies, Cleo Laine, with whom she shared the British stage in Showboat, is represented by glamorous nights. Danny La Rue, Dolly to her Irene Molloy in Hello, Dolly! introduced Dallas to the original context and verse of James Van Heusen/ Johnny Burke’s “Here’s That Rainy Day” (Carnival in Flanders 1953) which she later renders replete with dialogue. It’s a revelation.
A refined “Glamorous Night” (Ivor Novello/Christopher Hassall) arrives on pointillist piano. With innate wink, Dallas next offers the jaunty, tandem “My Big Best Shoes” (Sandy Wilson), its rat-a-tat chorus as if giggled, and “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” (Jerry Herman). The performer leans out including us in her experience. Stephen Sondheim’s “Back in Business” bobs up with similar effervescence: “Back in business, and ain’t it grand/Let the good times roll!” she sings crinkling her nose. Melody whooshes.
Michel Legrand/Alan and Marilyn Bergman’s “Summer Me, Winter Me” presents yet another mood. Vocal transitions evoke frisson. Piano is palpably tender. Listen carefully to a Denny arrangement, there are subtle layers. Lyric emerges sheathed in silk, satin. It’s gorgeous. Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II’s “In the Heart of the Dark” was expected by its writers to be a big hit. It wasn’t. “Sometimes the public can be wrong,” Dallas notes. She sings as if conjuring, the power of her vision channeled to manifest.
The artist conducts “By Strauss” (George and Ira Gershwin) with her right hand which sways, points, pivots, and punctuates. Ever wry, Kleinbort has written additional lyrics: “The schlock they call rock is a brutal assault/And as for that thing they call rap, Oy gevalt!” Included is an operatic excerpt from the song’s namesake. Vocal climbs with the organic force of a salmon swimming upstream. Whoa!
Amanda McBroom/Ann Hampton Callaway’s “In My Dreams” was commissioned for Dallas who had expressed feeling “the reassuring presence” of her late husband, Gary. “…but the dark is not as quiet as it seems/For you’re here tonight in my dreams…” It’s lovely. The artist takes us there.
Leslie Bricuse/Anthony Newley’s “Pure Imagination” dips, swirls, and gently soars like a lazy kite on the graceful breeze of Denny’s piano. An encore of the songwriters’ “When You Gotta Go” is deft and understated.
Dallas includes older, more eclectic material, always a treat. She, herself, is an original.
Photos by Conor Weiss
Lorna Dallas: Glamorous Nights and Rainy Days
Directed by Barry Kleinbort
Musical Director- Christopher Denny
The Laurie Beechman Theatre
Repeated May 17, 2023
