It's one of the UK's greatest jazz singers - and "national treasure" - Dame Cleo Laine's birthday today!
All hail - she is still here!
Many happy returns, Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth DBE (born Clementine Dinah Campbell, 28th October 1927)
Showing posts with label I'm Still Here. Show all posts
Showing posts with label I'm Still Here. Show all posts
Sunday, 29 October 2023
Wednesday, 20 December 2017
But I've done that already, or didn't you know, love?
"It’s jaw-droppingly great." - Paul Taylor, The Independent
"This isn’t just triumphant, it’s transcendent." - Tim Bano, The Stage
"Unmissable, really." - Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph
Hils (who masterminded the trip), History Boy, Madam Arcati and I ventured [for the very first time, incidentally] to the concrete bunker that is The Olivier at the National Theatre [an unforgiving maze of levels, stairs and walkways that could confuse even the most intrepid Victorian explorer] on Monday for the hugely-anticipated new production of Stephen Sondheim's glitziest musical, Follies. In the expert directorial hands of the NT's Associate Dominic Cooke - who has eschewed more modern revisions of the show in favour of its original version - it was probably the most overwhelming thing we've seen all year!
Follies, with its central abiding theme of a reunion of now-elderly former showgirls, has assumed somewhat of a reputation over the years as a "vehicle" for real-life faded beauties to partake in the line-up and shimmy their way back into the limelight for perhaps a last encore. Indeed, the roster of "chorines" who have appeared in the show since its inception in 1971 is impressive, and includes such luminaries as Yvonne De Carlo, Barbara Cook, Carol Burnett, Elaine Stritch, Bernadette Peters, Hildegarde, Lee Remick, Patty Duke, Virginia Mayo, Ann Miller, Dame Diana Rigg, Polly Bergen, Vikki Carr, Donna McKechnie, Shani Wallis, Eartha Kitt, Maxene Andrews, Dolores Gray, Kaye Ballard, Stella Stevens, Juliet Prowse, Dorothy Lamour, Jo Anne Worley, Millicent Martin, Marni Nixon, Régine, Elaine Paige, Adele Anderson and even Yma Sumac.
Indeed, we went to see a glittering one-off "in concert" production at the Royal Albert Hall (by Strictly Come Dancing's Craig Revell-Horwood) that featured a cast of mega-camp proportions, with Stephanie Powers, Anita Dobson, Betty Buckley, Lorna Luft, Anita Harris, Ruthie Henshall and Christine Baranski back in 2015.
This full-fledged, two-and-a-quarter-hours-without-an-interval version was something more than all that, however. The fabled tale of the gathering of "Mr Weissman's Follies" girls amongst the ruins of the about-to-be-demolished theatre in which they all had their finest hours is, of course, an excuse for all of them to get their glad-rags out and perform their own solo pieces for the last time - but here, the slow-moving, monochrome "ghosts" of their former selves in full feathered and sequinned (and magnificent) regalia were not so much the foil for the dance routines, but, quite scarily, the spectres of a collective death: of their dreams, their ambitions, and the lost hopes of their youth.
The archetypal "mutton dressed as lamb" Solange LaFitte (Geraldine Fitzgerald) flirted and winked through her naughty memories in Ah, Paris!, yet her only accompanying dancers were (sexy) ghosts. Frail old Emily and Theodore Whitman (Norma Attallah and Billy Boyle) soft-shoe shuffled through what was, in their day, a top-class dance number Rain On The Roof, but among the rubble theirs was a poignant attempt at joy. And, with the show-stopper to beat all show-stoppers, Carlotta Campion (an utterly convincing and superb Tracie Bennett) belted out - to a long-dead audience on an empty stage - her defiant I'm Still Here; as her own "ghost" sat, forlorn, on a demolished section of wall. Even the opening parade of Those Beautiful Girls was done down a rusty fire escape, the sweeping staircase of old having been already presumably bulldozed... Most chilling of all - and the point at which even a hard-bitten bitch such as I, dear reader, cried - was when the utterly sublime Heidi Schiller (Josephine Barstow) performed her mournful operatic duet with her glamorous, young, former self (Alison Langer) on One More Kiss. We can see ourselves in these chorus girls, after all - and recall our own "glamorous and desirable moments". Long gone.
Thankfully, a little light relief was at hand courtesy of the brassy Hattie Walker (Di Botcher) - now larger than life and hardly a hoofer - who bucked the trend with her obviously tongue-in-cheek Broadway Baby, and the superbly-choreographed Who's That Woman, in which Stella Deems (Dawn Hope) led the assembled girls in a riotous ensemble routine that ended with present-day and past versions linking arms with themselves in full chorus-line fashion, and raised the roof.
Throughout the mêlée of set-pieces, of course, is woven the main story: the embittered and entangled lives and relationships of Sally Durant (Imelda Staunton), Buddy Plummer (Peter Forbes), Phyllis Rogers (Janie Dee) and Benjamin Stone (Philip Quast). Ostensibly secure, comfortably-off and settled, it soon becomes evident that they are anything but...
With the tableau of the quartet's younger selves interjecting across, around and through the stilted conversations, Ben set the scene with his own song of regret The Road You Didn't Take, and the brittle and neurotic Sally maintained a pretence that she and Buddy are happy and secure (In Buddy's Eyes). When the two started dancing together, these lies came to the surface as it became evident that the pair had never, even after three decades, got over the fact that young Ben left young Sally and married young Phyllis instead. Their tearful and beautifully sung duet Too Many Mornings encapsulated this longed-for passion.
But it was all very, very long ago; and despite Sally's obsessive belief that the long-dead relationship might be rekindled, no-one - not the errant Buddy (grasping at affairs as his almost-escape-route from the desperation of his marriage, as outlined in the barn-storming The Right Girl), nor the troubled Ben himself - wanted to "rock the boat" that much. Phyllis came closest. Beautifully bored, elegantly unsatisfied, she ripped the façade behind which Ben hides himself to shreds with her utterly magnificent Could I Leave You?. We were completely bowled over by Janie Dee's performance.
As the cries of anguish rang out over this bitter reunion bash, so the irony of the "young 'uns" number You're Gonna Love Tomorrow sent even more shivers down the spine than usual - as the foursome (Fred Haig as Buddy, Alex Young as Sally, Adam Rhys-Charles as Ben and the superb Zizi Strallen as Phyllis) flirted and cavorted with hardly a care in the world, on their way to wedded (ahem) bliss.
Then the curtains rose on the dream-like Loveland set, and each of the main leads was introduced by a chorus girl to perform their own final "Folly" (variety show style). Buddy's The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues, a pastiche in the chirpy style of Al Jolson or Jimmy Durante, exposed his inability to decide between the disastrous Sally and his long-distance and naive mistress Margie. He was completely upstaged, however, when Phyllis and her young self va-va-voomed their way through The Story of Lucy and Jessie.
Of course, neither character's routine could ever compare with the show's most climactic tour-de-force number Losing My Mind - and in the hands (and with the tonsils) of Miss Staunton, "Sally's Folly" was a bitter, desperate, angry, bewildered, gut-wrenching cry for help from a character who was so far removed from reality that she can no longer function. Not so much a show-tune as a cataclysm...
Even her performance couldn't reach the polished heights of Mr Quast and his awe-inspiring voice (throughout the show). He is one of the very best in the business. His portrayal of "Ben's Folly" was on another level altogether however, as his "rictus grin" as the leading man in the song-and-dance number Live, Laugh, Love crumbled away in a sea of broken, lonely sobs that had me completely frozen in my seat. Utter genius.
Unlike previous adaptations of the book by James Goldman, this Follies has no happy, neat nor tidy ending. Phyllis, of course, gets the final line. As she picks Ben up to take him home he says: You're quite something, aren't you?" - to which she replies with "Bet your ass!"
I am overjoyed we got to see this Sondheim masterpiece before its final curtain on 3rd January. I have rarely felt so exhausted and thrilled by a production. It was an incomparably great experience!
Follies at the NT
More Follies.
Tuesday, 2 April 2013
I've seen them all, and my dear...
Things will never be the same again.
From The New York Times
"Elaine Stritch is leaving the building.What will the theatrical world do without her?
Ms. Stritch, the husky-voiced actress who, with a Tony Award and three Emmys to her credit, became a beloved cabaret star in recent years at the Carlyle Hotel, said on Wednesday that she was giving up her apartment there and returning to her home state, Michigan. But not before she performs one last show, “Elaine Stritch at the Carlyle: Movin’ Over and Out,” from April 2 to 6.
Mere mention of the word “retirement” drew a gasp and flat denial from Ms. Stritch, who is 88. “What actor would ever say they’re done?” she fairly shouted over the telephone.
Still, in fragile shape after two recent falls and a hip replacement, she said she knew it was the end of an era."
Elaine Stritch
More Stritchy
[Thanks to Marc at Deep Dish for the info!]
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Queen of Tap
In memory of Miss Ann Miller, who died eight years ago today, I have created her a brand new "exhibit" in the Dolores Delargo Towers - Museum of Camp.
Over here I feel like sharing some more of my favourite performances of hers...
A magnificent 1989 performance of 42nd Street:
Her last stage appearance, aged 75, in Follies (1998):
And finally - I really can't believe I have never featured this, possibly my favourite piece of kitsch TV EVER, the "Love Boat Follies" (in which she does diva battle with Ethel Merman, Della Reese and Carol Channing!)...
Magnificently camp!
RIP, Miss Miller.
Thursday, 21 October 2010
The hostess who wants to please!
"Cabaret is one-to-one, like a party, and you're the hostess who wants to please. Most of all you have to have a good time and hope your audience joins in the fun."
This is turning into a day for Divas! Thanks to another of my favourite bloggers, TJB at Stirred, Straight Up, With A Twist, I am reminded that it is the 86th birthday today of Miss Julie Wilson - actress, singer, and beacon of fabulousness!
Miss Wilson famously arrived in London from Nebraska via Noo Yawk to appear in the West End debut of Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate in 1951. She liked it so much she stayed far longer than that show's run, and enrolled in RADA (while still gracing London's stages in productions such as South Pacific).
With that prestigious learning under her belt, she returned to her homeland to wow Broadway as well, before drifting inexorably (as so many before her) onto television. Evidently tired of this limiting medium, she announced her retirement during the 70s "to spend more time with her family".
But you can't keep a true grande dame of showbiz down for long. Julie Wilson was "rediscovered" as a camp icon in the 1980s, and continues to perform to this day as a much-loved popular cabaret artiste at various venues across the States. Here is a most appropriate song that she loves to perform these days...
And here's the lady still being "bad" in her 80s...
Happy birthday to a real old broad!
Julie Wilson official website
Friday, 24 April 2009
Good times and bad times, I've seen them all, and my dear...
“I've made so many movies playing a hooker that they don't pay me in the regular way anymore. They leave it on the dresser.”
As a little tribute to the very lovely multi-talented nut-job Shirley MacLaine, whose 75th birthday it is today, here is just a little sample of the lady's talents...
And she most definitely is - still here!
Shirley MacLaine website
Friday, 26 December 2008
The most exciting woman in the world, RIP
An intrinsic part of my life, Eartha Kitt is dead. I am distraught.
Eartha was the artiste who outshone them all - she saw Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Pearl Bailey, Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan come and go, she was courted by Howard Hughes and Orson Welles, yet all her success and her long-term relationships (with film producer Arthur Loew Jr and cosmetics mogul Charles Revson) failed to bring her happiness after a sad and abusive childhood.
She was apparently considered "too white" to be treated seriously in the black music fraternity. Of the experience she said "I was ostracised by ... black people for twenty-five years because they were conditioned by the media into thinking that all black people should be singing the same kind of music". But white society in general considered her an "uppity" black woman.
Yet by the time she had reached her mid-twenties Eartha Kitt was headlining at top clubs in the United States and Europe and rubbing elbows with such twentieth-century heavyweights as physicist Albert Einstein and Indian prime minister Nehru.
At the peak of her success at the end of the 60s - sell-out cabaret appearances, hugely successful songs like C'est Si Bon, Uska Dara, An Old-Fashioned Girl, I Want to Be Evil and Santa Baby, and an acclaimed part as Catwoman in Batman - she famously clashed with First Lady Mrs (Lyndon B.) Johnson over the Vietnam War and overnight the work dried up for Eartha in the USA.
She only made a real commercial comeback - with the help of her largely European gay fan base - in the 1980s with a string of Hi-NRG songs, including Where Is My Man? - the soundtrack to my own coming-out.
It was not just for her exotic beauty and strangely haunting talents, but for her resilience in spite of setbacks that we loved Eartha Kitt. I was overjoyed a few years ago to have the privilege of seeing her on stage at the Sondheim 75th Birthday Gala Children Will Listen in 2005, and it was inevitable that we would cheer the roof off the Palladium at her choice of song - what else but I'm Still Here?
The world has lost a truly great star - and we will never see her like again. RIP.
Eartha Kitt biography
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Three cheers and dammit!
With the "risk of redundancy" situation in work getting even more difficult, and my employers telling me I am not "matched" to a job I already do, I'm with Shirley MacLaine on this one...
I've run the gamut, A to Z;
Three cheers and dammit, C'est la vie.
I got through all of last year, and I'm here!
Lord knows, at least I was there, and I'm here!
Look who's here! I'm still here!!
I've run the gamut, A to Z;
Three cheers and dammit, C'est la vie.
I got through all of last year, and I'm here!
Lord knows, at least I was there, and I'm here!
Look who's here! I'm still here!!
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