Review: Lorna Dallas Divinely Displays GLAMOROUS NIGHTS AND RAINY DAYS at The Laurie Beechman Theatre

Looking around the room at The Laurie Beechman Theatre on Wednesday night, there was proof-positive of the high esteem held in the cabaret and concert community for Lorna Dallas. The Illinois-born, London-based singing actress and award-winning cabaret artist had returned to New York City for the first time since 2020 with her new show GLAMOROUS NIGHTS AND RAINY DAYS, and everyone was there. To list each celebrity seated in the cabaret theater in the basement of the West Bank Cafe would be a task too great to be undertaken (although Stephen Sorokoff captured some of them in his lens in THIS Broadway World article) but, suffice it to say, it was an authentic Who's Who of cabaret, all there to watch an artist at work, an artist at the top of her game, an artist who is adored.

That's Lorna Dallas.

For this new show Ms. Dallas chose, as the lynchpin in her storytelling, the theme of memories, and, specifically, the memories brought to the surface by the quarantine pastime of digitizing the memorabilia from her career. For seventy minutes, Lorna Dallas presented musical offerings relating to shows she has done (Hello, Dolly!), shows she almost did (Ambassador), albums she has recorded (The Girl I Knew), and people she has known, and it is from those people where the musical cabaret derives its title. Although Glamorous Night is a song from the album The Girl I Knew, in this context the glamor arrives in the persons of Dame Cleo Laine and Mister Danny La Rue, both of whom shared the stage with Lorna, as well as decades-long devoted friendships; as for the rain in Lorna's title, it relates to a truly magnificent portion of the evening that refers to her having shared the stage with the MGM icon Dolores Gray, whose Tony Award winning performance in Carnival In Flanders featured a (since) long-lost version of the standard "Here's That Rainy Day." In the context of the play Carnival In Flanders, Ms. Gray sang the future standard as a detailed and layered musical monologue, performing verses that would be expurgated for radio recordings over the years. That arrangement unearthed some decades ago, Lorna's director Barry Kleinbort placed the original composition before the singing actress, who dove in head-first in order to create this special moment for her audiences. This performance, alone, is worth the price of admission.

However...

It cannot go unsaid that the "Here's That Rainy Day" segment of Glamorous Nights And Rainy Days is not the only moment of greatness in the Lorna Dallas show. It cannot go unsaid because there is not a moment of this program during which Dallas does not excel. Here is an artist so dedicated to the craft of storytelling that there is no other option for her but to rise to the occasion with each new monologue that she presents. The program that she, Kleinbort, and Musical Director Christopher Denny have curated ranges in style from classic musical theater (a breathtaking "I Have Dreamed" from The King and I) to modern movie musicals (a bouncy "Back In Business" from Dick Tracy), from comedy monology (a hilarious "Buds Won't Bud") to bona fide torch (an appropriately dramatic "When The Sun Comes Out") and, no matter what the order of the moment, Lorna Dallas is unafraid to take risks and undeterred by genre. A soprano by both birth and training, Lorna is at home with stratospheric trills (the performance of "By Strauss" is sensational) or some impressive, if somewhat surprising, low notes, especially on the aforementioned "Here's That Rainy Day," and a luscious "In The Heart Of The Dark." The quality of the music being produced is as good as it gets, including a power of volume that renders the use of amplification rather superfluous, but, happily, Dallas has mic technique that is beyond reproach. Vocally speaking, there is not one wrong move being made in GLAMOROUS NIGHTS.

But the acting.

Lorna Dallas is an actress. Lorna Dallas is a storyteller. Lorna Dallas is an interpreter. To sit in a room and watch her tell these stories through song is a gift, and it's one that many singers working in cabaret and concert should consider checking out, for there is weighty benefit in learning from Lorna exactly how to find the heartbeat of a song, both in the rhythms built into the music and the intentions created in the lyrics. There is not one false moment in one phrase of one song being performed in Glamorous Nights. There is a purity about Lorna Dallas, as a performer, that shows itself in every aspect of the work, be it the vocal prowess or the acting honesty. There is theatricality but it is unspoiled by conceit, untouched by overthought: it flows from Dallas with a natural quality that presents itself as mere breathing. It is theatrical only insomuch as this is a woman telling a story with the requisite rise and fall of telling a story - it does not go beyond the natural purity of Lorna Dallas, herself. Nowhere better can be found this unsullied character than in these heartbreaking performances of "In Buddy's Eyes" or "He Doesn't Need Me" (from an unproduced musical about PT Barnum titled Step Right Up) but for a genuine sense of satisfaction, one really only needs to hear and to see Lorna Dallas perform "In My Dreams" - a song written especially for her by Amanda McBroom and Ann Hampton Callaway, for there is no experience quite the same is seeing a great musical storyteller perform a composition created just for them and, on this occasion, the experience is a highlight in an evening of excellence.

Glamorous Nights and Rainy Days is cabaret of the highest order, and Lorna Dallas is, indeed, lucky in her associations with Misters Kleinbort and Denny - the two gentlemen that she has named "Team Dallas" have protected her, have listened to her, and they have given her a playground rich with light and nutrients, in order that she might blossom to her brightest abilities, which is precisely what she has done, in all her elegance and benevolence. Lorna Dallas is known and spoken of as an elegant lady but what people fail to realize is that it isn't the manners, the gentility, the refined cadence that make her a woman of elegance: it's the backbone, it's the kindness, it's the generosity of spirit - these are the qualities on display at The Laurie Beechman Theatre on May 17th, where could be witnessed the dedication and care with which she presents the compositions and stories to an audience for whom she has a determination of elation and illumination. That's what makes Lorna Dallas elegant, it's what makes her glamorous, and it is, certainly, what makes her an artist, and one of the best.

Find shows to see on the Laurie Beechman website HERE.

Visit the Lorna Dallas website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher; Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

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