Leigh Zimmerman and Domenick Allen performed Love Affair From A 2 Z at the St James Theatre Studio, London. Picture: Michael Wharley Photography
A Love Affair From A 2 Z with Leigh Zimmerman and Domenick Allen at the St James Theatre Studio, London.
Leigh Zimmerman certainly knows how to make a guy feel small. At 5ft 11in this statuesque American has a start on most of them anyway, but in her high heels she towers over her long-haired husband of 20 years, the British rock singer-guitarist Domenick Allen.
These two met when Miss Zimmerman got her Broadway break in The Will Rogers Follies in 1993 and their Love Affair From A 2 Z, a heady mix of the chemistry, the music, the frothy fun and the anecdotes which make them a clearly still-in-love but disparate couple, got the London Festival of Cabaret off to a thumpingly successful start at a packed and wildly enthusiastic St James Studio.
Because she is so striking to look at and has those endless legs (covered up in the first half by a figure-hugging, full-length Julien Macdonald creation), it could be easy to forget what a serious singer-dancer-actress she is.
But you don’t get an Olivier award for A Chorus Line, an Olivier nomination for the delightfully ditsy Ulla in The Producers, or the demanding part of Velma in Chicago, all three big West End hits, unless you can cut it at top level. And this lady most definitely can, moving us with fine versions of Peggy Lee’s ‘Fever’ and Bonnie Raitt’s ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’.
Leigh’s old man, a former member of 1980s group Foreigner and a Las Vegas regular, is less well-known here, but now they have settled in London and love it, we shall discover he is a hugely versatile, multiple-instrument-playing entertainer, whether it be rock, pop, cabaret or even jazz (his aunt is jazz legend Annie Ross and he has played with Buddy Rich).
His forte is wittily updating other people’s songs to make them more contemporary. I’m not sure Stephen Sondheim even knows what ‘twerking’ is, but there it was in Allen’s version of ‘The Little Things You Do Together’. And Dave Frishberg might not have recognised ‘Blizzard of Lies’, all about the torrent of insincerities and downright untruths we are marooned in as part of our daily life-speak. But both worked well.
In the second half, Dad called up their 13-year-old daughter Cayleigh to belt out that old crowd-pleaser ‘River Deep Mountain High’ and this two-hour love-in ended with what else but ‘All You Need is Love’.
Backing was brilliantly provided by John Smith on piano, Matt Senior, a very lively drummer, and Don Richardson on bass.
The Festival runs to the middle of November in several prime venues including the Palace Theatre, St James and Soho Theatres, the Crazy Coqs and the Pheasantry.
Among the featured artists we are to enjoy over the next month or so in Festival mastermind Neil Marcus’ “baby” will be Michael Feinstein, Janie Dee, Elaine Paige, Maria Friedman, Julian Ovenden, Liz Robertson, KT Sullivan, Steve Ross, Barb Jungr and Alexander Armstrong in a veritable feast to set before a city where cabaret is suddenly booming.
If what follows matches the standard of A 2 Z (that’s A for Allen and Zee for Zimmerman), we cabaret groupies will indeed be very happy bunnies.
Jeremy Chapman
www.londonfestivalofcabaret.com
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