Janie Dee: New Life at Crazy Coqs, Live at Zedel, London until 10 September 2020.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Live cabaret is back in town at last after five Covid-wrecked months and the Crazy Coqs could not have picked a more delightful star to launch the restart than the adorable, incredibly versatile Janie Dee.
Sensational in the shimmering red dress which took a soaking along with an audience of 200 diehards when she co-produced and starred in the open-air A Little Night Music at Holland Park Opera a couple of weeks earlier, Dee marked that venture with a beautifully acted and this time dry version of ‘Send in the Clowns’.
The weather that evening was so vile that ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ would have been more appropriate, she said. That was one of three songs from the Great American Songbook which she sang early in a compelling 75-minute show, along with ‘On A Clear Day’ and ‘Get Happy’, which had a bit of everything.
It was a more serious Janie Dee than usual but one in tune with this sombre year when many have lost loved ones and their livelihoods. The show’s title New Life asked the question: Do we really want to go back to what we had before or will we learn from the horror of the pandemic and go on to something better? “We have had a wake-up call,” she said. “If they all died and we took no notice, they will have died in vain.”
A lady of many passions – Dee initiated the delayed London Climate Change Festival and spoke of the 40,000 who died from pollution – she sang the haunting Sting composition ‘Fragile’ (“Lest we forget how fragile we are”) that resonated with her own thoughts. “Tomorrow’s rain will wash the stain away/But something in our minds will always stay.”
This wasn’t the Dee of old who moved around the room, patting a bald head or two, interacting with her audience. “These days I have to behave” but that didn’t stop her doing the very suggestive ‘My Private Delight’ while gorging an ice-cream lollipop. That clever AC Smith and Bella Barlow number is a regular feature of Dee cabarets but always a welcome one.
Family and looking after one’s parents figure high on the Dee ethic and it was the cue for ‘People’ (“people who need people are the luckiest people in the world”). Food was another of the passions she was able to indulge in during lockdown, including baking sourdough bread and having problems growing her cucumbers.
We learned she was a trained reflexologist, there’s no end to her talents, and later Dee went back 40 years to her early days for the wicked Tom Lehrer classic ‘Poisoning Pigeons in the Park’ as she had sung it for a touring group called The Entertainers.
As you would expect, there was plenty of Sondheim although nothing from Follies, two versions of which kept her fully occupied at the National Theatre (and showed what a terrific dancer she is too).
The sentiments of ‘Move On’ from Sunday in the Park With George were very much in keeping with the theme of the evening. Joining her on that number was accompanist Stevie Higgins who played some gorgeous piano.
Dee also dipped into Sweeney Todd for ‘Green Finch and Linnet Bird’ and Company for ‘Another Hundred People’. But it was Kander and Ebb who had the last word with the actress and singer bowing out with the title command from Cabaret. “Come to the cabaret, old chum.” We did and it’s so good to have you back!
Dee’s three-night residency sold so quickly – Covid spaced-out tables reduced audience maximum to 42 – that New Life’s run has been extended. It runs from 8-10 September in Crazy Coqs’ second 9.30pm shift but with a different MD. Higgins won’t be there as he’ll be in Norway performing works by father-and-son William and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The first Thursday was notable for being the first live-streamed show from Zedel’s. For £12 you could have Dee direct to your front room. Of course, it’s not as good as sharing a cosy cabaret room with this stunning, warm and life-enhancing lady. How could it be? But particularly now as we move into autumn and winter it’s a brilliant substitute for out-of-towners.
More Crazy Coqs acts are lined up for future live-streaming. So is this going to be “the new normal”?
Jeremy Chapman
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