Lorna Luft performed at The Pheasantry, London [this performance took place shortly before Lorna Luft was taken ill, everyone at Musical Theatre Review sends their very best wishes].
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Following her engagement in the musical Holiday Inn at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Lorna Luft has been back in the UK for a mini-tour of the Live at Pizza Express music venues.
Like her legendary mother, Luft considers London her second home, and she is always welcome as one of the last defenders of the Great American Songbook.
Paying tribute to memorable female lyricists, she opened her act with ‘Hey, Look Me Over’ from the Lucille Ball musical Wildcat, and also included the jazzy ‘I’ve Got Your Number’ from Little Me which the great, but supposedly difficult, Carolyn Leigh both wrote to the unforgettable music of Cy Coleman.
In addition to an extensive Dorothy Fields medley, Luft paid tribute to the lyrics of Carole Bayer Sager, words that the singer/actress had had the privilege to sing when she took over from Lucie Arnaz in the Marvin Hamlisch musical They’re Playing Our Song.
After the title song from that show, Luft offered a mash-up of ‘Everything Old is New Again’/‘When I Get My Name in Lights’ and the popular ballad ‘Don’t Cry Out Loud’, all which the lyricist wrote with the late Peter Allen, Lorna’s first brother-in-law, in whose musical biopic, The Boy From Oz, those three songs ended up.
Luft went on with a moving homage to perhaps the greatest of all male lyricists, Lorenz Hart, with a Babes in Arms medley, concluding her concert with a reprise of her ‘Not Even Nominated’ compilation number she introduced at the London Palladium in the revue Stairway to the Stars.
In excellent vocal shape, Luft treated her adoring audience to an encore of ‘Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody’, paying tribute to her mother Judy Garland.
Showbiz royalty par excellence, Luft’s appearances are never to be missed.
Patrick Honoré
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