By Andrew Poretz*** Star of many musicals on London’s West End stages, Lorna Dallas is a vastly accomplished singer and actress—and 2020 Bistro Award winner for “Consummate Cabaret Artistry.” In her newly unveiled latest show, Snapshots, at Chelsea Table + Stage, Dallas presented very personal stories from 
her life and career, interspersed them with marvelous musical choices that brought them to life.
To get a bigger sense of Dallas’s storied career, especially her ex-pat years in London, this reviewer listened to older Dallas material found online. Her operatic soprano has a warm mezzo bottom. If not quite as supple as decades ago, it is an excellent instrument with a significant range and power, and effortlessly shifts between “head voice” and “chest voice.”
Snapshots, directed by Barry Kleinbort, with musical director-accompanist Christopher Denny, offered songs by a diverse list of composers, including Jerome Kern, Marvin Hamlisch, Kander and Ebb, Cole Porter, the somewhat forgotten Ivor Novello and Harry Nilsson. Dallas opened with a sweet rendition of “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” (Burt Bacharach, Hal David), the lyrics of which set the tone for the show’s theme.
The star’s greatest skill is her exceptional ability to paint a picture—or a snapshot, if you will—in the listener’s mind. In a medley of the title tune, “Snapshots” (Harvey Schmidt, Tom Jones) with 
“Walking Among My Yesterdays” (John Kander, Fred Ebb), Dallas created astonishingly vivid images for this reviewer. She was particularly effective on Jerry Herman’s “Song on the Sand” from La Cage aux Folles, pulling the listener right into the scene. (Something about this was surprisingly emotional; my handwritten note asks, “Why did this make me weepy?” There’s no answer, other than that it did.)
Dallas also demonstrated that she could handle a rhythm number with “Blues in the Night” (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer). A terrific jazz waltz medley of “Waltz of My Heart (Ivor Novello, Christopher Hassall) and “Waltz in Swingtime” (Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields) was quite fun, with special lyrics by Kleinbort. Novello, an English writer and a favorite composer of Dallas, wrote songs about Paris during World War II . A sublime medley of Novello’s “Paris Reminds Me of You” and “The Last Time I Saw Paris” (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II) had some angelic playing by Denny. Yet another terrific medley combined Cole Porter’s “Let’s Fly Away” with “Let’s Get Away From it All” (Matt Dennis , Tom Adair). Here, Kleinbort’s special lyrics brought the current presidential race into play, and also updated Adair’s lyric of “all the 48” (the pre-1959 count of states) to “all the 50 states.”
Dallas told the charming and romantic story of how her late husband, Garry Brown, a renowned English booking agent, found her when seeing a snapshot sent by a publicist. “This is the woman I’m going to marry,” he declared. This aptly led to another fun number, “Flash Bang Wallop” (David Henker), where Dallas displayed deft comedic timing. Some lines were hilarious, such as one about Ann Boleyn: “Lost ‘er ‘ead, but she kept ‘er smile.”
The enthusiastic audience, replete with cabaret royalty, received a special treat in the form of a Barry Kleinbort’s song “Stillness,” from a new, as-yet-unproduced musical, Travels in Vermeer. Kleinbort was present for this first public performance of his song. Most remarkable was how Dallas held that stillness so palpably in her interpretation. The show highlight was a brilliant musical comedy piece about a time Dallas overextended herself while performing in London decades ago. She told of Kismet composers, Robert Wright and George Forrest, asking her to star in a London revival. With much downtime available, she concomitantly accepted a gig to perform a “very Vegas” cabaret show at the Savoy. Musically illustrating the 
dilemma, Dallas sang “Stranger in Paradise,” shifting between the serious version of the number and the swinging “Vegas” arrangement, at one point even singing it in German.
A lovely finale of “Ordinary Miracles” (Marvin Hamlisch, Marilyn and Alan Bergman) was followed by an encore, the century-old “One In a Blue Moon” (Jerome Kern, Anne Caldwell). Dallas remarked, “I think these thoughts are truly timeless.” They were. Lorna Dallas remains a compelling, dynamic performer. Snapshots is an aural photo album of gems from a well-lived life.
Snapshots plays again on Sunday, November 3 at 7:00 PM at Chelsea Table + Stage. Reserve here.
All photos, including features image are by Andrew Poretz
