By Marilyn Lester***Judging from the packed Laurie Beechman Theatre, filled with cabaret royalty (Marilyn Maye, Joyce Breach, Charles Busch, Rex Reed, Donna McKechnie, for starters), it seemed the assembled should have broken out in a chorus of “Hello, Lorna!” (sung to the Jerry Herman tune). After a very 
long hiatus of living mostly in the UK, Lorna Dallas was back where she belonged—on a New York stage, where she dazzled.
With Glamorous Nights and Rainy Days, the diva proved that her crystalline operatic soprano is as radiant and flexible as ever, with a solid range and superb vocal control from mezzo to soaring heights. Her opener, “Glamorous Night” (Ivor Novello, Christopher Hassall) certainly set the stage. Another “message” came in Stephen Sondheim’s “Back in Business.” In her UK sojourn, Dallas, who had been active in New York and West End stages big and small, had stepped back from all that for married life with late husband, Garry Brown. Her return to performance here in New York was actually heralded by a Bistro award for “Continued Consummate Artistry,” presented literally a few days before COVID lockdown and the pandemic that turned the world on its head.
Conceived with her two longtime collaborators, director Barry Kleinbort and musical director (piano and arrangements), Christopher Denny (who with his orchestral, Broadway style of playing was in top form), the show was intensely personal and carefully cur
ated to reflect music pointedly appropriate and meaningful, and delightfully, inventively thought out. Plus, the narrative was tight and added in lean dollops that moved the evening forward briskly.
Most tempos were gentle, but a little swing (and fun novelty) was added to “My Best Shoes/Put on Your Sunday Clothes” (Sandy Wilson/Jerry Herman) and to “Buds Won’t Bud” (Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg). In the realm of “hidden gems”—even buried gems, Dallas presented “Surprise/He Doesn’t Need Me” (Don Gohman, Hal Hackady) from the 1974 musical Ambassador and an unproduced musical, Step Right Up! The former song hasn’t been heard in public for 50 years, Dallas noted.
Another premier arrived in Glamorous Nights and Rainy Days in a special commission written for her by Amanda McBroom and Ann Hampton Calloway: “In My Dreams.” Historical illumination came with “Here’s That Rainy Day.” Written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke for the flop 1953 musical, Carnival in Flanders, the song, sung by Dolores Gray, who won a Tony that year, has gone on to become a Songbook standard, much covered by vocalists and jazz artists. But who knew that familiar tune we know today was 
encased in dialogue? Dallas presented the full version, last heard in full when Gray performed it at The Town Hall in concert many, many years ago. Hearing the original version was a revelation—the kind that elevates a cabaret act from the ordinary to something special, combined with a professional style of theatricality so well done in Britain.
The encore, from the film Can Heironymous Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, “When You Gotta Go” (Anthony Newley, Herbert Kretzmer) was a fun way to say “good night,” putting a cap on a smart, beautifully realized return to the New York cabaret stage.
Photos by Conor Weiss
