Lorna Dallas Is “Home Again”

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Lorna Dallas Is “Home Again”

May 12, 2020

Lorna Dallas
Photo: Kevin Alvey

Singer-actress Lorna Dallas (see article in the January 2019 issue of Cabaret Scenes) had been away from the cabaret stage for 20 years, spending time in London with her husband, Garry Brown, who passed away in 2014. Finally, in 2016, she felt she was ready to perform again and she took part in the Sondheim Gala at London’s Drury Lane Theatre in 2015. She was “bursting with songs” she wanted to sing. Working with Barry Kleinbort and music director Christopher Denny, her new show, Home Again, was born. It was a love letter to Garry. She performed the show in New York at Birdland (see review below), where her dear friend Cleo Laine was a favorite. (Lorna had worked with Cleo in a production of Show Boat.) After Home Again, Lorna continued her story with Spring Collection, performed at London’s Crazy Coqs, and the journey ended with Stages. On top of it all, Lorna received the 2020 Bistro Award for Consummate Cabaret Artistry.

Now Lorna is releasing a full-length version of Home Again from her engagement at NYC’s Birdland.

“In these depressing times, the chance to spend 75 minutes in the company of a true star of a bygone era, the exquisite American soprano Lorna Dallas, was a rare treat ★★★★★ for Home Again.” — Jeremy Chapman, Musical Theatre Review

Video by Michael Lee Stever

Lorna Dallas

Home Again

Birdland, NYC, February 26, 2018

Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes

A musical gold medal winner, Lorna Dallas was Home Again. In her first show at Birdland and her first United States performance in 20 years, her soprano voice as richly layered as a fine cabernet, Dallas celebrated her return. While classic and poised as ever, the performance also reflects a joyful and emotional spirit from the first song to the last. Love suffuses the show: love for her music, her friends, and her late husband.

Directed by Barry Kleinbort (who wrote some of the lyrics), and accompanied by music director Christopher Denny, Dallas delivered a selection of personal songs opening with “As If We Never Said Goodbye” (Andrew Lloyd Webber/Don Black/additional words by Kleinbort). It was paired with Stephen Sondheim’s go-get-’em “Back in Business” (“…and with a blast!/ Let the good times roll!”). Dallas was indeed back in business, including a madcap duet with Denny of “You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow” from Follies (Sondheim). 

Her pairings fittingly drove her message home. George and Ira Gershwin’s “Home Blues” joined with John Kander and Fred Ebb’s “Home” (plus Kleinbort’s indelible additional words). “Nobody Else but Me” (Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II) is a rejoicing of love and being loved. This flowed into an extraordinary depth of conviction with “Bill” (Kern/Hammerstein and P.G. Wodehouse).

Mentioning her deep love for her husband, Dallas’ vibrant voice and interpretive honesty memorably delivered songs important in their life together, including “Summer Me, Winter Me” (Michel Legrand/ Alan and Marilyn Bergman). Especially poignant was a trio of “Timeless Thing” (Tom Snow, Amanda McBroom, Garry Brown), Leslie Bricusse’s “You and I,” and Irving Berlin’s “How Deep Is the Ocean (How High Is the Sky).” With these, she shared palpable emotions of love, memory, and the pain of loss, and later lifted the show to an exceptional pinnacle with Kleinbort’s tender ballad, “One More Spring,” from his musical 13 Things About Ed Carpolotti.  

Dallas is a fine actress, delivering stories in song with truth and personality. With a generous smile, expressive face, and stellar voice, she revealed the wisdom and experiences she’s gathered through life. Vocally, her lyric soprano, shimmering and clear, soared with “Younger Than Springtime” (Richard Rodgers and Hammerstein) and “You Are Love” (Kern/Hammerstein). With wisdom and reliance, she shared Jerry Herman’s down-to-earth words of wisdom in “Let’s Not Waste a Moment” (“There’s a short forever/Not too far away) leading into his “Before the Parade Passes By” (“I’m gonna feel my heart coming alive again”). 

And for her encore,  Dallas turned to “Once in a Blue Moon” by Kern and Anne Caldwell, remembering that, “Once in a Blue Moon”… you will meet the right one.”