LORNA DALLAS: SNAPSHOTS Comes to Crazy Coqs in July

Lorna Dallas will bring her latest musical offering, “Snapshots” to Crazy Coqs for two nights only.

“Snapshots” is yet another dazzling display of Ms. Dallas’ formidable prowess as both an actress and a vocalist, interspersing soaring song with personal stories (snapshots) from her life and career on both sides of the Atlantic.

Musically, the program is diverse and daring, offering well known gems along with rarities from some of the finest songwriters on either shore: Marvin Hamlisch, Kander and Ebb, Stephen Sondheim, Maury Yeston and Jerry Herman. And, because she has been hailed as one of his foremost interpreters, Ivor Novello.

The evening has been devised by her award-winning American collaborators, director Barry Kleinbort and musical director Christopher Denny (who also serves as the show’s dexterous accompanist.)

“Snapshots” is continuing musical proof of Ms. Dallas’ dedication to “consummate cabaret artistry”.

On Tuesday July 23, Lorna’s show and includes a Comparing Notes post-show interview with Edward Seckerson. Following her set and after a short interval, Lorna will be joined on stage by the writer and broadcaster in conversation for one night only. Formerly Chief Classical Music Critic of The Independent, Edward Seckerson is a writer, broadcaster, podcaster, and musical theatre aficionado.

He wrote and presented the long-running BBC Radio 3 series “Stage & Screen”, in which he interviewed many of the biggest names in the business – among them Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury, Liza Minnelli, Stephen Sondheim, and Andrew Lloyd Webber

Approx run time: 75 min show/short interval / 45 min conversation

About Lorna Dallas

Lorna Dallas was born in Carrier Mills, Illinois. At 17 she won Talentsville USA, a nationwide talent contest sponsored by Coca Cola  - the equivalent today to Britain’s Got Talent - culminating in finals in New York, but she chose instead to go to Indiana University to study for a degree in music before joining the Metropolitan Opera National Company.  She went on the road for a year all over the United States and Canada. However, her love for Musical Theatre totally overwhelmed that of her love for opera…and a very happy career in musicals has followed.

She arrived in London in 1971 to star as Magnolia in SHOW BOAT with Dame Cleo Laine at the Adelphi Theatre - the show was such a smash-hit that it ran for a then-record 2 years and 3 months. The production was recorded and presented on the Tony Awards as the best International production of that season.  

Lorna fell in love with London, staying in the UK to star in many musicals (SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM, HELLO DOLLY! (with Danny La Rue), and THE KING AND I among them), the European premiere of CLOSER THAN EVERE, SEVEN DEADLY SINS in Monaco’s Princes Grace Theatre, concerts in all the major London venues (Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Palladium, Theatre Royal Drury Lane) and worldwide with the major symphony orchestras with conductors Skitch Henderson and Don Pippin (Carnegie Hall, New York Town Hall, Brisbane Cultural Center, Napa Valley Opera House), extensive television appearances including The Royal Variety Performance and her own highly rated BBC series, MY SERENADE and Lorna Dallas MY MUSICAL WORLD, appearing alongside the 77- piece BBC Radio Orchestra and special guests each week.

She also starred in films including the highly acclaimed UNITED 93 and was honoured to present the film at the White House for President Bush. Her poignant recordings as part of the Oral History of the 9/11 event can be heard at the United 93 Memorial Site in Shanksville.  

Her extensive charity appearances for the Army Benevolent Fund and the Not Forgotten Association are legendary and recently she compered and starred in a special presentation at Buckingham Palace for the Royal Family.  She has also starred in countless Gala concerts to benefit various charitable organisations.  

Her CD, THE GIRL I KNEW, celebrating the music of Novello & Kern, was named BBC Album of the Year. She won rave reviews for her one woman shows at Jermyn Street Theatre, a theatre dear to her heart.  Her cabaret performances in New York (The Algonquin and the Firebird) also won rave reviews…and, in fact, on both sides of the Pond.  London has remained her home since 1971…and that love affair has no end in sight!