Janie Dee's Beautiful World of Cabaret, Jermyn Street Theatre, 15b Jermyn Street, London    to 28 September 2024 and on tour.

4✩✩✩✩ Review: William Russell.

“Dee delights!”

Billed as a new show this evening of songs and chat arrives at Jermyn Street after appearing on the fringe at Edinburgh. In fact I realised as the evening wore on that I have seen it before so new ir is not, up-dated it may be. But that is by the by. The lady, to quote Cole Porter more or less, is deelightful, deelicious, deelimit, delectable, deelirious and, since one might as well keep that up, she is also deemented – in the best possible sense. Janie is a climate change warner, a champion against plastic – what she has to say about the plastic island in the ocean is alarming and the Ocean Clean Up– and sugars the pill of her message with a galaxy of song starting with Poisoning the pigeons in the par and some ninety minutes later with A nightingale sang in Berkley Square/ She is, if not quite yet a national treasure, well on the way and is that rare bird, an actress who can sing and a singer who can act and do both as well as the other. From Shakespeare to Sondheim by way of Ayckbourne there she is delivering the goods as she does in this splendid show aided and abetted by Jordan Paul Clarke at the piano, two girls who sing and dance and an amazing violinist and player of the accordion. In the first half she appears in a strapless red gown covered in sequins as befits a  mistress of cabaret, in the second in black top and trouser with a nice red scarf to cheer it up as befits a lady activist,. It is an evening of delights, some totally unexpected, one not to be missed should it come your way.

Cast

Janie Dee

Josephine Ortiz Lewis

Sophia Priolo

Sarah Harrison – violin.

Igor Outkine – accordion.

Creatives

Set design – Ian Nichols.