INTERVIEW: Lorna Dallas returns ‘Home’ for Birdland show

Celebrated singer Lorna Dallas is a native of the United States but has lived in England for many years. Ever since she jumped the Pond to star in a revival of Show Boat in London, Dallas has remained in the United Kingdom.

Over the years, she has become a bonafide star of the West End, including roles in The King and I, Closer Than Ever, Kismet, Side by Side by Sondheim and Hello, Dolly! Originally from Illinois, Dallas used to star on the cabaret stage as well, but it has been decades since she brought her singing act to an intimate venue.

That has now changed.

Dallas recently returned to the cabaret scene in England and is bringing her appropriately titled show, Home Again, to the Birdland Jazz Club in Midtown Manhattan. The special evening is set for Monday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m.

Recently, Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Dallas about the special show. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.

After two decades off the cabaret stage, what made you return?

I had promised my husband, Garry, that I would embrace his optimism and love of life. What a lucky woman to have that endurable love, and I knew that I had to embrace the joy of singing again. It would make me fulfill that promise to him, fill my soul with joy again and also fulfill or ‘release’ what is my gift, to sing with passion, joy, love, purpose. Perhaps I could say it is like the Jerry Herman lyrics: ‘Open a new window, open a new door.’

What can fans expect at your show at Birdland?

A true celebration of being back in business again! Yeah, Big D, little A, double L, A, S is back! It is my love letter to Garry. The show is like a rose blossoming. Each and every song is a petal opening. All the songs are intensely personal and meaningful, funny times remembered, the well of songs inside me just pouring out!

I look at the songs from a different perspective now. That perhaps is one of the good things about getting older with a song. Life and experience add not only wisdom, but humor, too. I can smile more with some songs now and also go to another part of my heart to find a new interpretation for one that I have done many times before, perhaps even delving into the pain of a lyric more which is exciting and rewarding.

I truly soak up the energy from the audience, and it lifts me. So we do go on a journey together.

So, the audience and I will truly be on a ‘voyage of discovery,’ and I find that exhilarating! Hopefully the audience does, too! I have always said if I don’t enjoy it, I can’t make the audience enjoy it, so away we go! Buckle up! Let’s all enjoy the ride!

What’s the rehearsal process like for a show like this?

Ah, a good question! Intense! Rejuvenating! Exhausting! Rewarding!

In a way, it is like a horse race. The horses line up in the gates. The gates open, and away they go. The winners of each race and sometimes even those who ‘place’ become your ‘stable of songs.’ And, you might say that some of those winners go on to breed another generation of winners in your stable in the times to come.

The process started months ago, scribbled notes made on various bits of paper at all hours of the day and night, many discussions with my director, Barry Kleinbort, throwing a lot of songs in the mix, relating the stories and anecdotes I want to express, vocally what I want to express now, the journey I want to take. I think of my shows as one-act plays, musical plays, and I am the leading lady. So, it is exciting singing through the countless songs on the list and finding new meanings in lyrics of songs that I thought I had truly ‘plumbed the depths’ of before, but now, surprisingly, finding I had barely scratched the surface. My ‘Team Dallas’ — Barry and Chris Denny (my musical director in New York) and Jason Carr (my musical director in London) — had and do have intense rehearsals, but the one thing I ask of us all is that we can laugh and smile at least at the end of the day! My expression is, ‘I gotta dance on the notes, you guys!’ When we find the interpretation we’re going after, then it is like a beautiful dance.

Also, I love the vocal challenges of discovering new and different colors in my voice that perhaps the gay abandon of youth never revealed. I think I am a wiser singer now and even in some ways, more relaxed and enjoying singing now more than ever. Yes, I am ‘opening a new window, opening a new door,’ and it is thrilling!

Does performing in the United States feel like being ‘Home Again’?

Oh, yes! Although I have lived in London for many years, after going there to star in Show Boat with Dame Cleo Laine and finding the love of my life, I have never lost my sense of where I was born and raised — southern Illinois in a small town of 2,000 people, a very genuine and embracing community. There is a certain intensity here from the audiences that is unmistakable, and being back here it feels as if it is meant to be — truthful and honest and fulfilling. I love being back here embracing old and finding new friends. It feels like I have come ‘full circle.’

When interpreting these classic songs, do you like to hear renditions by other singers, or do you prefer to only read the lyrics and musical notes from the original writing team?

I have been fortunate to know and work with some wonderful artists, like Dame Cleo Laine. Although I trained with and had incredible vocal teachers as an operatic/ ‘legit’ soprano, I found that I learned the most from Cleo. I had always sung with a true devotion to the lyrics and not just the vocal sound judged as the most important, but my sense of lyrics heightened more after working with Cleo. To this day, I admire and cherish our abiding friendship. She is now 90, and when I did a Christmas show with her just this last year, she came out on crutches, eyes blazing, and sang a heartbreaking version of ‘I’ve Got a Crush on You, and if you closed your eyes, it was the voice I heard beside me on stage in 1971 — inspiring and as truthful and youthful as one could wish. It was delicious! I aspire to do the same!

Sometimes, it can be hearing a singer sing a song that points me towards that song, but I don’t want to imitate their take on it. I want to find my own. Although, I don’t think I can say that some interpretations by other singers haven’t influenced me in some way and are used even unknowingly in my rendition. As a singer, it is a great joy to work with living composers and lyricists as they can give new insights and provide a better road map for you to follow. Also, if you are lucky, you find the right chemistry with them, and hopefully, they might even write for you personally. And that is a great gift! I have found it truly rewarding when the writers will say that I have given life to their song, and that does make me dance on the notes! And, it makes my heart sing!

Maybe, just maybe, one day, young singers will listen to my renditions and find inspiration and want to imitate what I have done — what better compliment. Although in my head, I’m still that 17-year-old soprano from Carrier Mills, Illinois, who won a national talent contest, singing with youthful and gay abandon, fresh and new, and like that young colt lined up for her first race, with the winning goal in sight, and a new beginning!

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Lorna Dallas will play Monday, Feb. 26 at the Birdland Jazz Club in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.