UK Theatre Network

 
I am not going to apologise for writing on uktheatre.net about a jazz gig!

Performers are performers, whether they speak (or mime!), sing or play instruments, and when I see a singer as good as this I want to tell the world.

Not that Dame Cleo Laine is just a singer. Her acting career has spanned everything from Shakespeare to Showboat and from the Royal Court to Broadway – which is perhaps why her performances as a singer are so satisfying. She simply acts her songs, bringing them alive with so much expression and feeling that she quite literally sends shivers down your spine.

And then there’s her voice – immediately recognisable; wonderfully unique (until you hear her daughter Jacqui sing), with a range which defies gravity.

Of course, everyone knows her and her talent, so why am I putting up yet another review about her?

Because, at the age of 83, she is still the consummate performer. If it wasn’t for the stick she used to help her onto the stage you would never guess she was at all chronologically challenged – though the stick is the legacy of a broken leg. There is certainly nothing wrong with her lungs, her voice is as strong as it ever was, and her warmth, humour, and banter with both band and audience had us under her spell.

It was strange to see her without her lifelong partner John Dankworth, but he certainly wasn’t forgotten – his compositions featured strongly in her two sets, including a couple he set to Shakespeare. He loved setting Shakespeare to music, she told us, because he didn’t have to share the royalties!

John’s place on the sax is now taken by Andy Panayi, who is fitting in well with Dame Cleo’s regulars, John Horler on piano, Mark Nightingale on trombone, Jim Hart on drums and, yet another treat, Cleo’s own son Alec Dankworth on bass. What a dynasty. And what a privilege it was to be there.