The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world, with over 3,700 shows. This year, 半岛体育 is in town for the festival and we鈥檙e taking you with us. Follow along as we cover every single aspect of the Fringe, aka our real-life Brigadoon!
As part of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage, 半岛体育 is seeing a whole lotta shows鈥攁nd we鈥檙e letting you know what we think of them. Consider these reviews a friendly, opinionated guide as you try to choose a show at the festival.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a fantastic place to discover some exciting new talent. But sometimes, it鈥檚 a rare opportunity to see a major, award-winning star doing what they do best鈥攁nd in a venue in which every 拢18 seat is like 拢200 premium-level seating, so close to the brilliance that it鈥檚 as if the performance is for you alone. That鈥檚 what Janie Dee鈥檚 Beautiful World Cabaret brings to the table.
A shameful gay confession: I wasn鈥檛 familiar with Janie Dee until seeing her in the National鈥檚 ravishing 2017 revival of Follies in the West End. Dee starred as the icy Phyllis, the character that sings 鈥淐ould I Leave You?鈥� and 鈥淭he Story of Lucy and Jessie.鈥� As soon as she was on stage, she became a performer I would happily watch sing the phonebook, to borrow a somewhat overused phrase. I still viscerally remember her 鈥淟ucy and Jessie,鈥� sitting in that theatre just wanting the number to continue on for eternity. Divine.
Dee has a fantastic voice, but most compelling is her ability to make her singing seem almost like talking. I don鈥檛 mean she speak-sings; I mean her conviction and acting is so deft, the communication so direct that you nearly forget she鈥檚 singing as wonderfully as she does. And she could just as easily be a dancer first. The combo made her Follies performance pretty remarkable. I鈥檓 still a little bitter she didn鈥檛 win a third Olivier for it.
So naturally, I had to catch her Fringe performance. She lived up to every expectation she set up with Follies and then some. I would have been happy with a straightforward cabaret bill, but Dee has Fringed it up to give her performance a thoughtful theme: climate change.
Don鈥檛 roll your eyes. The way Dee has managed to cover a topic that鈥檚 clearly quite near and dear to her heart while doing what she does best鈥攁nd truly giving the audience what it wants!颅鈥攊s nothing short of masterful. As the performance begins, you might think the setlist has been built around a more gentle celebration of the world around us. Two of her backing band鈥擲arah Harrison on violin and Igor Outkine on accordion, together Mazaika. Fabulous鈥攌ick things off with Vivaldi鈥檚 鈥淪pring鈥� from The Four Seasons, a work they later return to in further interludes. And then Dee appears to sing 鈥淥n a Clear Day You Can See Forever.鈥� The world is beautiful! We love it!
And then Dee follows that up with Tom Lehrer鈥檚 psychotically delightful 鈥淧oisoning Pigeons in the Park,鈥� a cheeky ode to gleeful avian murder. The tune is a comedy cabaret favorite, but in Dee鈥檚 hands its selection is a little more subversive. She鈥檚 easing audiences in to a discussion about how we鈥檙e treating our planet, from melting ice caps to islands of plastic suffocating our seas. Don鈥檛 worry about that message being heavy handed. In Dee鈥檚 masterful hands, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
Next up is a pointed take on 鈥淔ever,鈥� a celebration (of sorts) of rising temperatures. The number also allows Dee to introduce us to the two dancers who are joining for the performance, Josephina Ortiz Lewis (who also gets several opportunities to sing in her lovely soprano, notably a wonderful take on Adam Guettel鈥檚 鈥淢igratory V鈥�) and Sophia Priolo (also the performance鈥檚 choreographer). Yes, Dee has brought all her powers to this performance, dancing even while wearing an elegant red, sparkly gown.
Between songs, Dee talks frankly about her climate anxieties and what we need to be doing. Namely, this is cutting down on our consumption of plastics, watching our carbon footprints, being more careful with the world around us鈥攁ll things worthy of giving more thought and action to. There is bad news, though, for Broadway fans. Dee reveals during the show she will not be bringing Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends to the Main Stem after starring in its West End run, because she鈥檚 not willing to get on a plane. Ah well. We鈥檒l always have her on the London cast album.
It doesn鈥檛 hurt that her arrangements are wonderful, too. Along with Harrison and Outkine, Dee is backed by music director Ed Zanders on piano. The trio is fantastic together and makes a unique sound. At one point, Harrison, with brushes in hand, transforms her upside-down violin into a drum. Elsewhere she strums it like a guitar. The variety of sounds helped enrich the performance even more.
Beautiful World is first and foremost a thrilling hour of cabaret, with Dee鈥檚 skill at delivering a song there in spades. What I ultimately found most admirable, though, was how Dee found a way to use what she does best to speak to what鈥檚 weighing heavily on her heart and mind. Hearing Dee sing Company鈥檚 鈥淎nother Hundred People鈥� and Sunday in the Park With George鈥檚 鈥淏eautiful鈥� is a delight in any context. Putting her climate change narrative on top of those songs made the performance all the more rich and layered, both in terms of the emotion Dee was infusing into her performance, and what it made me think about as I watched her. If you ask me, that鈥檚 art鈥攁nd activism鈥攁t its finest.
Janie Dee鈥檚 Beautiful World Cabaret is running at Pleasance鈥檚 Queen Dome through August 26. 半岛体育 reviewed the performance that was onboard the 半岛体育 Fringeship. Tickets are available . See photos from the show below.
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
Janie Dee and a 半岛体育 FringeShip guest
Janie Dee and a 半岛体育 FringeShip guest
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
半岛体育 FringeShip guests
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
Janie Dee and a 半岛体育 FringeShip guest
Janie Dee and a 半岛体育 FringeShip guest
Janie Dee and a 半岛体育 FringeShip guest
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
Janie Dee
