Musical Director: Ryan MacKenzie
Many artists will claim that Steven Sondheim changed their life, but, as Janie Dee tells it, it was standing outside the National Theatre about to perform Follies when she realised she could do more to address the human impact on the planet, so, a short while later, the Beautiful Worlds Cabaret was born. This new series of cabarets staged at the Charing Cross Theatre – 17 shows in 9 days – brings together artists to perform existing and new work about nature in partnership with the London Climate Change Festival and the London Wildlife Trust.
First performed at the Crazy Coqs and later at the Edinburgh Festival, founder and host Janie Dee presents the opening gala cabaret with regular collaborators the Mazaika Duo (Sarah Harrison on violin and Igor Outkine on accordion) alongside Musical Director Ryan MacKenzie on piano, as well as welcoming new stars Josephina Ortiz Lewis, Sophia Priolo, Em The Master, Alfie Friedman and Three’s Company (Miriana Pavia; Rebecca Goddard; Helena Neil Smith) all of whom offer previews of their own Beautiful World Cabarets later in the run.
A good story or frame is essential to making a cabaret flow, and no one knows that better than Dee who merges her own performance history with the birth and evolution of the cabaret series, talking to the audience throughout about challenges faced by the planet and how the song choices fit with this very personal project. Singing Peggy Lee’s Fever bathed in red light, Dee tells us, among the finger clicks, about the devastating forest fires last year, later explaining her work with the nature charities and festivals as Another Hundred People get off Sondheim’s train from Company, putting more pressure on this oversubscribed city.
Dee also draws on Shakespeare’s reflections on nature as segues between songs, noting the inability to see her own hand through the smog of Beijing when performing as Titania for Shakespeare’s Globe. In one of the strongest parts of the cabaret, she performs one of her speeches leading into Sondheim’s Beautiful from Sunday in the Park with George, and the singer draws a connection back to the 400-year-old writer who may seem long ago but, she jokes, is only seven of her lifetimes.
The second half of this performance is given over to the new and emerging artists who expand the show’s conversation about the planet with Em The Master performing two original songs about ocean life, Friedman focusing on deforestation and cities built among the ‘ghost woods’, while the operatic Ortiz Lewis previews her own show Litter and Be Gay later in the run. There’s also original poetry from Priolo and a new melodic piece on humanity’s need to change in response to the Beautiful Worlds series, which premieres here.
This opening show has plenty of charm and talent, but it is hard to go first in a new venue, and this feels a little underprepared. When the lights go down, the performers are not ready, there are only three handheld microphones between eight singers, which makes the big finale number a little uneven, and atmosphere is hard to sustain among an audience dwindled by London Pride taking place right outside. But Dee is ever charming, her cause a good one and the cabarets to come will surely make their mark.
Beautiful Worlds Cabaret runs until 13 July 2025
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