Send in the Song

Last week, I posted a video here of Judi Dench starring as the original 'Sally Bowles' in the original London production of Cabaret.  Some people understandably expressed surprise at this, but the greater surprise might be that she has been in three stage musical (that I'm aware of).  One of those, though, not only won't seem a surprise, but rather a perfect fit.  That's the 1996 revival of A Little Night Music, in which she starred as 'Desiree.'  It would seem near-perfect casting, and she won the Olivier Award that year for Best Actress in a musical.  I suspect that that won't come as a shock.

There have been some wonderful performances of the signature song from that show, and the original by Glynis Johns is up there.  But Judi Dench's version may be hard to top.  This is from an appearance she made on a British TV chat show.  It begins with a bit of conversation with the host, Alan TItschmarsh, discussing the musical and her role, and then we see one of the best performances of "Send in the Clowns" I've seen.  Making it all nicer is that it's much of the full scene, in costume with her co-star Laurence Guittard as 'Frederick' that includes dialogue within the song.