“Ward-Lealand is glorious as Marlene. She sings, she is calculating and coquettish. She cracks one-liners with cruel glee.”
Michelle Hewitson, New Zealand Herald
“The audience warmed most to Marlene’s performance of great tunes from Cole Porter to Samuel Lerner and Pete Seeger. Here Ward-Lealand dazzles, her seductive voice helped by pianist Grant Winterburn and bass player Aaron Coddel.”
Gilbert Wong, Sunday Star-Times
A MARLENE BETTER THAN THE REAL ONE
Falling in Love Again, by Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Grant Winterburn
Downstage Theatre till 4 August 2007
Reviewed by Laurie Atkinson
Marlene Dietrich wasn’t much of a singer and her acting was limited to variations on her glamorous self but she was undoubtedly a great beauty and star.
Noel Coward acknowledged this when he introduced her in her cabaret act with: “Though we all might enjoy/Seeing Helen of Troy/As a gay cabaret entertainer/I doubt that she could/Be one quarter as good/As our lovely, legendary Marlene.”
When statuesque Jennifer Ward-Lealand first appears on stage wrapped in a long fur coat and wearing a reproduction of the famous dress that caused a sensation in the 1950’s, reincarnation for a moment seems a possibility. She looks amazing, instantly creating an image of the pampered luxury and glamour of a long-lost Hollywood, when female stars were goddesses.
These screen idols have long since been defiled by drag queens, but Ward-Lealand neither sends up her subject by camp exaggeration nor attempts an exact replica of Marlene in voice and mannerisms.
She pays tribute by suggestion, by singing 23 of Marlene’s songs and by singing them with an energy and style that, if my memory of recordings and films is correct, are an improvement on the originals.
Ward-Lealand’s German-English accent is never as pronounced as Marlene’s (once unkindly noted by Clive James as follink in luff again) but she restricts her movements to a minimum (mainly flicks of the hand) as did Marlene.
However, it is her roguish glances and sexual suggestiveness in songs such as Cream in my Coffee, Laziest Girl in Town, and Look me over Closely that invite laughter and an awareness of being seduced.
Ward-Lealand throws herself into the boisterous Boys in the Backroom, I Get a Kick Out of You, and Makin’ Whoopee with vocal energy and sends all the pathos and anger in the anti-war songs such as Where Have all the Flowers Gone? (sung in German) and White Grass, across the footlights with stinging emotional force.
The songs are meticulously presented, arranged and played by Grant Winterburn (piano) and Aaron Coddel (bass), and Andrew Malmo’s lighting keeps the glittering star, backed by simple black drapes and an elegant vase of peonies, bathed in a golden light throughout – a suitable alter for a dead goddess.
My admiration, however, is reserved for the living actress.
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CONTAINED YET VIBRANT TRIBUTE
Jennifer Ward-Lealand – FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN
www.theatreview.co.nz 28 July 2007
Reviewed by John Smythe
I'm old enough to have seen Marlene Dietrich live on stage in September 1975, at Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne. A couple of weeks later she fell off the stage in Sydney and broke her leg, never to tread the boards again. Her performance was dry, minimalist to the max, and mechanical. I recall an unkind cartoon - or was it a touched up photo? - that revealed a clock-winding key in her back.
To compare Jennifer Ward-Lealand's contained yet vibrant tribute show, Falling in Love Again, with that sad spectacle would be unfair. Dietrich was, after all, about to turn 74 that year. Even so, I can't help feeling Ward-Lealand achieves the potential that Dietrich never really reached in live performance.
Having perfected the statuesque stance in sheer beaded sheath frock and swans down coat, the sexy accent, the dry tone of wry humour, the angular gestures and conspiratorial 'you know what I mean' look, Ward-Lealand interprets each of the 23 songs - empathetically accompanied by pianist/ musical director Grant Winterburn and bass player Aaron Coddel - with an emotional intelligence and subtle richness of musicality that transcends Dietrich's relatively limited range.
Beyond the exquisite presentation - Andrew Malmo bathes 'Marlene' in flattering light while picking the musicians and a bowl of flowers out of the deep black space - it is the content and tone of the songs, sung in English, French and German, that tell the story of a rich and sometimes extravagant life, led with great courage and independence of spirit, both during the war and in its aftermath.
Romantic love looms large in soulful, playful and poignant moods. The true meaning of 'The Laziest Girl in Town' has never been more clear to me. Then, having established she is not one to be trifled with, 'One For My Baby (and one for the road)', mourning the passing of "a brief episode", offers a moving counterpoint. The thought and care put into compiling the play list, so that the songs play off each other, adds value to each of them.
The much anticipated wartime favourite 'Lilli Marlene', for example, is preceded by an emphatically sardonic rendition of 'White Grass'* (by Australian composer Charles Marawood), depicting a soldier back from the war to find his wife is dead and the cradle is empty: "The war is over. Seems we won. Hooray." Then, lest Lilli has allowed us to romanticise the war once more, she sings Pete Seeger's 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone' in German.
Amid the expected and welcome hits - 'Cream in my Coffee', 'Boys in the Backroom', 'Makin' Whoopee', 'Honeysuckle Rose' - there is the odd surprise, like Lerner and Loewe's 'I've Grown Accustomed to her Face' (from My Fair Lady). Sung with more melody than Rex Harrison ever managed, it remains "her" face, thus noting Dietrich's bisexuality as a simple matter of fact.
Because it is a tribute show and not about mimicry, Jennifer Ward-Lealand makes the role her own, allowing her own inherent warmth, generous spirit and delight in her craft to imbue her performance as she explores a full palette of moods and emotions.
'Falling In Love Again' is held back for the inevitable encore and after just 75 minutes, bisected with an interval, the show that takes its name has manifested the iconic persona of Marlene Dietrich, her life's journey and the social history it occupied to profound effect.
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*Dietrich only ever performed 'White Grass' live. Ward-Lealand is the first to record it (the CD of the show is available at the Downstage bar) and it is a mark of her commitment that she tracked down Marawood's widow for the rights in order to include it.
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‘SIZZLING PHYSICALITY' BRINGS DIETRICH TO LIFE
Bay of Plenty Times, October 2005
Reviewed by Frances Morton
Stepping into the Pacific Crystal Palace last night was like slipping into an elegant age gone by.
The traveling cabaret is surely the only venue in town fabulous enough to host one of history’s greatest screen legends – and the fact that it is only temporarily in the Bay gave the evening an even stronger sense of time travel.
Falling in Love Again, Jennifer Ward-Lealand’s mesmerizing performance as Marlene Dietrich singing the songs of her career undoubtedly sent many audience members home to fossick through their old record collections for forgotten gems.
Ward-Lealand’s elegant sequin-encrusted gown, luxurious floor-length white fur coat, scarlet lips, platinum curls and suggestive arched eyebrow all oozed the charm and sophistication of the movie icon.
As one of New Zealand’s foremost actors, we all expect Ward- Lealand to carry a character – and she did, complete with German accent and sizzling physicality.
But it was her voice that was truly impressive.
Ranging from deep growl to coquettish whisper, she delivered each song as if from Dietrich’s own heart, with expert accompaniment from pianist Grant Winterburn and bassist Aaron Coddel.
Her acting was at its peak when she performed ‘White Grass’ by Charles Marawood about a soldier returning from war to find his wife dead and baby’s cradle empty. ‘War is over, it seems we won – Hooray,’ she crooned through clenched teeth, as if suppressing a soul-shaking sob.
Another highlight was the German song ‘Johnny’, about a girl seducing her lover on the telephone.
Standing centre-stage bathed in red light, Ward-Lealand communicated the yearning of the young girl beautifully while still maintaining the worldly-wise persona of Dietrich beneath the performance.
Picture Dietrich and those dreamy heavy eyelids immediately come to mind. Ward-Lealand even managed to channel this detail by pausing at the end of songs with a dramatic look up as if waiting for the last notes to float down from the ceiling and settle on the enchanted audience.
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