Greetings from London

Have just joined after seeing this site mentioned on the Garland
palacelite site. I am a 43-year old writer and actor.

I was privileged to see Ms. Horne's Lady and Her Music in London three
times during it's run here in 1985. I had already played the album to
death so it was an almost unreal experience to be able to sit and
witness this incredible performance from the third row of the stalls.
I recall seeing Petula Clark and Rupert Everett there one night
(though not together, I might add); on this particular night her
rendition of Yesterday When I Was Young was so intense and moving that
it drew deafening cheeres and applause from the audience that never
seemed to end - maybe a full minute, which is a long time in a concert
performance. She looked like she really had just gone through
something as she stood there, eyes closed, muttering to herself and
letting the applause wash over her. When it finally ended there was a
moment of perfect silence before she lifted the mike to her mouth and
murmered, "I'm glad you liked that."

I took a drama teacher friend and his wife along one night, with some
trepidation: they didn't know her at all and I was afraid they
wouldn't get her. They sat in another part of the theatre and at
interval I approached them nervously, expecting my friend to say, "Why
did you bring us to see this old rubbish?" Instead, he said, "Why
didn't you TELL us she was brilliant?" and raved for fifteen minutes
before rushing back to his seat for Act Two. After the show we waited
at stage door to see her. She signed my poster but I was too in awe to
say anthing other than 'Thank you - you were wonderful' or something.
But my friend engaged her in a brief conversation, which I still
remember vividly.
She signed his poster and asked what he did for a living. When he told
her she said, "You know, I always wanted to be a teacher." He said,
"Well you are - you are. That lovely thing you did with the dressing
gown, where you lowered it down on top of the fur coat so that it just
folded itself up - I could teach that to my students." She looked
genuinely pleased by this and I was rather jealous that my friend was
able to connect with her on such a level, maybe because he knew
nothing about her before that night.

I hadn't thought about all this for a long time but remembering it
now, it all comes back to me across the years. How fortunate I was to
have been able to see such a great performer doing her best work at
such close quarters.

By the way, I still have a highly degraded video recording of the
show, which was shown once on UK television about 1985 - it was the
Broadway version, I believe. As far as I know it has never been
commercially released but I wish they would!

Best wishes

David Benson
david@...