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 Current Reviews Return to previous page Janie Dee - CelebriTeas Royal National Theatre
Review by Jim Oher
Janie Dee was warmly welcomed by a full house of tea and theatregoers. Vibrant upbeat and effervescent Ms. Dee both answered questions posed by the moderator Al Senter as well as the audience in the Olivier lounge. Most recently she won winning reviews for her Diva performance at the Domnar Warehouse and shortly before that, her performance in My One and Only both at Chichester and on the West End. She talked about a wide range of topics relating to her life and work including her early days of dreaming to dance with Rudolph Nureyev, her early attempts at a ballet career and her rediscovery of the love of musical theatre when returning home to England after several years in France She also spoke of the creative talents she has worked with such as Alan Ackybourn and Kenneth Macmillan.As a child Ms. Dee was “discovered” by a talent agent and was referred to a school for performing arts something akin to the “fame” school. Her initial aspirations were to be a ballet dancer however in late adolescence she realized that she would never truly excel as one and began to sing with some fellow performers. Much of this work was done in France. Upon a trip home she saw a production of 42nd Street and realized that she wanted to work in the musical theatre. Ms Dee stated that although as a youngster she wanted to be a star, as she matured and learn to focus on the dramatic material at hand, she began to be recognized for accomplished work. Although the NT production of Carousel was a commercial breakthrough she credits a production of the Trojan Women as being a breakthrough in terms of discovering her voice and becoming deeply involved with a character. She worked with the director and the company to create a character that made sense to her dramatically and fit in nicely with the vision of the play that the director was trying to achieve. One of the most fascinating aspects of the talk was Dee discussing how she created the role of Jacie Triplethree in the Alan Ayckbourn comedy Comic Potential. She worked closely with author/director Ayckbourn asking him questions such as what type of material is Jacie made of. She also found background information in the science fiction work of Isaac Asimov. She mentioned that while playing the part she was always in some way moving her body because a machine is always in someway reflecting the electrical current of motion however small. She mentioned that the audiences in New York found the play far funnier than those at the Lyric in the West End. She ideally likes to play on stages where she is in close promixity to the audience such as the playhouse in Scarborough and the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York. As terms of wishes, she hopes to do a good Shakespeare production, a noteworthy CD and have a vehicle captured in another media, and have a performance captured more succinctly then just a recorded live performance. There is no question that this talented actress will be entertaining audiences for years to come.
(Jim Oher)
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