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You might not remember Jim Dale. If you’re under 50, not American and with a less than photographic recall of the ‘Carry On…’ films, you probably won’t be able to instantly attach a face and a career to that name.
He’s more famous for songs he wrote for others than performed himself, he’s rarely made it onto a London stage in the past 20 years of a highly successful Broadway career, and his role as the handsome clown in ‘Carry On Doctor’ and others is less immediately memorable than the lecherous chuckle of Sid James or the brilliant campery of Kenneth Williams.
Fortunately, it barely matters with a performer of such charm and talent, and the mixture of classic music hall numbers and routines with snatches of Dale’s most famous roles and performances is generally a delight. And the reaction from an audience of die-hard fans is movingly warm, with some older voices responding to every mention of a song or classic performance with a ‘Oh, yes!’ or ‘That’s right!’, as if they’re sat reminiscing with Dale in their living rooms, rather than a 700-seater on the Strand.
Apart from renditions of a few hit songs like the catchy but appallingly titled ‘Dick-A-Dum-Dum’, some of the best moments draw from his work on the US recordings of the Harry Potter books, where he gives us a taste of the world-record breaking 147 distinct character voices he created for the final instalment. It’s two hours of nostalgia, shot through with reminders that Dale’s varied and energetic career is in no danger of running out of puff.