She dreamed a dream: from Fantine to Dorothy, Jackie Marks has played many iconic roles during a remarkable career
The legendary entertainer has appeared in numerous West End shows and performed solo concerts
It started with an advert in the Jewish News, offering indulgence “in a sumptuous dinner with exquisite wines while enjoying an enchanting performance by the star of the West End stage, Jackie Marks.”
It was also a charity event organised by Friends of Yad Sarah. This worthy cause is dedicated to aiding displaced and evacuated people who are injured, elderly or infirm during times of conflict in Israel. Its round-the-clock service provides an emergency call centre, a home care service and equipment lending, assisting over 700,000 Israelis each year. Since the event neatly coincided with Gill’s birthday and since we both like food, wine and musicals, the idea dawned that it would be an ideal celebration, coupled with the not inconsequential bonus of contributing to tzedakah.
Having made contact with Jackie at the dinner that evening, I arranged to meet with her in the beautiful surroundings of the tea garden at Kenwood House so that I could find out more about her remarkable career in musical theatre.
London born and with music in the blood (her great uncle played first violin in a symphony orchestra), as a child Jackie wasn’t one of those outgoing kids who perked up with their ‘party piece’ at the drop of a hat. In fact, her first taste of tinsel and greasepaint wasn’t until the age of 11 when she was handed the role of Dorothy in her school’s production of The Wizard of Oz.
It’s no wonder that, after mirroring Judy Garland in her rendition of the wonderful Somewhere Over the Rainbow, her dream to sing was crystallised. Thereafter, following a call from an agent, she undertook several cameo TV appearances and theatre tours, while also paying her dues in the hard grind of working men’s clubs around the country. At 14 she entered the Italia Conti Theatre School, travelling each day from Essex to Clapham with another local starlet, Frances Ruffelle – many years later they were to work together in the original London production of Les Miserables.
In the meantime, she was absorbing influences from all around, including the blues of Fats Waller, the jazz stylings of Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald and the wondrous treasures of the Great American Songbook. While on tour in Canada, Meg Johnson (star of Coronation Street and Emmerdale) obtained a ticket for Jackie to see Barry Manilow live in Toronto. On the same day, she was also offered the chance to see the iconic Ella Fitzgerald; she would have preferred the latter, but couldn’t renege on the former. In the event, she loved the Manilow concert, and from watching him learnt much about the art of live performance. Indeed, there’s something of a parallel here between Jackie’s youthful introduction to this musical genre and my own childhood – my father weaned me on Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, the 33rpm vinyl LPs being worn out on our Pye ‘radiogram’. Incidentally, while chatting we also discover that we both have an abiding love of Charlie Chaplin – not the ‘kick in the pants’ early Charlie, but the pathos-laden masterpieces that he later went on to produce.
Jackie’s set list, perfectly insinuated throughout the evening’s culinary delights, provided a roadmap of her varied and fascinating career. Thoughtfully constructed, it was neatly topped and tailed with Bette Midler’s You Gotta Have Friends to get us all into the right frame of mind and the 1979 Eurovision winner Hallelujah, to reinforce our togetherness with Israel in these difficult times. Embedded in the middle was the Carpenters’ Close to You, again drawing the audience in by embracing similar sentiments.
Her big break came at 17 when Andrew Lloyd Webber personally informed her that there was a role for “narrator” in the first production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. More than just grabbing this opportunity with both hands, the latitude and blank canvas offered to Jackie by producer Bill Kenright enabled her to ‘create’ rather than just interpret the part, similar to the way the great opera diva Maria Callas had created the role of Tosca in Puccini’s tear-jerker. As a result, the part of the Narrator has ever since been portrayed by a female singer. The show played at Sadlers Wells and to packed houses all over the country. So Any Dream Will Do, the go-to song from Joseph, obviously featured early on in her set. Next, she was approached by Cameron Mackintosh and, pitched against strong opposition, procured the coveted lead role of Nancy in his production of Oliver. From that, she treated us to the beautiful ballad As Long as he Needs me.
It was Les Miserables in 1985 that really cemented her position. Starting off as the Factory Girl, she was then offered to understudy Eponine. With the confidence of a true star, she didn’t feel that this part was right for her talents and instead preferred to hold out for Fantine. Her instincts were justified and in due course, under the wing of the inestimable Cameron Mackintosh, she secured the prime heart-wrenching role of Fantine in the original London cast at the Palace Theatre. An absconding father had left the beautiful Fantine with an illegitimate daughter, Cosette. Penniless, she asks the innkeeping couple, the Thenardiers, to look after Cosette while she seeks to provide for her child’s keep. They extort money from her, Fantine overworks, becomes sick, falls into prostitution and eventually dies of consumption. Fantine is a symbol for devoted motherhood, infinite love and, in the end, destitution. To portray all these variegated nuances of character in a single performance requires acting, as well as singing, of great empathy and intuition, which Jackie achieved with consummate skill at the highest level. Nothing if not versatile, she’s also played the innkeeper’s wife (and ironically Fantine’s tormentor) Madame Thenardier, delighting the audience in the production’s hilarious and rumbustious showstopper Master of the House.
Just to prove she can do disco as well (one of her other great loves), towards the end of the evening we have a rousing version of Abba’s Dancing Queen, during which, she confided to me afterwards with a chuckle, were it not for the confined surroundings of the restaurant (and the presence of glasses of fine wine), “I would have had you all dancing on the tables.”
As a performer, Jackie’s voice distils a blend of warmth and sweetness that reinforces the emotions stirred up by the melodies and lyrics. She’s also taken a leaf out of Frank Sinatra’s book. Ol’ Blue Eyes could hold an audience in the palm of his hand as if they were in his own living room and here, the intimacy of the surroundings enabled Jackie, with smooth between-numbers patter and a dash of dry humour, to build an easy rapport with the diners, further enhancing the evening’s relaxed ambience. It’s easy to see how she can charm the room in her one-woman shows The Ritz and The Savoy.
Jackie Marks is a great entertainer who just happens to be a singer. Or, put simply in the words of Irving Berlin “That’s Entertainment.”
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