Dagmarr’s Dimanche

Séance For Lost Gods

Dagmarr’s Dimanche : Songs from the Cinema

Hersh Dagmarr at The Crazy Coqs, Soho, 1^st February, then on tour until 24th March

Review by Ravenna Vale

At Crazy Coqs, in a room already steeped in theatrical memory, Hersh Dagmarr’s Dagmarr’s Dimanche : Songs from the Cinema unfolded like a séance for Hollywood’s lost gods. On a dank Sunday February evening, Dagmarr, that flamboyant and restless spectre of cabaret, summoned a world of celluloid glamour with intelligence, irony, and genuine emotional grit. Accompanied by the exquisitely attuned pianist Karen Newby, this was not nostalgia as museum piece, but cinema remembered through lived feeling and sharpened craft.

From the opening strains of Alfred Newman’s Street Scene, gliding seamlessly into Mae West’s wickedly suggestive I Found a New Way to Go to Town, the audience was ushered into a realm where wit and danger cohabit. Dagmarr does not imitate the screen legends he reveres. Instead, he channels their essence, allowing their songs to breathe anew through his own singular persona. His delivery of You Little So and So captured Marlene Dietrich’s smoky disdain while adding a flicker of mischief entirely his own.

The programme was elegantly paced, moving between torch song intimacy and high camp bravura. Laura emerged as a moment of hushed reverence, its melody lingering like perfume in a darkened room. By contrast, the twin temptations of Put the Blame on Mame and Amado Mio were performed with sultry precision, Dagmarr relishing the theatricality without sacrificing musical discipline.

Karen Newby’s role in this alchemy cannot be overstated. Her piano playing was both authoritative and responsive, shaping the emotional architecture of the night. In You Won’t Forget Me, she allowed the song’s aching restraint to bloom naturally, supporting Dagmarr with subtle harmonic shading. Her own vocal turn with Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß was a highlight of crystalline poise, delivered without affectation and with a deep understanding of the song’s seductive restraint.

The programme cleverly refused to remain trapped in one era. A sly reinvention of Hand on Your Heart, interwoven with spoken lines from Fatal Attraction, bridged classic obsession and modern psychological thrillers with surprising coherence. The Basic Instinct skit, underpinned by Jerry Goldsmith’s ominous score, injected a flash of noir tension before the joyous release of I Got Rhythm, which Dagmarr performed with playful abandon.

Classic Hollywood returned in full splendour with As Time Goes By, rendered with understated sincerity rather than sentimentality. Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend sparkled without descending into parody, while I May Never Go Home Anymore offered a darker, more introspective Dietrich moment, beautifully judged. Mein Herr brought a flash of defiant swagger, while Toi Jamais introduced a cool, modern melancholy that sat comfortably alongside the older material.

The closing stretch, from Three Sweethearts Have I and Shirley MacLaine’s I’m Still Here, felt like a meditation on survival, reinvention, and theatrical endurance. By the time Dagmarr reached Did I Remember?, the room was held in quiet attention, aware that this was not merely a cabaret set but a carefully constructed and self-reflective emotional journey.

Dagmarr’s Dimanche at Crazy Coqs was a reminder that cinema songs, when handled with intelligence and respect, can still speak vividly to the present. With Karen Newby’s musical sophistication and Dagmarr’s magnetic storytelling, this intoxicating evening proved that glamour, danger, and wit never truly fade. They simply wait for the right artists to call them back into the light.

In all, as Dagmarr described, he is continental, romantic and sentimental — a description that neatly captures the spirit in which the performance was offered.

Ravenna Vale, February 2026

Photography by Ian Archer

Hersh Dagmarr performs at the Rose of Elagabalus in Dalston every Wednesday in March.

Dagmarr’s Cabaret show is at the Circle and Star Theatre in Hampstead, on 24th March at 7pm