Page "Judi Dench" Paragraph 7

In 1968, she was offered the role of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret.

As Sheridan Morley later reported: " At first she thought they were joking.

She had never done a musical and she has an unusual croaky voice which sounds as if she has a permanent cold.

So frightened was she of singing in public that she auditioned from the wings, leaving the pianists alone on stage ".

But when it opened at the Palace Theatre in February 1968, Frank Marcus, reviewing for Plays and Players, commented that: " She sings well.

The title song in particular is projected with great feeling.

" After a long run in Cabaret, she rejoined the RSC making numerous appearances with the company in Stratford and London for nearly twenty years, winning several best actress awards.

Among her roles with the RSC, she was the Duchess in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi in 1971.

In the Stratford 1976 season, and then at the Aldwych in 1977, she gave two comedy performances, first in Trevor Nunn's musical staging of The Comedy of Errors as Adriana, then partnered with Donald Sinden as Beatrice and Benedick in John Barton's " British Raj " revival of Much Ado About Nothing.

As Bernard Levin wrote in The Sunday Times: "... demonstrating once more that she is a comic actress of consummate skill, perhaps the very best we have.

" One of her most notable achievements with the RSC was her performance as Lady Macbeth in 1976.

Nunn's acclaimed production of Macbeth was first staged with a minimalist design at The Other Place theatre in Stratford.

Its small round stage focused attention on the psychological dynamics of the characters, and both Ian McKellen in the title role, and Dench, received exceptionally favourable notices.

" If this is not great acting I don't know what is ", wrote Michael Billington in The Guardian.

" It will astonish me if the performance is matched by any in this actress's generation ", commented J C Trewin in The Lady.

The production transferred to London, opening at the Donmar Warehouse in September 1977, and was adapted for television, later released on VHS and DVD.

Dench won the SWET Best Actress Award in 1977.