Fabulous Friday: "Don't Tell Mama"

Did you know that Dame Judi Dench was the first woman to play Sally Bowles on the English stage? She was 34 - - so I suppose we can say she was young but not exactly dewy. Here's what her Wikipedia page says about it:

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."

Here she is in her first song in the show, "Don't Tell Mama."