Sometimes things that happen in a cabaret room aren’t really cabaret. Love and Let Die: Confessions of a Bond Girl is musical theater, perhaps jukebox musical theater, but theater nonetheless. It stars, was written and costumed, and has film editing by the remarkable Shannon Daley. In it, she completely embodied her character of Sylvia Trench, the longtime woman in a master spy’s life. Discretion may have more or less kept her out of the public eye, as did the many films that recounted his escapades, but she was always there in the background, admiring, loving, waiting for, and mooning over him, no matter what his face was wearing at the time. The show, under the deft direction of Lennie Watts, was campy and heartbreaking, absurd and very romantic, witty and very serious—quite an achievement.

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The musical content consisted of the songs from the various James Bond films, from Thunderball to Spectre, along with some clever mixing in of other standards, such as a blend of “Diamonds Are Forever” (Don Black/John Barry) and the best-known Broadway tune sung by the most famous expert on diamonds. The arrangements by music director John Fischer were inventive and expanded the songs’ impact well beyond what piano and bass (Jerry DeVore) could do in support of Daley’s powerful voice...

Cabaret Scenes