Biography
Born on 17 February 1941 in Enfield, Middlesex, England, Julia McKenzie has distinguished herself as an actress, singer, and director, establishing herself among the foremost leading ladies of British musical theatre, with occasional Broadway appearances. Early performances led her to the Sylvia Spriggs Dancing School, and just as she prepared to train as a French teacher she received a scholarship for opera study. Four years at the Guildhall School of Music followed, after which she worked in provincial theatres and toured operettas and musical comedies for many seasons before gaining recognition in the 1969 London production of Mame, headed by Ginger Rogers.
Her initial encounter with Stephen Sondheim’s material, to which she would become lastingly linked, occurred in the early 1970s when she assumed a principal role in Company. She later substituted for Patricia Routledge in Cowardy Custard and, in 1974, took part in Cole, another of the Mermaid Theatre’s anthology presentations. Her major opportunity arrived in 1976 when she joined Millicent Martin, David Kernan, and Ned Sherrin in the revue Side By Side By Sondheim; the London success transferred to New York, where it completed 384 performances.
Throughout the 1980s she earned praise for a dazzling portrayal of Lily Garland in On The Twentieth Century, received Variety Club and Laurence Olivier Awards for playing Miss Adelaide in the National Theatre’s Guys And Dolls, and returned to Sondheim in Follies as Sally Plummer and in Into The Woods as the Witch. The composer remained central in the 1990s, beginning in 1993 with her Olivier Award-winning performance as Mrs. Lovett in the Royal National Theatre’s acclaimed Sweeney Todd. That same year she directed the New York premiere of the Sondheim-song revue Putting It Together, which marked Julie Andrews’s return to the New York musical stage after Camelot in 1960.
McKenzie has also appeared widely in non-musical theatre and on television, where she was named Favourite Comedy Performer three times during the 1980s for her work in the situation comedies Maggie And Her, Fresh Fields, and French Fields. In 1994 she co-devised with Kit Hesketh-Harvey and directed the Mercury Workshop Musical Revue at Jermyn Street Theatre. Subsequent directing credits include the 1996 Danish Musical Of The Year competition, the 1997 West End production of Stepping Out, a 1997 BBC Radio 2 concert revival of her Sally in Follies, and, alongside Bob Avian, the 1998 Cameron Mackintosh charity gala Hey Mr Producer! at the Lyceum Theatre.
Her initial encounter with Stephen Sondheim’s material, to which she would become lastingly linked, occurred in the early 1970s when she assumed a principal role in Company. She later substituted for Patricia Routledge in Cowardy Custard and, in 1974, took part in Cole, another of the Mermaid Theatre’s anthology presentations. Her major opportunity arrived in 1976 when she joined Millicent Martin, David Kernan, and Ned Sherrin in the revue Side By Side By Sondheim; the London success transferred to New York, where it completed 384 performances.
Throughout the 1980s she earned praise for a dazzling portrayal of Lily Garland in On The Twentieth Century, received Variety Club and Laurence Olivier Awards for playing Miss Adelaide in the National Theatre’s Guys And Dolls, and returned to Sondheim in Follies as Sally Plummer and in Into The Woods as the Witch. The composer remained central in the 1990s, beginning in 1993 with her Olivier Award-winning performance as Mrs. Lovett in the Royal National Theatre’s acclaimed Sweeney Todd. That same year she directed the New York premiere of the Sondheim-song revue Putting It Together, which marked Julie Andrews’s return to the New York musical stage after Camelot in 1960.
McKenzie has also appeared widely in non-musical theatre and on television, where she was named Favourite Comedy Performer three times during the 1980s for her work in the situation comedies Maggie And Her, Fresh Fields, and French Fields. In 1994 she co-devised with Kit Hesketh-Harvey and directed the Mercury Workshop Musical Revue at Jermyn Street Theatre. Subsequent directing credits include the 1996 Danish Musical Of The Year competition, the 1997 West End production of Stepping Out, a 1997 BBC Radio 2 concert revival of her Sally in Follies, and, alongside Bob Avian, the 1998 Cameron Mackintosh charity gala Hey Mr Producer! at the Lyceum Theatre.
Albums
Singles
