Lauder- some thoughts
Byre Theatre, St Andrews, 5/9.2026
Jamie MacDougall and Derek Clark
Jamie MacDougall and I go back professionally about 35 years, when we made our Salzburg Festival debuts together in Handel's Acis and Galatea and recorded Purcell's 'King Arthur ' for Deutsche Grammophon. He appeared with me last month at the Edinburgh Festival in a concert of Scottish Lieder, reviewed favourably on this website by my editor, Hugh Kerr.
Consequently, it was with some excitement that I found myself on Saturday 5th September in the Byre Theatre in St Andrews, waiting for the start of Jamie's one man show, 'Lauder', an 80 minute ramble through the life and times of one of Scotland's favourite sons, Sir Harry Lauder (1870-1950).
This show has been going, in its present form, for several years, and has been reviewed at least twice by the EMR, so this is not going to be another.
Rather, it's one professional singer's reaction to a consummate performance by a colleague who we perhaps have somewhat taken for granted. One of my EMR colleagues described Jamie as a 'National Treasure ' and I myself referred to him as Scotland's Mister Music recently, and his career as singer, broadcaster, Master of Ceremonies and witty commentator has certainly put him in the same league as say, Kenneth McKellar or Andy Stewart.
However, observing him closely both on stage at the Byre in the guise of Harry Lauder and in concert in our shared recital of Scottish Lieder with Susan Hamilton and Michał Gajzler, it is clear that we have here both a very fine lyric tenor, at the height of his powers, possessing a beautiful instrument of power and quality, with a thrilling top (which is the essential component of a good tenor) and also an actor who can make us laugh and cry at the drop of a hat.
As Lauder, Jamie fully inhabited both the public and private personas of the much loved vaudevillian, the scatter-gun repartee and the sentimental, almost cringe-worthy, couthiness which were Lauder's stock in trade, even down to the carefully created, and completely false, meanness. Yet, in the sections when we see him utterly devastated by the death of his son, John, in the trenches of Flanders in WWI, Jamie lays bare his soul in a totally natural way, and we cry with him.
The show was created by the great Scottish performer, Jimmy Logan, but I can't imagine even Jimmy getting near the heights of Jamie's utterly open hearted personification of that complicated son of Portobello, who at the age of 40 was the highest paid performer in the world.
On the other hand, his rendition, in particular, of Richard Strauss' Heimliche Aufforderung in the New Town Church on August 10th was as good a piece of lyric tenor singing as you'll hear anywhere. Beautiful legato, delicious phrasing, and sensational top notes demonstrated a technique and a musical intelligence of the highest order, illustrating the oddness of Scottish Opera only using Jamie as a comic comprimario singer instead of in lead roles.
I gather that this was not the final outing of 'Lauder', so keep an eye out for further appearances.
I can't finish however without a word for Jamie's silent stooge in the show, the willing accompanist, Derek Clark, formerly Head of Music at Scottish Opera. Supposedly engaged as Lauder's new and somewhat glaikit piano accompanist, Derek not only plays brilliantly but keeps up a deadpan weariness which acts as the perfect foil for Jamie's impetuous showmanship.
National treasures both!
