Bertice Reading (July 22, 1933 – June 8, 1991) was an American-born actress, singer and

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own dur ...

artiste, based in England for most of her career.

Early life and career

Reading was born in

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester i ...

. Her performing career started at the age of 3, when she was talent-spotted by

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the f ...

. She appeared in the all-black revue '' The Jazz Train'', in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in the spring of 1955 and at the

Piccadilly Theatre The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at 16 Denman Street, behind Piccadilly Circus and adjacent to the Regent Palace Hotel, in the City of Westminster, London, England. Early years Built by Bertie Crewe and Edward A. Stone ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In this show she had notable success playing the great blues singer

Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock a ...

. Adept at a whole range of musical styles, from

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

to blues to musical comedy, in addition to her talent, Reading also had a striking appearance and a renowned sense of humour. Her straight-acting performance as a nurse in

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

's play ''

Requiem for a Nun ''Requiem for a Nun'' is a work of fiction written by William Faulkner. It is a sequel to Faulkner's early novel ''Sanctuary'', which introduced the characters of Temple Drake, her friend (later husband) Gowan Stevens, and Gowan's uncle Gavin Ste ...

'' in 1957 earned her a nomination for a

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

when it transferred to

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

. She also appeared in the 1958 musical '' Valmouth'', adapted from a

Ronald Firbank Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank (17 January 1886 – 21 May 1926) was an innovative English novelist. His eight short novels, partly inspired by the London aesthetes of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde, consist largely of dialogue, with referen ...

novel of the same name. The next years saw Reading spending time abroad in

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

, as well as having two marriages. In 1979 she appeared at the Roundhouse in London in ''Only In America'', a tribute show to the musical composers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. In the 1980s she presented many one-woman shows, usually debuting at the

Kings Head Theatre The King's Head Theatre, founded in 1970 by Dan Crawford, is an off-West End venue in London. It is the second oldest operating pub theatre in the UK. In 2021, Mark Ravenhill became Artistic Director and the theatre focusses on producing LGBT ...

Club in Islington, London. Reading appeared but did not sing in a 1981 music video by UK soul/funk band

Linx Linx or LINX may refer to: * Linx Cargo Care Group, Australian logistics company * Linx (railway company), a now defunct Norwegian-Swedish railway company * Linx (software house), a Brazilian business management software company * LINX (IPC), a ...

for their album's title track

Intuition Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledge; unconscious cognition; ...

. In 1982 she appeared in the Sandy Wilson musical ''Valmouth'' at the Chichester Festival theatre playing Mrs Yajñavalkya. It was in 1982 that Reading married Thomas R.V. Blake with a ceremony held in Chichester. In the 1985 solo show ''Every Inch a Lady'', she donned a pink satin tutu and danced to a version of The Sugar Plum Fairy, which had been choreographed by the dancer

Wayne Sleep Wayne Philip Colin Sleep (born 17 July 1948) is a British dancer, director, choreographer, and actor who appeared on the BBC series '' The Real Marigold on Tour'' and ITV's '' The Real Full Monty''. Early life Sleep was born in Plymouth, D ...

. She appeared in the 1986 movie version of Little Shop of Horrors, as the "Downtown" older woman, who sings the beginning words to the song "Skid Row (Downtown)". In the Summer of 1986 she recorded a disco album with producer

Ian Levine Ian Geoffrey Levine (born 22 June 1953) is a British songwriter, producer, and DJ. A moderniser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of Hi-NRG, he has written and produced records with sales totalling over 40 million. ...

, which she appeared on

TV-AM TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchis ...

's Good Morning Britain to promote. She also appeared in '' South Pacific'' as

Bloody Mary Bloody Mary originally referred to: * Mary I of England (1516–1558), Queen of England and Ireland, so called because of her persecution of Protestants Bloody Mary may also refer to: Film * '' Urban Legends: Bloody Mary'', a 2005 horror fi ...

in Bournemouth in 1987.

Death

Reading died at the age of 57 in

, following a stroke, although her age was initially misreported as 54.Bertice Reading, 54, Jazz Singer, Actress And Star in Cabaret
Obituary,

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', June 11, 1991

References

Sources

*''The Daily Telegraph Third Book of Obituaries (Entertainers)'', edited by

Hugh Massingberd Hugh John Massingberd (30 December 1946 – 25 December 2007), originally Hugh John Montgomery and known from 1963 to 1992 as Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, was an English journalist and genealogist. He was chief editor of ''Burke's Peerage''/''Burk ...

, Pan Macmillan, 1998.

External links

Biodata
* *
Appearance on Desert Island Discs - 7 January 1984
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reading, Bertice 1933 births 1991 deaths People from Chester, Pennsylvania American expatriates in the United Kingdom Groove Records artists 20th-century African-American women singers