Adèle Anderson
Adèle Anderson is an English singer and actress, and one third of the cabaret group Fascinating Aïda. In 1995, with Fascinating Aïda, she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment.
Career
Anderson has appeared internationally in concerts, in theatrical plays, and on the BBC Television programme Gemma Masters. In addition, sometimes with Dillie Keane, Anderson writes lyrics to most of Fascinating Aïda's songs and has contributed to the songs of several hit musicals, including The Challenge and The Ten Commandments.Fascinating Aïda
Anderson joined Fascinating Aïda in 1984, a year after its inception, and has performed with them ever since. In 2014, they recorded the show Charm Offensive, which they toured nationwide.Credits
Theatre
- The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
- Follies
- Into the Woods
- Achilles in Heels
- When Florence Met Isadora
- Eminent Victorians and The Art of Love
- Let's Kick Arts
- Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera
- Die Fledermaus
- Wasp, Salad Days
- Plan 9 from Outer Space – The Musical
- Sunset Boulevard
- Nine
- House of Obsession
- Girls who wear glasses
- Tales my Lover Told Me.
- Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens
- She has appeared in five pantomimes around the country and directed two at The Theatre, Chipping Norton. She also directed Kaye's the Word, Paul Hull's tribute to Danny Kaye, which played the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the New End Theatre. She and Warren Wills have performed jazz/cabaret together at Pizza on the Park and the Langham Hilton and also played the Hong Kong Fringe Festival.
- Closer to Heaven.
Writing
- Fascinating Aïda lyrics
- Co-writer of Dillie Keane's three solo shows: Single Again, Citizen Keane and Back With You.
- Song "The English Lesson" for The Shakespeare Revue.
- As a member of the Mercury Workshop she wrote a section of the collaborative musical The Challenge.
- Ninth Commandment for the Mercury Workshop's production of The Ten Commandments .
- Debut solo album: Why Try to Change Me Now?, original songs by herself
Film, television & radio
- Lady Jane
- Company Business, in which she serenaded Gene Hackman and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
- Dr Tockley in Hotel Babylon
- Gemma Masters in Fish
- Cecily Watkins in New Tricks
- The Whingeing Pom
- Plutopia
- Anderson was also a consultant for the film Different for Girls, starring Steven Mackintosh and Miriam Margolyes.
- Candace in ''The Romanoffs''
Personal life
Anderson is a transgender woman. She had gender affirming surgery after graduating from Birmingham University, as part of her medical transition. She completed her social transition some time before speaking publicly about being transgender. She worked in drama from Birmingham University as a male, and then she began the lengthy process of changing her sex. She worked as a civil servant and a secretary before becoming a jazz singer.She is a patron of Humanists UK. She later became a humanist celebrant for Humanists UK, specialising in non-religious weddings.
On 15 September 2010, Anderson, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.