Meet Diana Barrows

Polyglot, ethnic-chimera Diana Barrows is an enfant terrible of the New York showbiz scene. Hardly out of her cradle, she took her first piano, singing and dancing lessons, learning the art of seduction shooting diaper and cornflakes commercials. Still a child, she steps on stage appearing in roles à la Shirley Temple, during presidential galas at the White House. A few years later – after a tap tribute to James Cagney he felt greatly apriled by she becomes lead singer and dancer of The New York Fire Crackers, touring and recording in Japan for a year.

After her B.F.A. from N.Y.U., she then decides to brave simultaneously the worlds of Theatre, Cinema, T.V. and Music-Hall, orchestrating her career. “I wanted to explore everything,” she says, “both inside and outside the mainstream.

Her Broadway credits include the original “Tessie” in Annie. and a remarkable Trixie, in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

For T.V., she strings together a number of series (Knots Landing,…), sitcoms (Charles In Charge,…) and MOWs (Addicted To His Love,…). For Hollywood, she specializes a while in horror movies (Friday the 13th, VII The New Blood,…), winning best scream in a horror film, yet also wins roles in sophisticated thrillers (Ford Fairlane,…), romances and spoofs (My Mom’s a Werewolf,…).

Over the recent years – whether in Europe, Brazil or L.A. – she has constantly returned to one of her many roots: playing in such avant-garde theatrical productions as As Larvas, in Portuguese, Cuban comedies (Juventud Divino Tesoro) or notable classics, such as Lope de Vega’s Dama Boba, where 16th century Spanish verse seem second nature to her and “critics agree she’s stunning!”. Came also a number of idiosyncratic moves in 21st -century-Nouvelle-Digital-Vague format, and some dazzling contributions to more conventional projects, such as a Parisian musical where standard tunes were the call of the day. (“Life,” she comments, “is an experiment in God’s lab of freedom. One thing freedom cannot do is to remain passive.”)

See and hear. For Barrows is also a prolific singer. The “sparkling Diana Barrows” – so speaks the Agence France-Presse – decided to court the French market with a song from the 70’s everyone still remembers; Michel and “Oh là là” , her “subtly magnetic voice” caressing the soundtrack of French film Drôle de Félix.

Diana Barrows is currently working on a jazzy album project.