Tribute to Babette Langford

Babette Langford, the indomitable mother of Bonnie and much-loved grandmother of the Strallen sisters, has died at the age of 94.

Until recently, Langford ran The Young Set dance school in Teddington, Middlesex – she was there for more than 40 years, having taken over from Bonnie’s great aunt, the ballerina Daphne De Lisle. All three of her daughters – Bonita (Bonnie), Cherida and Petrina – attended, as did, in time, Cherida’s daughters Scarlett, Summer, Zizi and Saskia Strallen.

As Bonnie’s career took off from the age of six (after winning the talent show Opportunity Knocks) and the West End – and Broadway – came calling, her mother remained by her side. When in 1974, at the age of nine, she went to work on the Broadway revival of Gypsy, playing the precocious Baby June, Babette accompanied her as her chaperone.

It would be easy to draw parallels between the pushy Mama Rose and Langford but, in fact, Langford was Bonnie’s biggest champion and protector. As Bonnie said in an interview with the Nottingham Evening Post in 1987, ‘My parents didn’t want me to be a child in the business because they’d heard all the stories. But they didn’t have any choice in the end’!’ Talking about that trip to America for the same Evening Post article, Langford said: ‘Bonnie was frightened. She’d never been away from home in her life. For me it was a wonderful adventure but I realised I was working and I took it seriously.’ On Bonnie’s part, she was in no hurry to move into her own place, saying that, at the age of 22, she still lived at home with her family: ‘I don’t feel the need for independence. I need security and support.’

Nevertheless, Langford was known for her exacting standards. Chairman of the Twickenham-based TOPS Musical Theatre Company Ian Stark concurs. Langford was choreographer at TOPS from 1960 until 2016, later becoming Vice President; Bonnie and Cherida were TOPS regulars, as were the Strallen sisters. When Musicals magazine spoke to Stark for Treading the Boards (November 2024 issue), he recalled Langford insisting that he take off his vest to play the Strong Man in Carousel – he was six at the time and very nervous: ‘It was only when Cherida gave me a pack of Refreshers that I was brave enough to do it!’

In his tribute to Langford just published on TOPS’s Facebook page, Stark again alludes to her persuasive, no-nonsense attitude: ‘It’s safe to say that Babette got us to do things that most of us never believed we could do. While her energy was legendary, her calm acceptance of mediocrity was not! Babette wanted bigger, better and bolder than before – and she got it.’

Even her own family were expected to toe the line. As her granddaughter Zizi Strallen recently posted on Instagram: ‘Goodbye Nannie. I love you. I promise I will always try to "Be Better!"'

In his tribute, Stark acknowledges that, while those around Langford saw how extraordinary she was, she was in fact deeply modest of her achievements and ‘just wanted to get on with it’. He concluded: ‘The angels will be high-kicking in the clouds by now, and they won't get a tea break until they've got it right.’

Langford’s funeral is later this month in Mortlake. On a ‘Much Loved’ web page set up in her memory, the stories and recollections continue to flood in. ‘Thank you for creating The Young Set and believing in us all,’ reads one tribute, while another one praises Langford for being ‘the most inspirational, wonderful woman’. 

Babette Langford: Born July 1930; Died January 2025

Read our cover feature with Bonnie Langford, in which she discusses the Les Misérables arena tour and Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends on Broadway, in the April issue