For three London artists, the sum of the parts of their creativity is greater than any individual talent.  The collaboration between Denise Pelley, Jacquie Gauthier and Louise Fagan propels their musical-theatre tour-de-force--Jazzabel.  Just don't call them divas unless you know it stands for driven in various aspirations of artistic style.

With successful performances in Washington, D.C. and an off-Broadway opening scheduled for New York, their Jazzabel has wings.  "I had always wanted to do this," says Denise Pelley, who came up with the original two-voice concept.  Pelley is Jazzabel's co-producer and sultry chanteuse who gives the piece its soul.  "But I didn't want to do a one-woman show.  I always had these two characters in mind."

Enter friend Louise Fagan.  A producer and director of television and theatrical pieces, Pelley had gone to see Fagan's production of The Shimmering Verge at the Grand Theatre's McManus Studio in September of 2003.  "Things were incubating in Denise's mind," says Fagan.  "I was taking the Verge to new York.  She told me she had somebody she thought could write it."  By the time Fagan came back to town, Pelley had found her writer.

Jazzabel, the story of naked female ambition in Harlem in the late 1930s, was fleshed out by Jacquie Gauthier, the morning co-host on London radio station BX93.  "I'd never written a play or a song before," says Gauthier.  Nevertheless, the partnership was natural from the outset.  "Denise and I had lunch and she told me her hopes and dreams and goals for a show," says Gauthier.

After meeting with Pelley for a month, Gauthier started to write.  Born with a vivid imagination, Gauthier says she found it easy to slip under the skin of black American women.  "I've had many lives.  I was an Egyptian princess when I was a kid," she says.  "I've read so much and studied so many different cultures.  You can find the common human experience in any setting."

Gauthier sought inspiration in the multiple viewings of Ken Burns' ten-episode documentary series Jazz: A History of America's Music.  "I narrowed down the years to focus on the life and times of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday," says Gauthier.  Both artists exploded on the New York scene in the 1930s when the Apollo Theater and Savoy Ballroom started to swing and jazz was at its zenith.

Though not meant to be biographical, Pelley provided family photos and other references to help Gauthier's research.  Jazzabel follows the trajectories of two struggling singers from the Deep South that beat a well-trodden path to the bright lights of the big city.  Grace abandons her dream for conventional family life while Jane (Jazzabel) with overtones of the gifted but tragic Billie Holiday, becomes a star, falls under the spell of the gin bottle and meets a tragic end.

Pelley relishes the yin and yang of both roles and finds her relationship to the characters change with every performance.  "I thought I was like Grace, but, as I get to know them better, Jane is teaching me a few things," says Pelley with a husky laugh.  "She's hungry.  She wants things."

While Pelley was always career-minded, it had to fit her family life.  Fortunately for her many London fans, those choices kept her close to home.  "I'm not sorry about anything but losing my son," says Pelley.  "I'm comfortable with everything I've done.  Even after 30 years I fell like I'm just getting started and ready to open the door and go right through."

Her colleagues are equally ambitious.  Once the Jazzabel script was ready in mid 2004, Pelley, Fagan and Gauthier formed Femme Fatale Productions.  Asked if there are any divas in the partnership, a unison chorus sings out, "me!"  But their definition of diva lacks vanity and a lot of make-up.  "We see it as three strong women who believe in what they are doing and are driven to succeed," explains Fagan.

One of the strengths of Femme Fatales Productions is its ability to hire outstanding talent.  The lyrics to two memorable songs in Jazzabel were written by Gauthier and composed by musical director Jeff Christmas.  Christmas is a London-based arranger, composer, conductor, drummer and percussionist.  His skills shine on the arrangements of ballads Somewhere in New York, which captures the sweet siren song of youthful lust and ambition in the Big Apple, and the haunting We Had Yesterday.

Pelley recorded the Jazzabel CD with the legendary Jack Richardson, who gained fame as the producer of the Guess Who, Bob Seger and Pink Floyd, among others.  The CD, used to help fund their tour, includes well-known and obscure songs from the jazz era.  They all take full advantage of Pelley's vocal talents and phrasing nuances, and feature Christmas on drums, Mitch Tyler on bass and Stephen Holowitz on piano.  Pelley is effusive with her praise.  "They all feel the songs and we feed off each other," she says.  "But they know when enough is enough."

Once Jazzabel made its debut to sell-out crowds at the McManus Studio in September 2004, Femme Fatale Productions decided to hit the accelerator.  "It took work to get here," says Fagan.  "But we felt that Jazzabel was the right vehicle and that Denise deserved an opportunity to shine.  If we were ever going to take a show on the road, this was the one to take."

Fagan's local production company, Phat Puppy, already knew the way.  She staged The Shimmering Verge in New York - a one-woman show with former London resident Molly Peacock.  The director of New York's Blue Heron Arts Center, an off-Broadway performance space, came to see Fagan's show.  "Blue Heron has a history of producing Canadian playwrights and black artists," says Fagan.  They expressed an interest in seeing more.

With their support, Fagan organized Portraits: A Festival of One woman Shows, which opened at the National Museum of woman in the Arts in Washington, D.C. in late October.  the festival line-up included Jazzabel, The Shimmering Verge and Nona, a performance based on cartoons by Victoria Roberts, a cartoonist whose work appears in The New Yorker.  The festival runs at the Blue Heron from February 13 to March 3.

"Washington was an important show because it legitimizes the festival concept," says Fagan.  "First time opportunities like this don't often come along.  It is financially difficult to do a one-woman show."  In fact, it's financially punitive to do bigger productions, but on-woman shows, with rare exceptions, have traditionally been at the fringe of mainstream theatre.

Pelley was delighted with audience feedback in Washington, especially when she the feline torch song He May Be Your Man But He Comes To See Me Sometime.  "I'm too focused on-stage to know what the audience things, but I heard them laughing at that when I went off to change," says Pelley.

Bringing the festival to new York is a labour of love and involves many risks, not the least of which is financial.  Right now, they say only Pelley the performer of Femme Fatale, is certain to be paid.  They learn as they go how to divide the work.  "Time and experience shows us what make sense," says Fagan.  "The lines always blur."  For example, Pelley is stepping back from the details.  "With the first production we were all producers and covered all the bases from hiring people to stage management," she says.  "Now I have to put all my energies into performing because that's my strength and I have two characters to keep track of."

Fagan and Gauthier take up the slack.  "The partnership has worked very well despite having very different perspectives brought to the table," says Fagan.  "We try this and we try that and it becomes layered an better."

All of them have a sense of responsibility for the financial picture.  Mounting a production, even on a shoestring, is a major expense.  Londoners have been there for them and donated enough Aeroplan miles to get free tickets to New York and Washington, D.C. for eleven people.  "We're getting a lot of love from our community," says Gauthier.  "There has been an amazing amount of support."

Undoubtedly, this community takes pride of ownership in these three gifted and generous women.  So watch out New York - these London divas are jazzed up and ready to swing.