The first lady of musical theatre is heading to Richmond this month for a one-night only performance of her favourite songs. Jane McGowan finds out more
In 2014 Elaine Paige announced that her stage show, Page by Page by Paige, would serve not only as a tribute to her 50 years in showbusiness, but also as a grand farewell tour, saying at the time, that she had, “thought long and hard about this decision, but feel this landmark event, my 50th Anniversary, is a good time to bid adieu. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone – it’ll be As If We Never Said Goodbye!”
And as it turns out, she hasn’t said goodbye at all and instead, less than three years later, is saying “hello” to a 20-date tour of the UK. “Basically, I got bored,” she laughs, launching into that famous giggle that is so familiar to fans of her Radio 2 Elaine Paige on Sunday show. “I really missed the stage. I can’t do back-to-back tours anymore – that’s just too tiring, but I still want to keep singing so I came up with a plan to keep working without killing myself.”
The life-saving solution? A series of one-night gigs that take place six days apart, enabling Elaine to return home and “recover” in between shows. The tour, which arrives in Richmond on November 19, is, according to Elaine, “the soundtrack of my life” which sees the 69-year-old star singing songs from the Beatles and Burt Bacharach to Harry Nilsson to Randy Newman.
“Instead of singing every musical theatre song known to man, which I have done for 50 years,” she sighs. “I thought, why not do something different and sing some of the music I have loved throughout my life.
“I tell personal anecdotes too,” she says. “When I was in Evita on Broadway I went on a date with Paul Simon, so I talk about that a little bit and then sing 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. So it’s good fun. And don’t worry there will be show tunes in there as well,” she chuckles.
Elaine shot to fame in 1978 after landing the role of Eva Peron in the Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita. The duo had been searching for a leading lady for more than a year when they came across Elaine. Although already a regular on the West End stage, she had mainly been consigned to the ranks of the chorus. After eight rounds of auditions, she got the job and has of course never looked back, taking on lead roles in Cats, Chess, Sunset Boulevard and Anything Goes. She has more than 21 albums under her belt – four of which went multi-platinum – and her weekly radio show attracts an audience of around two million listeners.
Elaine freely admits that she’s surprised by how her career has gone and could never imagined when she was growing up in Barnet in the 1950s, that such success lay ahead.
“I never had a plan. Everything seems to have just happened to me,” she says modestly. “I am amazed. Truly, I’m amazed I’m still here; still doing it; still loving it and that people are still coming to see me. I have been truly blessed.”
- Elaine Paige will be at Richmond Theatre on November 19. For details and tickets, visit: atgtickets.com
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