Elaine Paige

Born Elaine Bickerstaff during the spring of 1948, Elaine Paige later emerged among the most prominent figures in musical theater. While growing up she trained at the Aida Foster Drama School, honing the vocal skills that would define her stage career. Early in the 1970s she appeared in a series of London shows, taking supporting parts in Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar before securing the starring role in Grease opposite the then-unknown Richard Gere. After stepping away from musicals to pursue television work, she appeared on the soap Crossroads in a role that drew little notice. Offered the chance to headline Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita, she seized it, delivering a performance that earned widespread acclaim, numerous awards, and a twenty-month run in the lead. Attempting a pop transition, she released the album Sitting Pretty, which made scant impact on the charts. Her established theater profile nevertheless secured another major opportunity in Webber’s Cats along with a headline concert at Royal Festival Hall, both of which proved major triumphs. Her second solo album, released under her own name, fared modestly better than its predecessor, yet the trio of mid-1980s releases Stages, Cinema, and Love Hurts achieved her strongest commercial results, each reaching the U.K. Top Ten. Work on Tim Rice’s Chess additionally produced the hit single “I Know Him So Well.”

Thereafter her output intensified, with near-annual albums and appearances in major British productions such as Piaf, Anything Goes, and Sunset Boulevard. The New York transfer of Sunset Boulevard in 1996 marked her Broadway debut, where she received strong critical praise. She subsequently showcased her talents in the BBC special A South Bank Show, traveling to locations that had inspired her stage roles and performing the corresponding songs in character. Recognition followed swiftly in the form of honors from critics’ groups, theatrical bodies, and the Queen of England for her contributions to British theater. Throughout the latter half of the 1990s she participated in numerous tribute and benefit concerts and took on her first substantial non-singing part in The Misanthrope. After 1998 her recording pace eased considerably. In 2000 she began a successful engagement in The King and I and initiated a second duet project with Barbara Dickson. She next joined the revival of the 1971 James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim musical Follies, assuming the central role of Carlotta Campion. The corresponding cast recording reached CD format late in 2011.