40 replies to this topic

[Tintin]

Thanks Teaboy. I was just about to reply in the same way. If the excerpt shown on the Tonys was the best they could come up with, then goodness knows what the rest must be like. Interestingly enough it was shown alongside excerpts from The Pajama Game and The Threepenny Opera, and, oh boy, how it paled in comparison!

[wickedgrin]

Back to the topic, I saw DS is New York and loved the show. However,  the part of the chaperone is only a supporting one and Miss Paige has no excuse that the part is too demanding not to so all 8 perfs. However, it is Miss Paige doing Evita that started the trend of doing only 6 perfs a week back in the late 70's which has become the norm now. Musicals stars prior to this did all shows (barring illness) and this in the days before radio mics!!!

So don't hold your breath on seeing Miss Paige at every show!!

I love her by the way and seen her many times on stage - she has a great voice but she is a DIVA!!!

[Boq]

However, it is Miss Paige doing Evita that started the trend of doing only 6 perfs a week back in the late 70's which has become the norm now.

That's so not true. Producer David Stigwood had to force Elaine Paige to do only 6 shows during her run in "Evita". She wanted to do all shows but Stigwood orderd Elaine to rest her voice because she's given 120% at every single performance.
You can read this in Michael Walsh's biography of Andrew Lloyd Webber: His Life And Works (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)

[wickedgrin]

Well whoevers decision it was it still set the trend!!!! And I love Elaine - met her several times, she's fabulous and she has quite rightly high standards but I know several people who have worked with her and she is a DIVA!! She demands and expects the best!! Good for her!

[Boq]

She demands and expects the best!!

And what's wrong about that?

[pesa]

And what's wrong about that?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that as long as YOU also give the 'best' and I can assure you that on her last run in the West End she did not.
This is not rumour it is fact, her attendance during her run in 'the King & I' made even Martine McCutcheon look like a sweat shop worker.

[Carrie]

I've been told (from a reliable source, when the Novello isn't in-the-dark, I work there) that she will only be doing four shows a week.

And once during The King and I called the children "little c(you next tuesday...)s"

I'm not looking forward to running into her...

[Colourarc]

I've been told (from a reliable source, when the Novello isn't in-the-dark, I work there) that she will only be doing four shows a week.

I really hope for your sake Carrie, that you are not using your real name.......comments like that on public boards have had people sacked in the past!

I love these message boards *but* people who post here should remember that this is for public viewing.......you are not just sitting in a pub/theatre bar and chatting to your West End mates, the sort of place where we traditionally share gossip!
I once got a reprimand for gossiping at a bus stop with some other WE peeps that I shared a journey home with, a member of the audience of the show I was on wrote a letter to the Theatre about what she had heard..............................

I know we use these boards as a place for gossip etc...... BUT if your reliable source works at the Theatre I really don't see how reliable the info is! The ONLY people who know about things like that are people within Production Company and those in the company who are currently rehearsing.

*IF* Ms Paige is only doing 4 shows a week & sharing the role it would/should be advertised, and if it isn't then the production will have a huge problem on it's hands!


Cx

[Theatresquirrel]

Hey Tintin, just to reassure you, Drowsy Chaperone is a very ironic and self-reflective show and it's actually sending up dated and amateurish musicals. I don't imagine it'd work in excerpt though; certainly when I saw it in New York it sort of grows on you and - midway through act one, with a song about showing-off - you sort of suss it out and thereafter the way it constantly mucks around with the old-fashioned musical is just irresistible. Well, I thought so.

[QuincyMD]

....she was doing the matinee yesterday.