Elaine Paige In Concert

By Stephen Valeri

If an innocent bystander had stumbled across the Palais theatre in St Kilda on a Wednesday night, they would've been forgiven had they have thought any of the following possible occurrences were underway:

* The entire retired population of Melbourne had turned out to see Kerri Anne Kennerly in her new one woman show.

* That a "Dancing with the stars" tribute show had just bumped into the theatre, with a set reminiscent of the hugely successful television show, copious amounts of moving lights and a dazed, confused looking middle aged woman the focus of the audience, attempting to show us her best samba moves in an ill fitting taffeta creation.

OR

* That said middle aged woman was suffering from a terrible earache, with her constant fiddling and looks of distress.

As it turns out, none of those were the case - but we were in fact set for a night of entertainment provided by the self proclaimed "First lady of british musical theatre", Ms. Elaine Paige.

Paige is a stalwart of both the West End and Broadway theatre scenes, where she well and truly earned her illustrious title during the 80's and 90's. The blonde bombshell, now in her 60's and still packing a punch in the looks department, originated some of the most sought after roles in musical theatre during her career; including a number of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber's shows, including Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulverd, Eva Peron in Evita and Grizabella in arguably his most successful work, Cats.

Paige still performs to this day, with recent credits including the west end season of The Drosey Chaperone in the title role, as well as just returning from a year long engagement on Broadway where she performed in the recent revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies.

It is without question that Paige has had a stellar career and this is testament to her powerful singing voice and story telling skills. This concert was an opportunity for her to step back in time and indulge in re-creating all of the characters and hit songs that allowed her to make her mark as a successful musical theatre performer, and subsequently a highly successful recording artist.

Whilst it may be nowhere near where it was in her hay day, there's no denying that Paige's voice has earned it's place in the halls of fame for a reason. It's a highly expressive instrument, and the woman herself is an interesting and evocative story teller.

The evening was filled with her most successful, and some not so, credits in the musical theatre genre, as well as a bracket of jazz standards and highlights from her new album Elaine Paige and friends - which, if audience members weren't aware of it's upcoming release, were well and truly aware after Paige relentlessly promoted it throughout the entire night.

Paige delighted her adoring crowd with excerpts from Evita, Chess - the musical which Paige took great delight in divulging to the audience was written specifically for, from which she performed a rousing duet of "Nobody's Side" and a simple, touching solo arrangement of "I know him so well", as well as Jesus Christ Superstar"and Les Miserables.  

Fittingly, this grand diva of the stage is most at home portraying the grand diva of the silver screen, re-creating her favourite pieces from Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, the show which first landed her a gig on Broadway. The closing number of Act One "As if we never said goodbye" sees Paige completely in her element, giving a detailed and enthralling performance of this anthem.

In full "Norma Desmond" costume and make up, this is by far her standout performance of the night. "With one look" as the second encore of the evening is also excellent.

It was apparent that Paige happened to take the diva characteristics of Desmond a little too literally, displaying some extremely 'diva-esque' antics throughout the night. Highlights included complaints about the amount of atmospheric dry ice on stage, as well as her constant fiddling with her inner personal ear monitor and subsequent mid song gesturing and death glares to the sound crew side stage.

If there was a problem with the sound mix, which certainly didn't seem apparent from the auditorium, the singer should've taken the time to step off stage and have it settled efficiently, rather than labouring on through the whole concert. This would've avoided many awkward moments and missed notes.

Perhaps the most anticipated numbers of the night, including the ever popular "Memory" from Cats and the now infamous "I dreamed a dream" from Les Miserables were a little off the money for my personal taste. Whilst still showing immense conviction and connection to the text, it was somewhat disappointing that Paige opted to include stylistically inappropriate pop melismas to disguise her obvious vocal limitations, into her performance of these numbers.

It seemed almost distasteful to give this treatment to songs that posses melody so engrained the audience's memories (pardon the pun).

Paige was supported on the night by a tight 7 piece show band, and joined on stage by featured vocalist Nic Kyle. It seems a rare occurrence that a backing singer should steal the spotlight from the headline act of a concert, but this was certainly the case with Kyle. And with a soaring tenor voice and dramatic presence such as his, it seemed almost inevitable.

The New Zealand native impressed the crowed with his act one renditions of "Oh,What a circus!" "Sunset Boulevard" and John Farnham's "Burn for you". In Act 2, he left the crowd stunned with his emotionally charged and vocally thrilling performance of "Gethsemane" from Jesus Christ Superstar. Kyle's performance was nothing short of brilliant, and for me - stole the show right from underneath our "Grand Diva".