Hello there, yes it‘s me EPOB, Elaine Paige on Broadway, here with another Roving Report from NYC.

Well this past fortnight has been an extremely busy time for me. Aside from performing in Follies every night we’ve all been in the studio to record the cast CD. That was so exciting as we did the whole album ‘live’ with an orchestra – just like we do every night so hopefully you’ll get a feel of the actual show when you listen to the album.

Funnily enough we recorded in the very studio, Avatar, where I recorded my last CD. Even more of a coincidence was the producer of that album, Phil Ramone, was working upstairs! It was so unexpected to see him. We reminisced for a while and talked briefly about plans to work together again soon on a new album. I also managed to hear a bit of one of George Michael’s tracks from his new album which Phil was busy working on and putting the finishing touches to. Sounds wonderful!

I wanted to stay all day and watch Phil work, but it was back to work downstairs with the company and Mr Sondheim had now arrived to supervise everything that was going on. It was so fantastic to watch him listening and concentrating on everything; and even better to see him smile while we recorded tracks. We all had so much fun.

Back at Follies and well the Brits have been visiting again this week. First up was my pal lyricist Don Black who popped in to see the show and me afterwards. He's here in New York rehearsing for his new musical Bonnie & Clyde which has music by Frank Wildhorn who has written many other shows including Jekyll & Hyde and The Civil War.

Anyway Bonnie & Clyde will open in a few weeks time at the Schoenfeld Theatre just across the road from Follies. Don says rehearsals are going well but I think dinner is on the cards to get the real dish! I’ll update you straight after dessert! It was great to see him in New York backstage, but would you believe it “in all the towns in all the world” I bumped into him again the following morning strolling on 8th Avenue. That always amazes me when two friends can meet just like that … maybe there should be a musical written?? I’ll have to have a word with Don if I bump into him again.. (giggle)

Another Englishman in New York was Sir Tim Rice; he’d just flown in from seeing Chess in Toronto. This is the production directed by Strictly’s Craig Revel Horwood, - dahhh-ling (in drawn Aussie accent) and features an all English cast. Tim seemed very pleased with it and we discussed how spooky it was that Evita will follow Follies into the Marquis Theatre! Well continuing the theme of ‘spooky’ the next evening would you believe it Larry Fuller came in to see me in the show. Larry was the choreographer of Evita …. So a lot of catching up was done with all my old pals.

Wonderful news about my dear friend Barbara Cook -she is going to receive a Kennedy Centre Honour this year along with Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo Ma, Sonny Rollins and one of my favourite actresses Meryl Streep. Congratulations to them all for the December Awards ceremony in front of President Obama.
So I hear it’s been hot in some parts of the UK – about time!! Well yesterday we had our taste of an Indian Summer, it was so glorious that I walked, to the theatre for the last Sunday’s matinee, along a totally closed off 8th Avenue. Yes the barbecued corn on the cob stalls were doing great business, the pashmina’s were basking in the warm breeze, I love NYC T-shirts were in abundance, and jewellery of every imaginable style & design were all selling like hot cakes! Everything at bargain prices, and there was just an incredible buzz about the whole place. It certainly is a wonderful town!

The next day, last Monday, was Columbus Day and a holiday here in the US. So I took advantage of the lovely weather and strolled up to Columbus Circle & sat beneath the Trump Tower at Jean George’s fabulous restaurant and enjoyed a delicious lunch with a dear friend who lives here. Then I went into Central Park with my book and sat sunning myself … in October?? It’s crazy, but who cares I love it! New York certainly has given me some odd experiences since I’ve been here … an earthquake, a hurricane and now a heat wave!

Goodness knows what next it will throw at me but never fear I’ll be with you again soon letting you know I’m Still Here! Until then lots of love from me EP….OB!

Hello there, yes it’s me EP OB (on Broadway) here with another roving report from NYC.

Well the most extraordinary thing happened to me recently … Right in the middle of my song in Follies the power went down!! No lights, no sound! However in true theatrical tradition “the show must go on”. I managed to carry on regardless … singing as loud as I could, and when I got to the end of the song … (sing) “I’m … still ... here!” and as I sang the word ‘here’ everything came back on. I thought the audience was going to explode! The cheers were deafening. What a thrill, what an experience! It even made the news!

Well aside from all that it’s been another star studded couple of weeks at Follies with none other than Barbra Streisand coming to see the show along with her husband Jim Brolin; and also my pal Bette Midler came backstage. She waxed lyrical telling me how much she loved the show and we found ourselves still in the theatre gassing at midnight.

I then had two surprise pals drop in from the UK! Yes the Brits were well and truly on Broadway this week! First into my dressing room was Bryn Terfel. We chatted and reminisced about the time we sang together at the Faenol Festival, which I couldn’t believe was five years ago!! And then my dear friend Cliff Richard. I was so surprised when he walked into my dressing room. I didn’t expect to see him! He not only came to see the show but had organised a surprise dinner for us at a wonderful restaurant called Marea on Central Park South. Made me feel all homesick seeing my pals!

And talking of pals the other Elaine, as in Stritch, came to see the show. Thank goodness I didn’t know until afterwards! As we left the stage someone whispered to me “Stritch is in!” … well I nearly died! Because her version of I’m Still Here is legendary. She loved the show and backstage she invited me to see her in her concert entitled “”At Home at the Carlyle Hotel singing Sondheim ….again. Why Not?” ….Why not indeed?

She opened with ‘’I Feel Pretty, infused with that wonderful sense of self deprecatory humour Elaine does so well; followed with ‘’Everybody Says Don’t” & I found myself witnessing a master class from one of the greats. Accompanied by a small band & Rob Bowman at the piano who shares a special rapport with her - it was a pleasure to see her weave her magic web. She is so real, so funny. It was really very moving “She IS THE “Broadway Baby”!

On Monday night I performed at the American Theatre Wing tribute gala to Sir Howard Stringer. The American Theatre Wing is dedicated to celebrating excellence and supporting education in the theatre and is probably best known for creating The Tony Awards. Sir Howard is the President of the Sony Corporation and he was being recognised and celebrated for his unwavering commitment and dedication to the arts.

It was a wonderful evening held at the famous Plaza Hotel in New York with Angela Lansbury, James Naughton, Jim Dale, Samuel L Jackson & Dreamgirl Jennifer Hudson who followed me with 'And I'm Telling You' …. Wow! What a set of pipes she has! I sang With One Look, from Sunset Boulevard, which Sir Howard had specifically requested.

And finally a first, something I have never seen in all my years in the theatre … sitting in the orchestra stalls of Follies this week, on the lap of its owner, a grey miniature poodle. Apparently he thought it was a great show but was too shy to come backstage …perhaps he thought he’d come to see me in Cats! (giggle)

So until next time it’s me EP sending you love and letting you know I’m Still Here!

EPOB 18th September 2011
(UNEDITED New York Roving Report for BBC R2 Elaine Paige On Sunday)

Hello there yes it’s me EP here with another roving report from NYC.

Well there have been a lot of balls around! Tennis balls!! I’ve been glued to the US Open. Some amazing matches have been played despite the weather’s best efforts to sabotage the event, it was just amazing to see history being made with Djokovich winning the US Open and becoming only the 6th man in the open era to win three of the four grand slams in one year!!!

And another full week in The Marquis Theatre with lots of celebs & pals visiting:

Dorothy Roberts from TV’s ‘‘Everybody Loves Raymond” fame. Kathy Lee Gifford from ‘‘The Today Show’’ Barbra Streisand, and the other Elaine as in Stritch, who I saw last night in concert entitled “”At Home at the Carlyle Hotel singing Sondheim ….again. Why Not?”” Why not indeed ? Hal Prince was there and it was so great to see him & later both Elaine & I sandwiched him to have a photo taken! Anyway back to her show …Opening with ‘’I Feel Pretty, infused with that wonderful sense of self deprecatory humour Elaine does so well, she followed with ‘’Everybody Says Don”t & I found myself witnessing a master class from one of the greats, accompanied by a small band & Rob Bowman at the piano who shares a special rapport with her - it was a pleasure to see her weave her magic web, she is so real , so funny. It was really very moving “She IS THE “Broadway Baby” & talking of Follies …

We’ve opened! Yes Follies opened on Broadway on Monday night and what a night it was!

Just prior to our first night performance the wonderful tradition of the passing of the gypsy robe took place. This happens at opening night of every Broadway show and the coat is passed from the previous show to have opened on Broadway, which was Hair, by the longest running performer in that cast to the one in ours who is Jenifer Foot who had to wear the robe and visit all of the dressing rooms and spreads luck to the production, 'bless' the show and all of its members.

The gypsy robe ceremony started in 1959 when Bill Bradly, a member of the cast of "Gypsy," borrowed a robe from the chorus and sent it to a friend for "good luck."

This was a first for me, as when I opened in Sunset Boulevard on Broadway the show was already running. It sets the whole atmosphere for the opening night as everyone - the whole company- is on stage, taking photos, chatting and getting excited. A really good final bonding session! And then it was a mad dash to get ready for the show!

The buzz from the audience was electric; backstage we were all wishing each other "Happy Opening Night" - the UK tradition of saying "Break a Leg" is not used on Broadway. We also swapped first night gifts with each other. All of us received a tiny beautiful hand made jig-saw from the great Mr Sondheim, who's a puzzle fanatic, which when you put it together shows your initials.

Following the performance which was greeted with standing ovations we made our way to the party upstairs at the Marriott Marquis where amongst many others I spotted Billy Joel, Michael Feinstein, Kathy Nijminy (from the movie Sister Act), Tyne Daly - who's appearing on Broadway at the moment in Masterclass and Gloria Estefen and her husband Emilio. My pal Barry Manilow who was in the audience had to miss the party as he was up at 5am for breakfast TV!

Following the celebrations, my dear friend David Zippel (who wrote the lyrics for City of Angels, Woman In White, Hercules and Tarzan) opened his home to me and some friends and threw a midnight cocktail party. His home overlooks Central Park and the whole of New York! The view is spectacular and was a beautiful end to an exciting evening, which was topped off with fantastic reviews from the New York critics, although of course I don’t read them , but that is what I have been told. I think that we are a hit!

So aside from all this I also managed to get to see classical actor and fellow Brit, Simon Russell Beale who has just opened himself to rave reviews in Simon Stephen’s 1998 play ‘Bluebird’ at the Atlantic Stage 2 downtown. I took Duke Ellington’s ‘The A Train’ for real, down to the village to see him & well worth the trip it was too. You might remember his fantastic performance as King Arthur in ‘Spamalot’ at the Palace Theatre, well now he’s playing a troubled taxi driver who listens to his 'fares’ stories & then divulges a disturbing one of his own … & with lots of London place names & references it made me feel a tad homesick.

Something I bet Daniel Radcliffe [Harry Potter] isn’t feeling. He’s playing to packed houses at Al Hirschfield Theatre in ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' and every night all the young girls wait at the stage door after the show for him & scream with delight…. Can’t be bad eh?

So I hear you ask … what’s the gossip on Broadway? Well this week I met in Sardies actor George Lee Andrews, whose leaving the original Broadway Cast of ALW"s 'Phantom Of The Opera' after 23 years!!! Extraordinary! He said ''Being in the show has allowed him to live in NYC & raise a family!!! I wonder if he’ll stay or if he’ll leave now? Apparently according to David Letterman - the late night TV Host - 1.4 million people have left NY in the last ten years! I can’t believe that as everywhere you go here the streets are heaving … it’s so busy!

What else … Well I’ve heard on the grapevine that the brilliant Sting is to write a new musical! Entitled The Last Ship it’s apparently based in Newcastle and set in the 1980’s and is going to be all new songs! The very sexy Hugh Jackman is bringing his one man show to NYC for an eight week run where he will sing numbers from the various shows in which he has previously performed; then beginning November 16 is ‘An Evening With Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin’ at Broadway's Barrymore Theatre; and Kristen Chenoweth is in talks for Broadway revival of ‘On The 20th Century’ - she’s also working on a brand new musical about the life of the Evangelical Tammy Faye Bakker with music by Henry Krieger who wrote the music for ‘Dreamgirls’ and ‘The Tap Dance Kid’ ….and finally Matthew Broderick is to return to Broadway next spring in ‘Nice Work If You Can Get It’, a musical built around the songs of George and Ira Gershwin and will have a story by Joe DiPietro, who won Tonys for the book and score of ‘Memphis.’
I've also had quite a bit of mail this week & wanted to thank you all for writing to tell me you are going to be visiting & I’m thrilled to see so many Brits over here already at the stage door..

Finally it was very moving to be in New York this weekend with all the 911 tributes; my heart goes out to all those families who lost someone. I haven’t been down to the memorial fountains yet, but will do so soon.

Well that’s about it from me …

So until next time it’s me EP sending you love and letting you know I’m Still Here!

EPOB 31st August 2011
(UNEDITED New York Roving Report for BBC R2 Elaine Paige On Sunday)

Hello there, yes its me EPOB … Elaine Paige on Broadway with my first roving report. You didn’t think I’d desert you for long did you?

Well though I’m out here in the US I feel rather at home because all anyone’s been talking about, of course, is the weather!!!! As you must all have read or seen by now on the news we’ve been taking a bit of a battering lately. First an earthquake & then a hurricane, all in the space of a week!!

No one could imagine that the lights on Broadway would go out, but they did. We all arrived at the theatre a week last Friday for the performance, to be told that the weekend shows were cancelled.

In all my years in the theatre, it’s a first. I’ve never known it before. To be in a show that’s been cancelled!!!

Anyway ...there was plenty of excitement backstage because it meant we would have a long weekend. With Monday as our show off, a full 3 days in fact, so everyone started making plans as to what they were going to do with their time. Me??

I just went out & bought all my favourite foods, a good bottle of wine & sat & waited. It was a bit scary I must admit, because it was all over the news - practically nothing else on TV, & so being ‘‘Down in the Depths (on the 90th Floor)” as Cole Porter’s song from the musical Red Hot & Blue goes I thought I might have been ‘Gone with the Wind’!!!! But no ‘I’m Still Here’ … (groan) which brings me to ….

Yes, Follies. We’re now well into previews, our official Opening Night is 12th September. But it is going down an absolute storm, (‘scuse the pun!!) with the audiences so far. Its thrilling to part of this rather special production and to work with Stephen Sondheim, the great man himself. To get it from the horses mouth, so to speak, has been so insightful, invaluable & to hear such an enthusiastic response every night. Just brilliant.

Some pals have already popped in to see the show ahead of opening night … Robert Fox the film producer who I haven’t seen for ages was in, Roland Rusinek, who played The Beadle in Sweeney Todd when I was Mrs Lovett at the NYC Opera came to see the show and I bumped into Joel Grey who is currently in the revival of Anything Goes!

The other news is that we are going to record a new double cast album of Follies, so I’m very excited about that. Of course I’ll make sure I get a copy to BBC Radio 2 just as soon as it’s done.

I haven’t had a lot of time to get out especially during technical week when you are in the theatre all hours, when they spend time setting the lights, adjusting the sound, the sets, etc. But I decided to go to the famous Sardis for the dinner break one night. I’m sitting there chatting away with my pal & he says “You’re beneath yourself!!” I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about? “Look, we’re sitting underneath your caricature, table 12. You’re beneath yourself!!” And sure enough there I was on the wall looking slightly lopsided down on myself and my tuna salad!

Another amusing moment came when I was sitting at a sidewalk cafe on Broadway across the street from The Lincoln Center, watching a bunch of young students from the Ballet Conservatory standing in a huddle with their feet at ’ten to two’, chatting away. My friend asked if he could take a photo, well before you knew it , they struck a tableaux, ala The Dying Swan, you know, fish lifts, the whole works, a huge crowd gathered all taking pictures one after the other it was really very funny and some sight I can tell you & I thought to myself ‘‘Only in America.”

Right across the street from me is British actor Roger Rees who’s starring alongside Brooke Shields in The Addams Family, a musical about America’s lovable macabre family. I was lucky enough to see it when I was here last year recording my EP & Friends CD, but unfortunately for Broadway audiences after 725 performances at the Lunt Fontaine Theatre it will end its run on December 31. They are, however, going on the road with a national tour starting on September 15 in New Orleans.

Another Brit out here is classical actor Simon Russell Beale - you might remember his fantastic performance as King Arthur in Spamalot. Well now he’s playing troubled taxi driver in the play Bluebird at the Atlantic Stage 2. I’m hoping to see him in it next week so I’ll tell all then.

Other Broadway news: Toni Braxton – remember her? “Un–break My Heart” is set to star as Roxy Hart in Kander & Ebb’s Chicago here in New York and the musical ‘Ghost’ based on the Patrick Swayze film will be opening on Broadway next spring Also in the spring and following ‘Follies’ into the Marquis Theatre will be a revival of a show I know quite well … ‘Evita’ starring Argentinean Elena Roger, who came to see me in Follies along with Michael Cerveris who will be playing Peron; and now here some interesting casting. Che will be played by none other than Latino pop star … Ricky Martin! And finally today, Sunday 4th September, Broadway's most magical musical Mary Poppins celebrates its 2000th performance at the New Amsterdam Theatre! .. Our very own Laura Michele Kelly & Gavin Lee are still in the cast playing Bert ….Congratulations everyone! Wow talk about Brits on Broadway

Well on that note I’ve got to get myself ready and off to the theatre as I’ve a matinee this afternoon. It’s been great catching up with you all. So until next time … it’s me, EP … OB signing off and letting you know I’m Still Here!