Elaine Paige's Radio Show

[jczelyph]

Posted: 10/23/04 at 8:06pm

In case people weren't aware of this, I thought it would be nice to post a link to the BBC Radio 2 website of Elaine Paige's show. The show is on every Sunday at 1:00pm until 2:30pm GMT, on Radio 2 (88 - 91 FM). You can listen to the previous week's show at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/paige/

She plays a diverse collection of more well-known musicals (stage and screen), but she's also been playing some stuff from Avenue Q and Wicked (which are unlikely to be very well-known to the Radio 2 crowd) so that's fairly positive in terms of ensuring well-loved American shows get some airing over here. She also played some Amour, which surprised me, although I'm not sure why. Well done Elaine! I'm not a huge fan of the sound of 'classic' musicals so listening to the show in real time does grate a little, however, if you listen via the website, you can fast forward through whatever you don't like. Plus, there's no ad breaks, so your listening is practically uniterrupted.

Just listened to some more of the show, you can hear the complete version of the new song 'Learn To Be Lonely' from the Phantom movie. World exclusive!

I enjoy the programme for a number of reasons... Elaine Paige is fantastique (the definitive Evita, indeed one of the finest performers in musical theatre ever). Her voice is perfect for radio and she delivers the show with panache. She has a sparkling and witty commentary ("Cameron Mackintoss... Ooh, did I say 'toss'?") and she drops in little snippets of theatre gossip (talk of Boublil and Schonberg's new show). I love the fact I hear things I might not have previously heard. For example, she played 'At The End Of The Day' from the Les Miserables Complete Symphonic Cast Recording, which was interesting to compare to my recollection of the OLC recording. We hardly ever see a mention of musical theatre on television here (less so than in the US) - we'd never see a PBS-style documentary series about the West End, so a programme like this is great (albeit on radio)!

Off-topic: I just booked some tickets to see The Producers and Jerry Springer: The Opera next Saturday in London. I'm going with a friend who lives in town. I am feeling giddy with excitement right now, especially now that Nathan Lane is ine the Producers. Hurrah!

Updated On: 10/23/04 at 08:06 PM