ELAINE PAIGE
Everyone knows that Elaine Paige is a formidable actress, who slips into each role with a chameleonlike ease, and an artist who also boasts perhaps the greatest belt voice to ever come out of the British musical theatre — one that she uses with equal dexterity and power in both her award-winning theatrical career and her equally successful concert and recording endeavors. But what some may not know is that she also possesses one of the most contagious laughs around. In fact, during our recent interview we both laughed uncontrollably for several minutes after Paige accidentally hit the mute button on her phone. The conversation went something like this:

ME: Elaine? Elaine? [no response]
ELAINE: Hello? Did you hear any of that?
ME: No.
ELAINE: Oh my God — I have been gabbing away, and I thought it was awfully quiet. "Are you still there?" And, no reply! [Laughs.] I must have touched something. [Laughs.] That is funny. That is so typical. Jabbering away for half an hour! [Laughs.] That was brilliant!
ELAINE/ME: [Laughter and more laughter...]

Laughter aside, the Olivier Award winner is now about to begin rehearsals for the Kennedy Center's eagerly awaited mounting of the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical Follies. Helmed by Signature Theatre artistic director Eric Schaeffer, the classic musical will run May 7-June 19 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. The cast, it should be noted, is an embarrassment of riches: Not only will it feature The First Lady of British Musical Theatre, Paige, but it will also star two-time Tony winner Bernadette Peters as Sally Durant Plummer, multiple Tony nominee Jan Maxwell as Phyllis Rogers Stone, two-time Tony nominee Danny Burstein as Buddy Plummer and Ron Raines as Benjamin Stone. Last week I had the great pleasure of speaking with Paige about her recent concert tour, her new best-selling CD — the terrific "Elaine Paige and Friends," which includes duets with Paul Anka, John Barrowman, Barry Manilow, Johnny Mathis, Idina Menzel, Olivia Newton-John, Jon Secada, Neil Sedaka and Dionne Warwick, among others — and her upcoming role as Carlotta Campion, the "I'm Still Here" survivor of Sondheim's Follies; that interview follows.

Question: It's been a busy few months for you.
Paige: It certainly has. It has been crazy. I've been doing the concert tour and promoting the album, which went gold, which I am thrilled about.

Question: What type of material did you perform in the recent concerts?
Paige: I did quite a few things from the new album. I did "Mi Morena," the duet. I had two people singing along with me. He was in Avenue Q in London, Jon Robyns, he did "Mi Morena" with me and he also sang "Sunset Boulevard," which kind of set up the Sunset number. So, it was a slightly different concert in that I had these two other assets with me, and they sang some duets. I also sang with Hermione Hennessy, "It's Only Life," which is the original track on the album. Have you heard it?

Question: Yes, I like that song a lot, actually.
Paige: The Tim Rice and Gary Barlow song.

Question: I really enjoyed the whole album. I loved "Where is the Love?"
Paige: Yeah, there are some good tracks on it. I just thought these are such wonderful songs that you don't hear anymore, only occasionally on the radio—which is what inspired me, really, to do the album in the first place.

Question: Did you record with the other artists in person or did they do their tracks elsewhere?
Paige: In some cases, I did. Dionne [Warwick] I did here in New York. Barry Manilow I didn't do obviously, he was in Palm Springs, so we did it down the line, which was very interesting. I have never recorded like that before. It was weird, but it worked. We'd do a take and then he'd hear it…we'd discuss it and we'd try other things, so it was quite interesting in that sense. But mostly, I would say that some I did with the people and some I didn't. Neil Sedaka I sang with in L.A. at Capitol Records, which was a fantastic thrill... You know, some of these people like Neil Sedaka and Johnny Mathis and Paul Anka are people I knew and admired when I was growing up, so it was a bit like a fan-fest. [Laughs.]

Question: Was there one recording session that really stands out for you?
Paige: Well, LeAnn Rimes was quite interesting because I sang along with her, again, at Capitol Records. We did "The Closest Thing to Crazy," which is by Mike Batt — he's a pal of mine. He wrote that song. He wrote it for a musical, actually, but in the end, the musical never happened. He gave it to Katie Melua for her debut album, and it was a big hit. And, it is a wonderful ballad. I think it is kind of a modern standard, and I wanted to do that. I guess, to work with Barry on the phone was… the one that stands out because it was so unusual. Of course, Johnny Mathis I met when I was interviewing him for my radio show some years ago. That is how I got to meet Johnny, and we had a conversation when I was out in L.A. doing the interview for the radio about singing together. When I decided I was going to do this album, I rang out and said, "What do you think? Did you mean it?" And he said, "Absolutely!" So it was brilliant to see him again.