Elaine Paige CD Celebrating a Life on Stage Due on iTunes in September

By Andrew Gans
27 Aug 2009

Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige

"Elaine Paige Live — Celebrating a Life on Stage" will be released worldwide on iTunes Sept. 21.

The 19-track CD was recorded while Paige was touring through Europe and China at the end of 2008. The singing actress, who made her Broadway debut in Sunset Boulevard, is currently planning to bring her 40th anniversary tour to Australia and New Zealand in the fall.

"From her beginnings in the musical Hair," press notes state, "Elaine Paige takes the listener on a journey through her illustrious career from the West End to Broadway with many amusing and enlightening anecdotes and first time recordings from Elaine. These include Lennon & McCartney's 'Yesterday' (her audition song for Evita), 'Shoot the Breeze' (written by Bette Midler & Dustin Hoffman) and 'By The Sea' from Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd in which Elaine played Mrs. Lovett in the New York City Opera production."

The complete track listing for "Elaine Paige Live — Celebrating a Life on Stage" follows:

"Life Goes On" (Doerge/Williams)
"Tomorrow" (Strouse/Charnin)
"Easy to Be Hard" (MacDermot/Rado/Ragni)
"Broadway Baby" (Sondheim)
"I Don't Know How to Love Him" (Lloyd Webber/Rice)
"Shoot the Breeze" (Hoffman/Midler)
"Yesterday" (Lennon/McCartney)
"Argentina" Introduction (Lloyd Webber/Rice)
"Don't Cry For Me Argentina" (Lloyd Webber/Rice)
"As If We Never Said Goodbye" (Lloyd Webber/Black/Hampton/Powers)
"By the Sea" (Sondheim)
"I Get a Kick Out of You" (Porter)
"I Know Him So Well" (Andersson/Ulvaeus/Rice)
"The Ballad of Poor Old John" (Mitchell/Monnot/Rouzaud)
"Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" (Dummony/Piaf)
"If You Love Me" (Monnot/Piaf/Parsons)
"Memory" (Lloyd Webber/Nunn/Eliot)
"With One Look" (Lloyd Webber/Black/Hampton/Powers)
"The Things You Are to Me" - bonus track (Graham/Lovland)

Elaine Paige was brought to the public's attention when she created the role of Eva Peron in the original London production of Evita. She then created the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats and followed with a recording hit: "I Know Him So Well," with Barbara Dickson, from the concept album of Chess. Paige later starred in the West End mounting of Chess as well as London productions of Anything Goes, The King and I, Piaf and Sunset Boulevard. She repeated her work as Norma Desmond for New York audiences, and in 2004 she performed the role of Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd at the New York City Opera (and snagged a Drama Desk Award nomination for her work). She has recorded 16 solo albums and six cast albums. In 1995 Paige received the Order of the British Empire for services to Musical Theatre. Paige most recently starred in the title role of the London production of The Drowsy Chaperone and currently hosts a weekly radio program for the BBC.