42nd Street's Sheena Easton: It’s a great role for a woman my age
AFTER moving Stateside in the 80s, Sheena Easton is back in the West End in 42nd Street. She tells our writer why she’s relishing a larger-than-life role.
Asked why she’s returning to Britain to star as an over-the-hill diva in 42nd Street, Sheena Easton grins. “It’s a great role for a woman my age. I mean, they’re not writing a ton of parts for 57 year olds,” she says.
The Scottish singer was launched to fame by Esther Rantzen’s The Big Time TV show in 1980 and took advantage of her Stateside success by moving there the following year.
That’s one thing I’m so grateful for – that I’m not starting out today
Over here we know her best as the singer of such hits as Modern Girl and 9 To 5, plus one of the best-ever Bond themes (For Your Eyes Only) and the Prince duet U Got The Look.
But in America she’s performed in Las Vegas shows and a couple of Broadway musicals, so treading the boards is something she’s used to.
Bringing up children means Sheena hasn’t spent much time in Blighty since she left in 1981, but now that Jake, 22, and Skylar, 21, are grown up, she’s back.
What’s more, she feels the role of Dorothy Brock fits her as well as the figure-hugging frock she’s wearing when we meet at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where the classic musical is getting its splashy West End revival.
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“I couldn’t see me playing an ingénue at this point,” she laughs. “Plus I love the over-the-topness of Dorothy and the fact that she gets to have fun by being larger than life.”
Sheena, who stands at just 5ft 1ins (plus very high heels) has lots of larger-than-life star quality and adds, “There’s a truth to it as well. I liken it to All About Eve because of her insecurity. No matter how great she is, Dorothy is insecure and she sees the future coming at her hard. You’ve got to tap into that, but also have fun with it.”
Dorothy’s something of a show-off. “I think she’s expected to be a diva,” says Sheena, who herself has no diva airs and graces and doesn’t appear to take herself seriously at all. “In the era in which it’s set, namely the 1930s, you couldn’t be a star, especially a female star, and come in and be understated.
There was no such thing then as a star who blended into the wallpaper. You had to stand out, so Dorothy knows the importance of making an entrance and she sweeps on to the stage.”
Sheena herself certainly made an entrance back on The Big Time. She was singing in Glasgow clubs when she auditioned for the Rantzen documentary, then 9 To 5 was released after the show aired and she was on Top Of The Pops with a number three smash hit – by which time she was braced for fame.
She looks as great now as she did then, although when I tell her so she demurs, “Ah thanks darling, but it took a professional to get me looking like this. Professional hair and make-up. You should have seen me at 3.30 in the morning when I woke up with jet lag.”
The accent is a mix of Scottish and American, which she puts down to having spent so much time in the US.
No, she didn’t amass a fortune through property development over there (and isn’t sure how that rumour ever got started) but you can bet Vegas pays well and Broadway (where she appeared in both Man Of La Mancha and Grease in the early 1990s) looks after its stars.
Touring also pays the bills, which is just as well for a woman whose last big international hit was The Lover In Me back in 1988. Her fantastic voice took her to the top but she’s not sure that’d be enough now.
“There’s so much that’s different about the music industry now,” she sighs. “That’s one thing I’m so grateful for – that I’m not starting out today. I don’t think there’s as much of an investment in new artists now. You’re expected to come out of the box with a hit and keep going from there, and there’s a lot of self-promotion you have to do.”
The producers of 42nd Street are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to promotion.
Sheena just has to sit down for a chat, which she seems very relaxed about. There’s nothing she won’t answer; rumours about her having a romantic chapter with Prince (which she insists she didn’t); the fact she’s been married four times (which she puts down to bad judgment), to Sandi Easton when she was 19, then talent agent Rob Light, producer Tim Delarm and plastic surgeon John Minoli.
She seems thrilled to finally be making her West End debut, so why has it taken her so long? She enjoyed doing Broadway, but that became a juggling act when she adopted Jake in 1994 and Skylar two years later.
“When you’re doing theatre your whole life is turned around. Your whole life has to be about that show,” she says. “You do eight shows a week, you have to stay focused and keep fit, and you have to rest your voice when you’re not working. With two little kids that was not going to happen. So I decided not to commit to anything until my kids were raised.”
So instead, Sheena upped sticks for a less gruelling performing schedule in Las Vegas. “As you would do, right?” she roars. “You’re like, ‘Where will I raise my five-year-old? Of course, the Las Vegas Strip!’”
Over the years Jake and Skylar have seen clips of their mum’s pop heyday. “My daughter will go, ‘What the hell were you wearing?’ And I tell her, ‘Darling, it was called Spandex and may you never have to see it in real life.’ She says, ‘Look at your behind – it’s so shiny!’
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“They’ve seen some of the stuff and my son, who noodles on the guitar and is a little more into music, will say things like, ‘That guitar solo was good.’ But they’re not especially impressed. There’s nothing spectacular about what your mum does, is there? You get used to it.”
Even when your mum has duetted with Prince? That’s pretty incredible for a girl from the town of Bellshill near Glasgow, isn’t it? “But not to them, though. That’s not their generation,” she adds.
“I guess if I got a phone call from somebody they’re really interested in saying, ‘Hey, do you want to do a duet?’ it might impress them, but I don’t think they’re overly impressed with anything I’ve done.”
Prince’s death last year was a shock for Sheena. “I think it shook up a lot of people. It was just horrible. He was, and is, one of the most respected artists of my generation,” she says. “When you’re around other musicians and talking, his name will come up, no matter what genre they’re in. Rap guys, jazz guys, anyone who understands creativity – Prince will be up there among people they respected. It’s a very sad loss.”
They lost touch after Sheena became a mum. “Before that he’d come into town, call me up at midnight and go, ‘Hey, come down and hear this track.’ I lived in Hollywood, close to the recording studios, so I could jump into my car and zip down there, listen to some tracks, hang out, have breakfast, then drive home. But when my kids came along I wasn’t able to do that.”
Are Jake and Skylar keen on following her into the music business? “Thank God, no!” Sheena exclaims. “No, no, no! Since they were babies I made a point of making sure they really understood that Mum was going to work, it was a job and there was no glamour attached to it. I used to say things like, ‘Mum’s got to go because the boss will fire her if she’s late.’ I needed them to see that my job was a profession and it took work. So it was debunked and demystified and there was no glamour attached to it.”
Sighing about being an empty-nester now the kids are off at college, Sheena feels 42nd Street has come along at just the right time. “If they’d have asked me to do this show a couple of years ago, I would have said no.
Plus there are only a few shows and a few roles I’d consider changing my life around for, and this actually happens to be one of them. It’s such an iconic show and just to be a part of it, to be a part of that energy, is something I couldn’t turn down.”
Sheena hasn’t spent a significant spell of time in the UK since she left in the 1980s, but she plans to take it easy between shows. “There won’t be much sightseeing, it’ll be more getting together with a friend for lunch and that kind of thing.
To be honest, with the schedule and just one day off a week, I won’t be doing much other than getting ready for the next show.” Sheena smiles. “But I’m so excited about doing this, so bring it on.”
42nd Street opens this week at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. For more information and tickets, visit 42ndstmusical.co.uk or call 0844 995 5500.
