Article from the Birmingham 'Evening Mail' newspaper from June 1998.
STAGE GOLDEN GIRL IS AGING WELL
At 50 years old, life has never looked brighter for showstopper Barbara Dickson, whose award-winning one-woman show is on its way to Birmingham. Fred Norris reports.
I finally catch up with Barbara Dickson in Croydon - and promptly discover the joint errors of judging by first impressions and leaping to conclusions.
She is staring out of the hotel window. The outlook is bleak. It is June. It is cold. It is raining stair-rods. It is a midsummer madness that can only happen in England. And she sighs rather deeply.
My sympathies are with Barbara and I think of that sad chant of a travelling actress from Evita - Another Suitcase in Another Hall - a song she made her own back in 1976, while Madonna was still playing truant from school.
Trying to be polite, I remark that she is obviously a bit travel weary, feeling low and depressed. How wrong could I have been?
Any possessive wisdom of The Seven Ages of Man is swept away in the midsummer storm. I am in the presence of The Seven Ages of Woman. And she is enjoying every moment of it.
"I could be anywhere in the country on a day like this and I am not in the slightest way depressed. I don't think I have ever been happier. Life is wonderful."
Squelch. That puts me in my place.
Barbara is in a rather special show called The Seven Ages of Woman, which is calling at Birmingham in a couple of weeks. By all accounts, it is unusual in style and distinctive Barbara Dickson in performance.
But it is life in general - and perhaps some of her own experience of the Seven Ages of Woman - that makes her bubble with contentment.
"And why not?" she says. "I have just enjoyed my 50th birthday surrounded by my family. I have a wonderful husband and three lovely sons. They are my life. They are more important to me than my career. Don't get me wrong. I love my career. But I pride myself on having my priorities right. I am lucky to have the life I do, because it means I can share it with my family. The family comes first. Always.
So in a way, you are right about the weariness of travelling and being away from home. I have reached that stage in life when I don't want to have long tours or even a long-running show.
"The Seven Ages of Woman is doing a nine-week tour, which is just about right. It could then go into the West End, but I wouldn't like it for a really long run."
The buzz is that the show, which in its brief life has already picked up a number of awards, is prime West End material for the autumn. So what's it all about?
"The Seven Ages of Woman, of course," she laughs. "It's not a play, it's not a musical and it's not a concert. I think someone said it was so original that it was useless to try to categorise or pigeon-hole it. So I won't.
"It has been created by Chris Bond, who directed Blood Brothers for me, (she was the original Mrs Johnston and took the show to its original triumphs in 1982).
"I think it is best described as a musical journey from cradle to grave, as seen through the eyes of a woman - growing up, teenage, first love, marriage, motherhood, sadness, happiness. It's all there."
In all, she sings 30 songs, including Lennon and McCartney's She's Leaving Home and Ewan MacColl's First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, which touch upon the teenage years.
Tracey Chapman's Behind the Wall and Carole King's Natural Woman relate to the marriage stage and Sondheim's I'm Still Here and Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's September Song illustrate old age.
"I am not alone," says Barbara. "It's not a one-woman show in that respect. I have six musicians on stage with me, including that popular Liverpool actor and musician Andrew Schofield. You may have seen him such TV shows as Thieftakers, GBH and Jake's Progress. Keep an eye on him. I think he is going to surprise you."
She can talk. Barbara Dickson, at the age of 50, is full of surprises.
Barbara Dickson is appearing in The Seven Ages of Woman at the Alexander Theatre, Birmingham, from July 6-11.
