Beverley Lyons An Edinburgh Willy Wonka production starring viral Oompa Loompa Kirsty Paterson and original Veruca Salt Julie Dawn Cole is back on track - after almost half the cast were hit by covid. And now the two global stars have met for the first time after four of the cast were left bed bound at the start of the production run at the Fringe. Willy’s Candy Spectacular: A Musical Parody had its premiere at Edinburgh Fringe after US producer Richard Kraft decided to make a musical about the story of Glasgow born Kirsty and the mammoth failure of Glasgow’s Willy Wonka experience. Actor Julie, who was just 13 when she starred in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, flew in to join Kirsty as narrator of the fun show at the Pleasance King Dome. However disaster struck when Covid meant the production, which even has scratch and sniff cards, had to rely on stand ins after Kirsty and some of the other actors were unable to perform as a result of catching Covid. Julie, now 65, and a grandmother who came out of retirement to join in the fun at the Fringe show explained: “The first one who went down with Covid was Cassie, then Shelley then Kirsty then one of our directors. The show relies on singers and without it, if you’ve got Covid you can’t do this show.” Kirsty added: “Two of our main singers got it and I got it. It was going around but we are all recovered now thank goodness.” Julie who has taken Kirsty under her wing since initially Zoom calling her from the States said: “I’m teaching her everything I know. I’ve had a very lucky career and to anyone - if a door opens go through it -and hope it’s not a toilet.” And Kirsty added: “I didn’t think my life would end up like this five months ago so I’m just rolling with it. I get to narrate with Julie Dawn Cole which is amazing. She’s showing me the ropes. I genuinely couldn’t have done this without Julie. She was so great before we met, zooming from Los Angeles.” Kirsty also said she couldn’t believe she has a variety of actors playing her on stage. She laughed: “When Richard asked me to do this I thought I’d get a line or two but when I found it was all based on me with characters called Kirsty Paterson one and Kirsty Paterson two, I thought it was amazing. We are praying it does go to bigger places but we don’t know what is going to happen. It’s been a rollercoaster and I feel like I’m having an out of body experience. There’s so much more to this show. They could make a film out of this too.” Julie added: “Richard is a persuasive man. I thought ‘This will be easy. I’ll be reading off cue cards and going to see other shows at the Fringe but I do a bit more than that. I’ve had an absolute ball doing it. It’s been one of the best things I’ve done with my life since Willy Wonka, seeing everybody smile and being part of this and the joy, the music is wonderful, the buzz. Who knows what happens next? There’s no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going.”
SHEENA Easton had revealed she feels welcome in Scotland despite being booed at a Glasgow festival three decades ago. The Morning Train (9to 5) singer vowed to never perform in Scotland again after being pelted with bottles, some containing urine when she sang at Glasgow’s Big Day in 1990. However, Sheena, who was spotted on a chocolate shop in Durness with two female friends just this week now appears to be more comfortable with her homeland. She explained: “Well, I haven't performed back in Scotland for a long time, but I was just back in the West End in London doing 42nd Street for the entirety of 2017. That wasn't that long ago. And I had tons of people coming from all over and lots of people from Scotland coming down on the train to London to see the show. So I felt like I was welcomed back home to work. People were very kind to me and that meant a lot to me.” The singer, who still remains sprightly at the age of 65, admitted the run of shows in London’s West end was exhausting and that it took her a while to recover. She said: “ The first role that I did on Broadway was Man of La Mancha with Ralph Julia. And then I did Greece. And then actually for all of 2017, I was over in London and I was in the West End doing 42nd Street. She admitted: “I have to say, doing eight shows a week and the rigor of that is probably the hardest thing that I've ever done. And I have a great deal of admiration for people that go out there and do that year after year after year, because I don't know how they have the energy to do it. A year of that at a time and I was wasted. I was tired. I had to take like a few months off after every time I did that, just because it absorbs your entire life and your entire being.” Sheena who has had success with a whole host of songs over the years including She Says she is now very much at one with herself and said: “My life is well balanced with having a good home life and then still out there working all the time, seeing the fans, doing the shows. And we get to go all over. I mean, we've been, this year we were in Switzerland doing a show, we were out in the Caribbean doing a show, we were up in Canada, we've been to different states all over. So yeah, we get to see fans from all across the globe and it's wonderful because, you know, I haven't recorded in a long time, so the fans coming to see the shows, they know they're coming to see those legacy hits and they keep supporting me and they keep giving me a reason to go out and do gigs and I'm forever grateful for that.” Looking. back Sheena says she owes it all to the documentary she starred in when she was at drama school. She said: “ I'll be honest, I didn't have to struggle. I mean, I was lucky that when I was at drama school, I get the chance to do this documentary.I guess nowadays they call it a reality show. But back then, reality shows didn't exist. And reality shows now are kind of scripted and set up. There's not a lot of real about reality. This was real. This was six different documentaries. And when I did that and it was shown on British television, my music got attention because I had television exposure and I was lucky that I had hits early on. So I won't claim that I had a long struggle. But I will say that yes, my dreams have come true. I got to do everything that I wanted to do and again and again. So I have no complaints. I have had a great life and music has brought so much to me and so many wonderful people into my world.So yeah, I really feel blessed.” These days she’s keen to have other artists cover her songs and laughs: “ Lover on me You know, I think that would translate as a country song. I think it's something that, you know, some of these young artists out there should check out this old lady's portfolio and gassy them up. Well, gassy them up, give them a new treatment and get them out there She also says she knew pretty early on that not everyone in her audience would be appreciative of her talents. She said: a”I decided that pretty soon I would audition for my first gig and went on from there. I think I didn't let it faze me because I knew that I would get a lot of people telling me, yeah, you've got no talent, you can't sing. You just know it's gonna happen. Not everyone's gonna like you. I don't like everyone that I hear. I don't care how successful they are.” Sheena who also has worn a variety of sparkling and revealing stage outfits in her time also admits that not everyone was appreciative of her style. Now a self confessed ‘Fao girl’ who is not a dresser upper,l and no binder gets fancy. she recalls the Royal verity performance “.I felt like I was a sort of dress up doll. And I think that when you step up on stage, you have to be a slightly different character anyway. And so when you dress up in all these crazy outfits and all the crazy hairstyles, it's like a little kid again. So it was fun then. It was fun for the young me, but the old tired me, I'm like, uh-uh. “I got in trouble, though, doing that. Did you hear about that? I got in trouble because I was wearing a sassy little outfit with long black leather gloves. And apparently, that was not the thing to wear when you were meeting the royal family. And back then, that kind of thing counted. So I got told off by some people in the media that I wasn't appropriately dressed. So there you go. She still has a mountain of stories form her times with Prince. Jenny Rodger’s and bring a bond Girl singing the theme for your eyes only, but says she has no interest in writing a memoir. She added: “Not at all.No, I'm private. You know, that's why I don't do social media and document every thought that I have on a daily basis. No, no, I really, really value my privacy.”
