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The Reviews Are
In
Daily Mail
Applause for
Sweeney's Roxy
Former Brookside star Claire Sweeney fulfilled her childhood dream
when she took the lead in a West End hit musical. The
31-year-old Liverpudlian was thrilled as she stepped off stage from
her opening night as the predatory Roxie Hart in the acclaimed
Chicago. Sweeney had taken over the famous role played until
recently by Denise Van Outen, who received rave reviews for her
performance as the woman who shoots her lover and ends up on death
row. Within minutes of the curtain coming down, a clearly emotional
Sweeney said: "This has been one of the best nights of my life.
"Ever since I was a little girl I have dreamt of starring in a
West End show and this is one of those times where the reality is even
better than the dream.
"I don't think I could have given any more tonight and then to
see my mum and dad in the audience at the end was just fantastic.
"It has been an amazing year for me and this is the icing on the
cake." Sweeney first hit the TV screens as Lindsey Corkhill in
the Channel 4 soap, Brookside. But it was when she appeared on
Celebrity Big Brother for Comic Relief earlier this year that she
revealed her singing talents and desire to appear in a hit show.
She has since landed the role of the daredevil presenter of ITV1's
Challenge Of A Lifetime, been a model for Marks and Spencer and
appeared as Celine Dion in Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes. But it
is the West End that will hold her attention until March as she dons
the now famous skimpy outfits of Chicago. She joins on stage
former pop star Alison Moyet as Mama Morton and US performer Leigh
Zimmerman as Velma. Together the characters on death row lead a
constant battle for public sympathy for their crimes of passion and be
saved the rope. And Sweeney admitted the outfits were not quite
as revealing as they appear. "I had about five layers of
underwear on underneath. It is all about the illusion," she said.
"Plus I don't mind wearing the costumes and just slip in to the
role of Roxie." The star said she was nervous before her opening
night and had been rehearsing hard but was now loving every minute
ITV
Sweeney makes
Chicago debut
Ex-Brookside star Claire Sweeney saw the curtain go up on her West End
debut - but drew a mixed reaction from critics. The actress was far
from a flop as she took the main role of Roxie Hart in hit show
Chicago to fulfil a childhood dream of taking the lead in a musical.
But reviewers, while agreeing she passed the test, were not united in
bestowing praise on her performance. While Robert Gore-Langton of the
Daily Express was full of admiration, she had a more subdued impact on
the Daily Mail's Michael Coveney. Coveney wrote: "She does well.
She knows the steps. She sings the notes, some of them flatly, but her
mezzo is well developed." However he points out that the
character of Roxie is "hard-edged, calculating and above all a
vicious bitch". "Miss Sweeney is too darned nice. Too
anxious to please. She ends up being Roxie without heart," he
noted. "Claire gives her all - which is not all that much - from
the off and while she dives effectively into little pools of pathos
now and then, she never sets the stage alight. She's good. And that's
all she is." But in her favour Gore-Langton wrote: "Sassy
and kooky, Ms Sweeney makes jailbird Roxie her own. It's a joyous
debut of pure charm." Even he conceded, however, that the real
star of the show was the musical itself. Sweeney's stage role follows
a long stint in Channel 4's Merseyside soap Brookside, but her big
break came in Celebrity Big Brother earlier this year. It made her a
household name and led to her being offered a role as presenter of
ITV1's Challenge Of A Lifetime. After she came offstage last night,
31-year-old Sweeney said: "Ever since I was a little girl I have
dreamt of starring in a West End show and this is one of those times
where the reality is even better than the dream. "I don't think I
could have given any more tonight and then to see my mum and dad in
the audience at the end was just fantastic."It has been an
amazing year for me and this is the icing on the cake." She
followed stars like Denise Van Outen and Ruthie Henshall in donning
the skimpy outfits for the role of Roxie in the show at London's
Adelphi Theatre.
BBC Online
Ex-Brookside star
Claire Sweeney drew a mixed response from critics watching her West
End debut in hit show Chicago. The actress, 31, was far from a flop as
she took the main role of Roxie Hart on Monday, to fulfil a childhood
dream of taking the lead in a musical. But reviewers, while
agreeing she passed the test, were not united in bestowing praise on
her performance. She sings the notes, some of them flatly, but her
mezzo is well developed
Michael Coveney
Daily Mail
While Robert Gore-Langton of the Daily Express was full of admiration,
she had a more subdued impact on the Daily Mail's Michael Coveney.
Coveney wrote: "She does well. She knows the steps. She sings the
notes, some of them flatly, but her mezzo is well developed."
But he stressed that Sweeney is "too darned nice" for the
"hard-edged, calculating and above all vicious bitch"
character of Roxie. Claire Sweeney was described as "too darned
nice" to be Roxie
In her favour Gore-Langton wrote: "Sassy and kooky, Ms Sweeney
makes jailbird Roxie her own. It's a joyous debut of pure charm."
Even he conceded, however, that the real star of the show was the
musical itself. Sweeney's stage role follows a long stint in Channel
4's Merseyside soap Brookside, but her big break came in Celebrity Big
Brother earlier this year. Ever since I was a little girl I have
dreamt of starring in a West End show and this is one of those times
where the reality is even better than the dream
Claire Sweeney
It made her a household name and led to her being offered a role as
presenter of ITV1's Challenge Of A Lifetime. After she came
offstage, Sweeney admitted she had had an "amazing year".
"Ever since I was a little girl I have dreamt of starring in a
West End show and this is one of those times where the reality is even
better than the dream," she said. Sweeney followed stars like
Denise Van Outen and Ruthie Henshall in donning the skimpy outfits for
the role of Roxie in the show at London's Adelphi Theatre.
Claire Sweeney's
dream comes true in Chicago debut
Claire Sweeney says her opening night in Chicago was a dream come
true. She has taken over as Roxie in the West End musical. The former
Brookside star has replaced Denise Van Outen in the role. Claire said:
"This has been one of the best nights of my life. "Ever
since I was a little girl I have dreamt of starring in a West End show
and this is one of those times where the reality is even better than
the dream. "I don't think I could have given any more tonight and
then to see my mum and dad in the audience at the end was just
fantastic. "It has been an amazing year for me and this is the
icing on the cake." The star said she was nervous before her
opening night and had been rehearsing hard but was now loving every
minute.
Story filed: 10:58 Tuesday 4th December 2001
Annanova
Musical cheers for
Chicago Claire
Former Brookside star Claire Sweeney fulfilled her childhood dream
when she took the lead in a West End hit musical. The 31-year-old
Liverpudlian was thrilled as she stepped off stage from her opening
night as the predatory Roxie Hart in the acclaimed Chicago. Sweeney
had taken over the famous role played until recently by Denise Van
Outen, who received rave reviews for her performance as the woman who
shoots her lover and ends up on death row. Within minutes of the
curtain coming down, a clearly emotional Sweeney said: "This has
been one of the best nights of my life. "Ever since I was a
little girl I have dreamt of starring in a West End show and this is
one of those times where the reality is even better than the dream.
"I don't think I could have given any more ... and then to see my
mum and dad in the audience at the end was just fantastic. It has been
an amazing year for me and this is the icing on the cake."
Sweeney first hit the TV screens at Lindsey Corkhill in the Channel 4
soap, Brookside. But it was when she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother
for Comic Relief earlier this year that she revealed her singing
talents and desire to appear in a hit show She has since landed the
role of the daredevil presenter of ITV1's Challenge Of A Lifetime,
been a model for Marks and Spencer and appeared as Celine Dion in
Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes. But it is the West End that will hold
her attention until March as she dons the now famous skimpy outfits of
Chicago.
Chicago is
Claire's kinda night on the town Dec 4 2001
A STAR is born! And London has a budding new first lady of song . . .
A natural to inherit the mantle of Elaine Paige or Barbara Dickson,
who is even capable of capturing the lustre of Liza Minelli. Last
night, the West End took the Liverpool girl with a big voice and an
even bigger future - who I first saw in an ECHO charity show - to its
heart. Claire Sweeney stood centre stage as the new star of the
award-winning musical Chicago, acknowledging the sort of ringing
applause that must have filled her dreams as a teenage drama student.
The great ovation from the audience at the Adelphi Theatre in the
Strand, capped a career that started out in Liverpool's clubland and
reached the UK's theatre metropolis via television. Quite clearly,
Lindsey Corkhill had not gone to Newcastle when she made her weekend
exit after six years living in Brookside Close. She has been
transformed from soap queen to stage diva, taking over the role of
Roxie Hart, an American hardcase who shoots her lover and joins a
handful of other women on Death Row. And for Claire, 30, that meant
stepping straight into the shoes of ex-Big Breakfast presenter Denise
Van Outen and topping out a glittering stage cast that also included
husky-voiced pop star Alison Moyet as the formidable prison matron.
But it is Claire's part, a celebrity-seeking chorus girl killer, in
the so-called Drop Dead Musical - with hits like All That Jazz and
Razzle Dazzle - that packs the prime punch. Not that the former
Liverpool Elliott-Clarke Theatre School pupil from Walton is easily
scared. An apprenticeship belting out big band ballads in Merseyside
social clubs followed by daredevil antics like swimming with
crocodiles for ITV's Challenge of a Lifetime meant that no challenge
was too big for Claire. Not even the one that saw her risk ridicule by
taking part in Celebrity Big Brother. As it happened, Claire, very
much the junior and least-known star of that show, saw off the likes
of Chris Eubank, Anthea Turner, and Vanessa Feltz, only to be pipped
at the post by comedian Jack Dee. But 10m viewers is good for any
profile and Channel Four credited Claire with making the show such a
runaway success. The other blockbuster breakthrough, and the one most
appropriate to Britain's newest musical star, was her appearance as
Celine Dion on Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes. Liverpool entertainers
have enjoyed a long association with the West End. There was Empire
Theatre usher Con O'Neill in Willy Russell's Blood Brothers: Graham
Bickley in Miss Saigon: Maghull schoolboy Kent Riley as Artful Dodger
in Oliver at the London Palladium and the Lipa students who starred in
the Abba musical Mama Mia. And in the case of Claire Sweeney, last
night's dazzling debut forms the culmination of a determined course
that began with her first singing and dancing lessons at the age of
11. It is as a singer that she is best remembered at the
Elliott-Clarke School, from where she later transferred to the Italia
Conti School in London. Later she signed on with leading agent
Jonathan Shalit, the man who also discovered teenage opera sensation
Charlotte Church. Bob Massie, head of entertainment at London Weekend
Television, has also heralded Claire as "the new Cilla
Black." Her Brookside alter ego Lindsey Corkhill endured two
rapes, was thrown in jail for alleged drug smuggling, became a
gangster's moll, and was finally involved in a lesbian love triangle.
But Claire escaped from soap early enough to avoid being typecast.
Chicago's box office appeal relies on its characters living
dangerously and, in Claire's case, being sexy in leather and fishnets.
Back in April, 1971 a star of the future was indeed being born in a
Liverpool maternity unit. Four years later, in June 1975, the musical
Chicago was being premiered in New York. Now, 26 years on, a new star
and a favourite show have made for a match from musical Heaven.
___________________________
joeriley@liverpoolecho.co.uk
Daily Mail
BROOKSIDE TO
CHICAGO IS A STEP TOO FAR
(byline Michael Coveney)
My kind of show, Chicago is, where getting away with murder is the
name of the game, in a noisy hall where there's a nightly brawl. Into
this sexy mayhem of lingerie, black leather and bad behaviour last
night stepped Claire Sweeney, making her West End debut as foxy Roxie
Hart, who has killed her lover, the furniture man. Could Claire hack
it? Scoring on Celebrity Big Brother and advertising cute bras for
Marks and Spencer is one thing. And holding down a role on Brookside
for several years is surely another. But fronting a big musical
alongside the daunting and brilliant Leigh Zimmerman as her fellow
criminal adulteress in Cook County Jail might prove a challenge too
far. She does well. She knows the steps. She sings the note, some of
them flatly, but her mezzo soprano is well-developed. And she looks as
though she's having a ball. And that's where the problems start.
Claire Sweeney is nothing if not likeable, the smiling girl next door,
never averse to a photo-shoot or a publicity opportunity - just like
Roxie Hart. But Rosie is also hard-edged, calculating and above
all a vicious bitch of the 1920's saloon dives and vaudeville she
yearns to inhabit and emulate. Miss Sweeney is too darned nice. Too
anxious to please. And long stretches of her performance, while
perfectly well programmed, have no inner fire whatsoever. She
ends up being Roxie without heart. And Miss Zimmerman - a flaming
redhead with amazing, contortionists' limbs and a musical personality
to send you screaming for Ethel Merman to lower the temperature -
simply strides off with the evening. This was not the case with
Claire's British predecessors in the role. Ruthie Henshall
revealed unsuspected sassiness and sheen, Maria Friedman was an angel
of deviating vice, and Denise Van Outen scored because of her control,
modesty and slinky, sideways-on slow burn. Claire gives her all -
which is not all that much - from the off, and while she dives
effectively into little pools of pathos now and then, she never sets
the stage alight. She's good. And that's all she is. Her wig is a mess
and her lingerie - obviously not from M & S - looks unfortunately
as though it was ordered from a prim mail catalogue firm. The rest of
the production , which is just a jumped-up concert transforming
wittily into courtroom drama, remains sharp and well-drilled, with
sensational chorus dancers and lively onstage band. Other leads
are less impressive. Neil McCaul's crooked lawyer is a pop-eyed Johnny
One-NOte while Alison Moyet's prison matron, though magnificently
sung, is awkwardly acted and spoken, Chicago, now in its fifth
year, remains a fabulous musical phenomenon. But this newly-cast
version does not signal its finest hour.
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