Happy 80th Sheila Bradley

Before the rise of Toni Lamond, Nancye Hayes, Marina Prior and other home-grown stars, our musical theatre stars came for overseas. Most stayed only for the length of the production, but a few fell in love with us, and we with them, and they stayed to become the cornerstones of our industry. In the 1950s, along with performers like Evie Hayes and Hayes Gordon, a West End Dynamo by the name of Sheila Bradley hit our shores to star in the long forgotten Grab Me A Gondola. She stayed to become our FIRST Nancy in Oliver! (opposite Johnny Lockwood’s Fagin) and then starred in a string of musicals:

OLIVER!, ONCE UPON A MATTRESS, THE KING AND I, FINIAN’S RAINBOW, MAME, HELLO, DOLLY!, CANTERBURY TALES (N.Z.), COWARDY CUSTARD, ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD, NUNSENSE II, FOLLIES IN CONCERT (TWICE), ME AND MY GIRL, CRAZY FOR YOU, THREEPENNY OPERA, MY FAIR LADY, MY FAIR LADY IN CONCERT, JOLSON & THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE.

Today is her 80th birthday and she is still performing in her one-woman show The Cat, The Rat, and Me.

Happy Birthday Sheila, to one of our original Divas. 

April 20, 2013