in 1989, she co-produced and starred in a production of cole porter's "anything goes" in london, which made a star of john barrowman. in the early 1990s, her term relationship with the lyricist tim rice stopped and paige tried an image change by recording an album with a california-based producer in the bette midler torch singer vein entitled "love can do that". her solo albums had so far been a variety of songs, including the very successful "stages" in 1983, with songs from musical theatre. in 1993, she returned to the united states to work with peter matz on an album called "romance and the stage" featuring songs from earlier days of musical theatre. the following year, she recorded, "piaf", which had music from the role she was playing in the pam gems play, also called "piaf". critics were impressed by her acting skills in that play.