She made her first appearance in the 1968 production of Hair, which marked her West End debut.

Following a number of roles over the next decade, she was selected to play Eva Peron, in the first production of Evita in 1978, which brought her to the attention of the broader public. For this role she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a musical. She went on to originate the role of Grizabella in Cats and had a Top 10 hit with ‘Memory’, a song from the show. In 1985, Paige released ‘I Know Him So Well’ with Barbara Dickson, from the musical ‘Chess’, which remains the biggest selling record by a female duo.