• July 19, 2004
• Vol. 62
• No. 3

Trading Stages

Trading Spaces Host Paige Davis Re-Vamps Broadway in Chicago

As host of TLC's reality series Trading Spaces, Paige Davis has presided over more than 300 nail-biting room makeovers. Now she's undergoing a makeover of her own: Until Aug. 8 the bubbly decor diva is starring as vixen Roxie Hart—the role that Renée Zellweger played onscreen—in Broadway's Chicago. For Davis, 34, who worked as a hoofer before she began hosting Trading Spaces in 2001, it's a return to her roots. Onstage, she says, "for a split second I think, 'Did the last three years happen? Or was that a dream?'"

While her TV gig keeps her on the road, now she can go home every night to her Manhattan apartment and her husband, actor Patrick Page, 42, who's starring as Scar in Broadway's The Lion King. Though theater has its challenges—"I fell on my butt last night," she says—she finds TV more difficult. "To get out there for 16 hours a day? It's the difference between a marathon and a sprint." No problem for the bundle of energy Spaces designer Frank Bielic has called "a hydrogen bomb in jeans." The day after her final bow, she'll resume work on the TV show. Says Davis: "Bring it on!"