The perky host of 'Trading Spaces' returns to Broadway

NEW YORK -- On a glorious afternoon, Paige Davis steps out of a taxi in front of the Broadway home of the musical "Chicago" with a disposition as sunny as the sky itself.

"Is this not the most perfect day or what?" she asks. "Isn't it?"

Few people would seem as happy returning to their old job after five years of TV success, but that's exactly what Davis is doing this summer.

Davis, the perky host of cable TV's top-rated home improvement show "Trading Spaces," has returned to "Chicago" where she once toiled as an understudy.

This time, though, she's got the one thing that eluded her years ago: the lead role of Roxie. "It's a dream come true," she says. "It's a cliche, but it is."

Her story is a modern twist on the legend of the starlet plucked from the chorus line and thrust into the spotlight. In Davis' case, the path back to "Chicago" was littered with glue guns, linoleum and fabric swatches.

"She was destined to come back at some point," says Bernard Dotson, "Chicago's" dance captain, who has worked with Davis for 14 years. "Coming back and coming back as a celebrity is a huge thing for her."

What is uncertain is whether "Trading Spaces" fans -- the ones who eagerly tune into The Learning Channel during prime time -- are ready for their girl-next-door host to don sexy outfits, dance seductively and play an adulterous murderer.

Davis, who graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, began her career as a dancer with the Beach Boys and the role of Babette on the national tour of "Beauty of the Beast." Her resume includes regional roles in "A Chorus Line," "Company" and "Hello, Dolly!"

When she got the first "Chicago" gig, Davis was an understudy for Chita Rivera and Marilu Henner on tour. She managed to get on stage only five or six times

While she's signed up for the upcoming season of "Trading Spaces," Davis is much more happy transforming a very small space these days: her own Broadway dressing room.

And if her Broadway castmates knock on her door to see what the home-improvement diva has done with the room, Davis is ready if they're disappointed.

"I have the built-in excuse that I'm here only seven weeks," she says with a smile.

Davis, 34, has only one clue: While her TV show was on hiatus last year, she stepped into a touring production of the explicit "The Vagina Monologues" in Sarasota, Fla. Some initial eyebrows were raised.

"Just to hear me curse garnered giggles. You know, 'Paige Davis said (expletive)! Does she even know how to say that?"' Davis says. "I think people might be surprised that I even do theater at all.

"I also wonder about the snickers that might happen when someone reads the newspaper ad and they think, 'A home improvement host? What's Broadway coming to?"' she says.

"They don't know that 'Trading Spaces' is the first television I've ever done. So it should be interesting to have people see a whole different side of me."

Wearing flip-flops, a green denim skirt with a frayed edge and a baby-doll green sleeveless T-shirt, Davis in person is as upbeat and unassuming as the woman she portrays on TV.

Or could that be just a guise for a more ruthless, clawing careerist? Is she more akin to Roxie, the Cook County Jail inmate who has killed her husband, framed her boyfriend and sings "I'm gonna be a celebrity"?

"I'm both," says Davis. "I have all of that within me. In terms of Roxie, I definitely have selfishness, I definitely have blonde ambition. At times I have neediness, at times my ego is beyond belief, at times I'm frightened out of my mind."

Davis, who graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, began her career as a dancer with the Beach Boys and the role of Babette on the national tour of "Beauty of the Beast." Her resume includes regional roles in "A Chorus Line," "Company" and "Hello, Dolly!"

When she got the first "Chicago" gig, Davis was an understudy for Chita Rivera and Marilu Henner on tour. She managed to get on stage only five or six times, sometimes thrown in the middle of the show at intermission.

She had no TV experience when a friend at a production company suggested she apply in 2001 for the vacant second-season hosting spot at "Trading Spaces," the show where two pairs of neighbors agree to remodel one room in each others' home for $1,000 over 48 hours.

She tried but initially failed. More precisely, she couldn't even get an audition.

"This will sound terribly egotistical and arrogant, and I don't really mean to sound that way at all, but I thought, 'I am a Broadway performer and I can't get an audition for TLC?' This isn't an audition for the fall lineup on NBC, you know what I'm saying? I thought, 'How does one ever get in the door if you can't start there?"'

Undeterred, Davis left a personal plea on the answering machine of The Learning Channel's general manager. She was informed that producers would only see her on the last day of auditions -- and only if there was time.

"At a certain point, I wasn't even sure what I was fighting for. I was, like, 'I can't get an audition? Come on.' I didn't even know if I wanted the job any more. I just wanted to prove I could get in the door."

She eventually made it through the door -- and sometimes has found herself wondering what she got herself into, especially during the more icky projects like ripping up wall-to-wall carpeting.

"There are many times when I'm on set, where I'm involved in a project, where I'm just, 'That's it! I hate home improvement! This is just disgusting,"' she says. "But I get so enthusiastic about the things that we work on that I wonder, 'Well, how I can hate it when I'm so excited to be doing this right now?"'

Overall, the home-improvement gig has been a boon to her career.

"When I first took it, I thought, 'This is the perfect opportunity for me to cut my chops in front of the camera on a station further down the dial a little bit. Little did I know that this learning curve was going on in front of 15 million people a week."

Since joining the show, Davis has presided over a "Trading Spaces" empire. The show has spawned specials, DVDs, spin-offs like TLC's "Trading Spaces: Family," and "Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls" and books, including Davis' own diary "Paige by Page: One Year of Trading Spaces."

That's not to mention the raft of copycats on other networks, including "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" on ABC, "Monster House" on the Discovery Channel, "House Rules" on TBS and "House Wars" on USA.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," Davis says. "I think it's important that we maintain who we are and not struggle too much to compete with everyone else, although we are certainly trying to keep our show fresh."

While she's signed up for the upcoming season of "Trading Spaces," Davis is much more happy transforming a very small space these days: her own Broadway dressing room.

And if her Broadway castmates knock on her door to see what the home-improvement diva has done with the room, Davis is ready if they're disappointed.

"I have the built-in excuse that I'm here only seven weeks," she says with a smile.