My friend Carol Sloman, who has died aged 66 of cancer, was a musician, actor, singer-songwriter and theatre director who took her array of talents to London’s West End, as well as a series of regional theatres.
Perhaps her best known role was as Cynthia Lennon in the award-winning musical Lennon at the Astoria theatre in London (1985-86), in which she also played several other roles and seven different instruments, prompting one audience member within my earshot to exclaim: “Is there anything that girl can’t do?’
Carol was born in Plymouth, Devon, to Robert Sloman, who wrote several series of Doctor Who and two West End plays but never gave up his day job as a newspaper circulation manager, and Mary (nee Greene), an actor.
The Slomans uprooted in the 1960s to the fenland village of Burwell, where Carol taught herself the piano, picking out Beatles hits on an old upright. Following a family move to north London she attended Copthall school in Mill Hill before continuing her classical piano training by doing a music degree at Royal Holloway, University of London, and then embarking on her musical theatre career.
Between 1976 and 1979 she was with the Brighton Theatre Workshop, the Second City theatre in Birmingham and then the M6 theatre company in Rochdale, where she met fellow actor Nick Maloney, whom she married in 1982. Wider professional recognition came in 1985 when Lennon won the Sunday Times Best Musical award and Carol was nominated for an Olivier award for best actress. Her achievement was all the more impressive as she had only recently become a mother: Chloe had been born in 1983, Laura in 1985 and Rob came along in 1989.
When Lennon closed suddenly, another rock great drew her back onstage. She spent three years in Buddy – The Musical at the Victoria Palace, taking on various parts before becoming its stage musical director in 1991.
A decade later she took on the role of musical director at the Queen’s theatre in Hornchurch, Essex, staying in post for 17 years, writing original music and performing in many of the productions. Contemporaneously she occasionally worked as musical director on productions at the Octagon theatre in Bolton, including The Hired Man (2010), which won the best performance (ensemble) TMA award.
When Carol was diagnosed with cancer in late 2019 she turned her attention to ensuring that the Maloney musical dynasty continued by teaching her grandchildren the piano, violin and drums.
Having released an album, Ordinary Pleasure, in 2009, Carol’s final flourish was the writing and recording of a second album, Song Cycle, which she completed just a month before she died. Its wonderful, clear-eyed and deeply personal songs are a legacy of an extraordinary musical talent.
She is survived by Nick; their children, Chloe, Laura and Rob; grandchildren Etienne, Max, Roly and Arthur; her brother, Guy; and her mother.
