Jade Ewen pictured in London
(Picture: PA)Former Sugababes singer Jade Ewen is suing the makers of the West End musical Aladdin over claims her vocal cords were damaged while belting out the show’s iconic duets.
The 35-year-old has accused her co-star Matthew Croke of finding it difficult to “maintain harmony” when they were singing songs such as ‘A Whole New World’ and claims he resorted to singing at louder volumes in order to only hear his own voice.
Ewen said she was trapped in a “vicious circle”, having to herself sing increasingly loudly in order to be heard in the set piece duets, and causing damage to her voice.
The former popstar says her complaints to show bosses were ignored, she had to spend complete days in silence to preserve her “hoarse” vocals and eventually she needed surgery to rescue her singing voice.
The Walt Disney Company is defending a compensation claim worth more than £200,000 being brought by Ewen at Central London County Court, denying negligence and insisting the singer knew she was signing up to a demanding performing schedule when she joined the show.
East London-born Ewen, the 2009 UK entry in the Eurovision Song Contest before she joined Sugababes, was part of the original cast of Aladdin when it opened in the Prince Edward Theatre in 2016, starring alongside Dean John Wilson.
She said they “harmonised without difficulty” but trouble started when Mr Wilson departed and was replaced by Mr Croke in June 2017.
“Matthew Croke found it difficult to keep harmony if he could hear anyone else singing,” said Ewen’s lawyer, Tom Nossiter, in her statement of claim. “To compensate for this, during the duets he sang very loudly so that he could not hear (Ewen’s) voice.”
Ewen said her co-star, who is almost a foot taller than her, ended up singing directly into her forehead microphone as they performed A Whole New World on a simulated flying carpet and dueted on A Million Miles Away.
“This caused (her) voice to be ‘drowned out’ so that she could not hear herself when singing at a volume which was comfortable for her,” said Mr Nossiter.
“(She) was forced, repeatedly during the eight performances per week, over a period of about 18 months, to sing at a louder volume and with greater strength than was comfortable and/or safe for her.
“Her vocal cords were placed under strain, increasing the risk of damage being caused to the vocal cords. There was something of a vicious circle in that the louder she sang, the louder Matthew Croke sang over her.”
Ewen said she was warned of trouble ahead by a vocal coach and from March 2018 she suffered “symptoms of recurrent hoarseness, discomfort and imbalance in her singing voice”.
Her lawyer said the star was forced into speaking breaks and to “spend her days off in complete silence” in order to continue performing.
Ewen said the problem culminated in a “pop”, leaving her with a “cracking” voice and unable to reach the upper register.
The singer left the show in January 2019 and underwent medical treatment. She said she suffered panic attacks, anxiety about her career and had to turn down lucrative musical theatre roles.
Ewen has accused show bosses of failing to protect her health and safety, not providing in-ear monitors or vocal training to help fix the problem, and has suggested Mr Croke should not have been cast as he was “unsuitable for that role”.
In its written defence to the claim, Disney says Ewen sang in harmony with her co-star for less than three minutes in each show and defended the casting of “experienced and accomplished” Mr Croke, a contestant on the 2021 series of The Voice, specifically denying he had trouble with the harmonies.
It says Ewen “did not inform or warn” them of her health difficulties and denies failing to act on complaints about the show’s alleged technical difficulties.
Barrister Jonathan Bellamy said the company argue the “vocal demands made on (Ewen) during the performance of her role as Princess Jasmine, including singing the duets and singing together in unison and/or harmony with Matthew Croke during the duets, and the schedule of performances were typical of the demands made of leading performers in West End musical theatre.”
The dispute is due to come to trial later this year.
