Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesIt looks like the Susan Boyle makeover has begun.
In one recent report about the YouTube sensation from Scotland, Boyle is said to have visited with a hairdresser to help tame her curly flyaway locks.
Earlier today, she was photographed at her home in Blackburn wearing a lightweight leather jacket and a purple printed frock similar to an über-chic Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress.
Boyle is reportedly unhappy about how "frumpy" she looked on television during her multitude of television media appearances.
Shortly after Boyle became an insta-celeb following her performance on Britain's Got Talent, show judge Amanda Holden insisted there was no makeover being planned by the talent competition show. "We'll keep her as she is for now so she doesn't have the added pressure of worrying about what she looks like," Holden said Friday on the Today show. "She'll just be the down-to-earth girl whom we have all kind of fallen in love with."
Bushy eyebrows aside, Boyle is being crediting with revitalizing interest in the Les Misérables musical. "I Dreamed a Dream" is one of the show's signature ballads. In the last week or so, the Les Mis soundtrack suddenly spiked into the Top 10 on iTunes and Top 25 at Amazon.com.
A production of the show opens on May 14 at the Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver. Ticket sales tripled there between last Tuesday and Friday, according to Arts Club executive director Howard Jang.
"We just had one of our best weeks ever," Jang told me earlier today. "We're getting calls from people saying, 'I just watched Susan Boyle, and she reminded me of how much I love the show.'"
Jang said he and his staff are trying to get Boyle to their opening night. "We've been working on that," he said. "We haven't had much luck. I guess she has a big entourage of people around her now."
Les Misérables is currently playing at the PCPA Theaterfest in Santa Maria, Calif. While ticket sales don't seem to have been affected, PCPA spokesperson Craig Shafer says they've noticed an increase in Internet traffic. "Our website went from about 2,000 page views a week to 4,300 the following week," Shafer said.
Google page impressions for an Internet ad for the PCPA production shot up from 7,000 to 50,000 in about a week. (A page impression is generated every time a user views a page displaying the ad).
Valerie Rachelle stars in the production at the PCPA. "The first time I had to perform 'I Dreamed a Dream' after watching the YouTube video, I was thinking, 'Are people comparing me now to Susan Boyle? Are they thinking I do it better, or Susan does better?' " Rachelle said with a laugh. "But then I was like, 'Wait a minute. What am I thinking?' But it is nice that this has happened...It is such a great song."