Magic of musicals put Ruthie Henshall in the spotlight

“I’m loving it,” she says. “The freedom is wonderful, without the constraints of a character.

And I get to laugh with the audience. I tend to play tragic roles, so it’s really lovely to have a laugh with people.”

The show will feature many songs from the shows she’s appeared in during 25 years in musical theatre, as well as songs that have provided the soundtrack to her life.

“So there’s The Beatles, Billy Joel, Don McLean in there,”

she says. “It’s quite a mixed bag and I tell stories about my career, my life and the people I’ve met.”

Musical theatre wasn’t Ruthie’s initial choice of career. “I desperately wanted to be a ballerina, but when I was 15 I was given a reality check when I was told I simply didn’t have the body for ballet and that it would be better if I went to college to do something less disciplined.”

The ‘something’ turned out to be musical theatre of course and today, Ruthie Henshall is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in the business.

Reflecting on how she first fell in love with it, she says “I remember being taken to see Chicago the first time round, and I remember lots of feathers and the puppet number.

That was one of my first fallings in love with it, and then at 11 I saw Cats – and Cats sealed it for me. I couldn’t believe you could sing, dance and be a cat. Who wouldn’t want to do that?”

And she would get the opportunity to do just that, playing a variety of roles in the legendary musical.

But though it was the first she fell in love with, the role she instantly cites as her stand-out favourite is Polly in Crazy for You.

“Without a doubt. It was my first role and it was everything I’d wanted to get into the business for. I couldn’t believe my luck.”

She admits that there’s one role she hasn’t played that she would have loved to have been given. “I would have loved to be Mary Poppins, but they went another way,” she recalls. “It was between me and Laura Michele Kelly and they went for a 22-year-old. I remember being devastated at the time because I really, really wanted to do it. But I didn’t so I decided to have another baby and I look at Dolly (her youngest daughter) and know why I didn’t get the role.”

Ruthie says that while Dolly might one day follow in her footsteps – “she’s got a lovely voice and was cast as Mary at Christmas” – her older sister Lily has other ideas. “I asked her the other day if she wanted to do what I do and she said ‘No, I want to be normal’.”

Last year also saw the publication of Ruthie’s book, So You Want to Go Into Musicals.

“I’d been asked to write my autobiography, but said no, I didn’t think people would want to read my story, but it planted the seed and I realised there wasn’t a book about how to get into musical theatre, and stay in it, so that’s what I wrote instead.”

Another show Ruthie failed to win a role in was Starlight Express, which she auditioned for but hadn’t learned to skate for, which saw a fairly instant rejection from Herefordshire choreographer Arlene Phillips.

But skating of a different kind would feature later in her career, when she was a judge on Dancing on Ice. This time she did try to learn to skate: “I had a couple of lessons from Robin Cousins, but I fell and cracked my head so hard that I got scared. It’s unforgiving stuff, ice. I don’t need to skate and I feel my bones are quite precious.”

An Intimate Evening with Ruthie Henshall is at The Courtyard at 7.30pm. Call the box office on 01432 340555

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