‘This show is so personal for me’

AS a woman portrayed in the media as unlucky in love, Claire Sweeney must have felt the starring role in Tell Me On A Sunday, about an English girl searching for true romance and success in New York, was written for her.

“I do, absolutely take a personal message from this show. I’m single, but I’m happy.

But I’m also quite a private person so I don’t need to have my own lovelife discussed in the newspapers if I don’t need to discuss it,” says Sweeney.

“The show is a perfect match for me and a beautiful musical. I would say this, but I think it’s one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s best scores and the lyrics by Don Black are great,” says Sweeney, who brings a six-day run to Darlington Civic Theatre next week.

The 40-year-old is delighted to have won the lead in a musical which West End, Broadway and touring audiences have taken to their hearts.

Tell Me On a Sunday survived a difficult creative process – Lloyd Webber replaced Tim Rice, who came up with the idea, when he discovered the lyricist wanted the project for his lover Elaine Paige. The first one act version of the one-woman show starred Marti Webb in 1979. Star names like Lulu, Sarah Brightman, Denise Van Outen, Faye Tozer and Patsy Palmer have featured in West End and touring versions playing the character usually known as “the girl”.

Sweeney is thrilled that her version includes a new song written especially for her, Dreams Never Run on Time, and a name for her character.

“The show has been rather tailored for me. It’s now about a girl who is based on Merseyside and has gone to America. So that makes it a lot more personal and Andrew and Don wrote Dreams Never Run on Time especially for me.

“I think it came out of them wanting to make this tour a little more like my story and I also think they wanted to freshen up the show. The song is a positive ending because love has gone wrong quite a few times for her and she says ‘you know what, I’m going to be all right on my own… and I’m going to be strong and happy’.

“My character is called Laura and I think it was Don Black who came up with the name.”

Sweeney’s own route into showbiz came via C4 soap Brookside and Celebrity Big Brother leading to the role of Roxie Hart in the West End show Chicago and a tour of Fosse plus Guys and Dolls and Dirty Dancing.

TV presenting, including ITV’s popular Loose Women, also lifted her profile.

Sweeney is hoping that BBC1 comedydrama Candy Cabs will return having enjoyed the role of man-eating Amanda for the three-parter shown earlier this year.

“The critics weren’t very kind and one said that the cast was stronger than the script, but I was stopped in the street and asked by lots of people about when it would be coming back. So I’m hoping that the BBC will listen to the people on this occasion.

“If I listened to TV critics, I’ve have done myself in years ago, and if I took notice of everything written in newspapers I would have given up and run away,” Sweeney says.

Starring in a show featuring 24 songs means that the performer from Walton has been working hard on her fitness and she uses steam to warm up her vocals before each performance.

“What’s also important is ensuring that you tour with comfortable clothes and always have a pair of heels just to go out in. I suppose I now mentally have this list of things I need to pack each time,” she says.

“The main highlight of my current tour has been celebrating my 40th birthday last month. I was with it in Liverpool on my birthday and I can say ‘oh God yes, life does begin again at 40’.

“In fact I ended up having four parties.

One for each decade. One in Majorca, two in Liverpool and one in London. It was brilliant,” she laughs.

Sweeney sums up the appeal of Tell Me On A Sunday as: “This show is never going to be the spectacle of Phantom or Sunset Boulevard. This is the perfect one-woman story.”

• Tell Me On a Sunday, Darlington Civic Theatre, June 6-11. Evenings 7.30pm.

Thus Mat 2pm, Sat Mat 2.30pm. Tickets: £17-£25. Box Office: 01325-486-555 darlingtonarts.co.uk