My kinda town

Cavin Cornwall is in York, treading the boards of the Grand Opera House, to give party bookers and the press a preview of the show which comes to the city later this year.

Strange to think that his earliest success as a teenager was in a completely different field - he was a karate kid. At the age of 17, he became England Junior Karate Champion and was briefly a member of the England Karate Squad before going off to train for the stage.

"When I was younger I was very sports orientated. I had four or five regional titles for athletics," he explains. "I was just bounding with energy, then they said I was too tall for athletics. I had all this energy which needed to be focused. My brother was into karate and on his way to being England squad member, so he took me under his wing.

"I did karate for about two-and-a-half years, climbing up through the ranks. By the time I had just turned 16 I was England Junior Karate Champion and then began training for the England Squad. That was the time they were thinking about putting the sport into the Olympics."

But, as Cornwall puts it, "the carrot was not big enough". He knew that he wanted to go and do something else, despite a reluctance to leave his home town of Bristol. "I was DJ-ing and into street dancing, doing jazz and ballet. I went to ballet classes and got into it. Then I wanted to go to drama school. I was urged to do it," he says.

His background didn't make it easy because he knew nothing of show business. Karate, he says, really helped him to shut up and listen. "Discipline is not one of the things my family is good at. Growing up in the ghetto in Bristol you have to be very streetwise," he says.

"I learnt to be quiet and keep my eyes and ears open. I had to learn the hard way, but I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I was working even in my second year in drama college. I was quite hungry and would source people to get information from everywhere I could."

His credits to date include stage musicals such as Fosse, Cats, Miss Saigon and The Full Monty as well as film and TV credits as an actor, singer and dancer. One reason he's returning to Chicago and the role of scheming lawyer Billy Flynn is because he considers it "a peach of a role" which encompasses all three of those skills.

"I love the show and there's not a role like this in any musical theatre, apart from say Sky Masterson in Guys And Dolls. There's not a part where you are going to get chance to act, sing and dance, all of which I'm trained to do.

"Billy Flynn is like a master puppeteer. To get a part like this is a dream. No wonder a lot of big Hollywood stars are clambering to get this role," he says.

He was a dancer and understudied Billy Flynn in the London West End production, later taking over from Henry Goodman when he left. He's been back at the Adelphi in the role recently, until ex-Baywatch star David Hasselhoff took over. He also toured in the show to Japan and South Korea, where they played to audiences of 5,000 people a night.

"Then I came back for a little break. I missed my wife and being at home. I did a few concerts and voiceovers, that type of stuff," he says.

The York run will mark his return to the show and he's committed to touring until June next year. Despite a long association with Chicago, he never tires of the show and treats every performance as if it's his first.

"Each show I prepare as if it's opening night. That keeps you on your toes and really at the pinnacle of where you need to be. It needs to be edgy to give that sassiness and sense of danger," he says.

"I've never played York before. I love the city and culture. We're going to have a good show. This will be equal to and in a lot of ways better than what you get in the West End.

"It will be glamorous, sassy and sexy."

* Chicago is at York Grand Opera House from October 26 to November 6. Box Office: 0870 606 3595

Published: 12/08/2004