Stepping out of pop into theatre
by Catherine Phillips
(www.worcesterstandard.co.uk/)

As a teenager growing up in the 1990s no house party or school disco was complete without Steps blasting from the CD player. Whether it was the country and western tinged 5,6,7,8, The Bee Gees cover Tragedy or the pop-tastic One For Sorrow, everyone knew the dance moves and would stampede onto the dancefloor.

They were big at a time when manufactured pop music ruled the charts and were up there with the likes of Boyzone and The Spice Girls before the band split on Boxing Day 2001. A world away from Steps comes Eva Cassidy, who Faye plays in Over The Rainbow, an American vocalist championed on these shores by Terry Wogan on his Radio 2 Show two years after her death aged just 33.

Faye, who began rehearsing for the tour this week, explained: “I had been given her album Songbird about ten years ago and I loved her but I didn’t have any more of her music.

“When I got the part I went on the internet and studied her work to do her as much justice as possible but, of course, being a real person she has left such huge shoes to fill,” she added.

As well as Over The Rainbow, Faye has also starred in musicals and theatre productions such as Tell Me On A Sunday, Love Shack and Me and My Girl. Her former band member Lisa Scott-Lee this week began her time on reality show CelebAir, in which celebrities become air hostesses, and Faye too has been offered a number of celebrity reality shows.

She explained: “I wouldn’t mind taking part in something like Strictly Come Dancing because that’s part of what I do – dancing. However, I don’t think I could take part in Big Brother. I want to be judged on my performances not on my personality.”

Faye, Lisa and the rest of her former bandmates, Ian ‘H’ Watkins, Claire Richards and Lee Latchford-Evans, all keep in contact with one another and are supportive of each other’s careers.

“Lisa asked me to go on CelebAir but unfortunately I am too busy with the tour. I think Lee will be travelling though. We have remained good friends and anything that happened in the past is now water under the bridge,” Faye added.

Faye will star in Over The Rainbow: The Life Story of Eva Cassidy runs until Saturday 27 September with shows at 8pm.

Tickets cost £17.50 and are available by calling 01905 611427.