Kevin Clifton isn’t just the star of Strictly Ballroom: The Musical. As he tells RTÉ Entertainment’s John Byrne, it’s literally a dream come true for him.
Based on Baz Luhrmann’s award-winning worldwide film phenomenon, Strictly Ballroom: The Musical is heading to Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. Starring Strictly Come Dancing favourite Kevin Clifton and Coronation Street star and Dancing on Ice finalist, Fay Brookes, its a stage adaptation of the 1992 film that helped to transform ballroom dancing.
Directed by Strictly Come Dancing Judge Craig Revel Horwood, it follows arrogant, rebellious young ballroom dancer, Scott Hastings (played by Kevin Clifton).
When Scott's radical and daring dance style sees him fall out of favour with Australian Federation - the ballroom dancing authority Down Under - he must dance with a beginner, Fran (Fay Brookes).
Featuring smash-hit songs such as Love is in the Air, Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps and Time After Time, and all new music written by the likes of Sia, David Foster and Eddie Perfect, this feel-good show has proved to be a great success.
As for Kevin, he 's best known for being a professional dancer on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing. Competing in seven season and five finals, 2018 saw him winning the show and being crowned Strictly Champion alongside Stacey Dooley - who’s now his partner - before leaving the show in 2019.
In a successful competitive ballroom dancing career Kevin won numerous titles across the world including becoming a four-time British Latin American Champion and Youth World number one.
He made his Broadway debut as a principal dancer with Burn the Floor in 2009 and West End musical theatre debut in Dirty Dancing in 2010.
In summer 2021 Kevin joined song and dance legend Adam Cooper in Jonathan Church's Singin’ in the Rain, which then toured the UK summer 2022. Other shows include The Wedding Singer, Rock Of Ages and Jeff Wayne's The War Of The Worlds.
John Byrne: Hi Kevin. We’re allowing forward to seeing you guys Dublin. How’s the tour going for you so far?
Kevin Clifton: We’ve been on tour since September, so it’s been going for quite a while. It’s gong great, actually. We’re really enjoying ourselves and getting a great response from the audiences. Just having a blast, really.
Are you one of those people who enjoys being on the road, or do you prefer performing in the West End and being able to sleep at home in your own bed every night?
I quite like it. I like being on tour. I like settling into a new city or hotel every week and seeing what’s around and being involved in a new theatre.
And what I like about it is that you get different audiences everywhere you go. It's a different kind of audience in every city - some are raucous and wild, some of them are more reserved, and some off them laugh at different moments.
Because of that, the show never gets stale. You’re not relying on, well if I do this, people will laugh; or when I do this, people cheer. You just don’t know how they’re going to react because you’re just telling the story on the stage and feeling out ow the audience are going to be on any given. Week. I find that exciting.
The only thing is we just had a baby, so things have changed just a little bit for me. If they’re not with me, I really miss them. I don’t get enough sleep at night if they’re with me, though it’s amazing. But, yeah, I find it all exciting.
Strictly Ballroom has basically created an entire industry since the film first came out 30 years ago. It’s a remarkable suss story . . .
The film came out back in 1992 when I was ten years old. I just completely fell in love with the movie. I thought, "Oh my god. This is a film about ballroom dancing - my life!’ I thought this movie was for me.
I watched it over and over again and become obsessed with it. And especially with the character Scott Hastings. I thought, I'm going to be on stage one day and I’m going to play this character. I said that to my mum and dad. I was ten years’ old.
This is going to be a stage show one day and I’m going to play Scott. I turned 40 last October so it’s been like this 30-year manifestation of trying to make it happen.
And then obviously Strictly Come Dancing became a thing later on. And of course that got part of its name from Strictly Ballroom. And now it’s like the world’s gone mad for ballroom dancing.
I remember when It was Come Dancing, with Terry Wogan - and it was completely uncool. And that’s completely changed now, hasn’t it?
Yeah. My mum and dad were on the old Come Dancing.They were dancers themselves. When was younger and in school, I’d try not to mention too much the fact that in the evening I went to dance classes! No on in Grimsby understood what was going on and it was an uncool thing I was doing.
Now, I’m still in touch with a lot of my pals from school and now it’s like: 'Can you score me some tickets for Strictly Come Dancing?’ Or they might say something like, ‘Oh, I didn’t think much of Tony Adams’ Pasodoble. His arms were all wrong.’ They’ve got an opinion open it - and they know the terminology. And they’ve become obsessed with it. It’s really quite cool to watch.
Dancing wasn’t considered a ‘manly’ thing to do back in the day, was it?
I know what you mean. It was never cool. But I think Strictly Come Dancing has changed all of that, and it probably started with Strictly Ballroom. I remember the first time I watched it - I’m sure there were movies like that before - but for me watching someone doing what I did, and looking really cool, in a movie, it made me feel a lot better about what I did.
You can assume that everyone knows the story, but what would you say if someone came up to you and said: ‘Strictly Ballroom? What’s that’s all about?’
I’d first of all say it was based on the Baz Luhrmann movie from 1992, and that it’s the story a dancer who’s frustrated with the way he’s been told to dance in order to win competitions.
He doesn’t feel like he’s expressing himself. So he’s searching for something else. And he keeps doing different steps on the dance floor, which is annoying his coaches and costing him the winning of competitions.
He needs a new dance partner and he meets a girl called Fran who is also trying to break free from a tradition of family, and everything they’re looking for they find on the dance floor. They sort of light fire under each other and they start dancing together.
So that’s essentially the story . . . and we use some of the songs from the movie, and some songs that have been written specifically for the musical as well.
Strictly Ballroom: The Musical plays at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from May 29 to June 3. Tickets available from Ticketmaster.
