MARION SAUVEBOIS meets Hayley Tamaddon, talented star of the latest revival of the popular award-winning musical Chicago 

PRANCING around wielding a gun, shimmying up and down a cell block all the while belting out Chicago’s iconic ditties and plotting to wriggle out of a death sentence is not the breeze it’s made out to be for audiences’ viewing pleasure.

As Hayley Tamaddon sorely discovered, barely recovered from the daze of being handpicked to play the devious Roxie Hart in the latest revival of the award-winning musical, it requires strength, stamina and, to her horror: dragging yourself to the nearest gym for infernal workouts.

“I hate going to the gym but it’s a physical show so I had to – but only after Christmas, you can’t miss out a good Christmas,” laughs the actress, who until recently graced our TV screens as Andrea Beckett in Coronation Street and previously played Del Dingle in Emmerdale.

Ever resourceful, she had a trick up her sleeve to temper her stringent and monotonous fitness regime: a fun but still exercise-focused spin on the hula-hoop.

Based on real life events back in the roaring 1920s, Chicago follows the tribulations of fame-hungry nightclub singer Roxie Hart who lands herself in jail after shooting her lover. Along with cell block rival, double-murderess Velma Kelly, they fight to keep from death row with the help of smooth talking lawyer, Billy Flynn, played by John Partridge. The block is presided over by the corrupt Matron ‘Mama’ Morton, aptly brought to the stage in the new production by former prison warden and X Factor winner Sam Bailey.

If whipping herself into shape was an uphill battle, it was a trifle compared to the challenge of getting to grips with the elusive Roxie Hart while putting her own stamp on the character. She had to reckon with the coterie of Broadway stalwarts who preceded her in the role gathering plaudits, and of course the long shadow of Renee Zellweger’s Oscar nominated performance as the self-serving singer.

“It’s a part I always wanted to play and I’m still pinching myself that I’m the person they’ve chosen to play the role and bring it back – it’s not been on stage here for a while,” she says enthusiastically. “So many great people have played the role before and I’ve seen the movie a lot. But the character is different in the stage show so you have to put your own stamp on it. Also I’m a brunette, so I don’t look anything like Renee Zellweger,” she chuckles.

“We were so lucky actually, we’ve got one of the American directors to help us out. It’s fantastic the information he’s given us. What I thought I was doing right, I was doing wrong. She’s a complex character. She has killed someone and she is trying to get off for it. She does this in the hope she can be a star. But she’s a vulnerable character too. There are lots of elements to her.”

If her track record is anything to go by, she should be more than able to hold her own on stage. After all, she got her first role at 19, fresh from college and with no agent steering her along and took the crown in the fifth season of Dancing on Ice, having never so much as tottered around an ice rink before joining the show.

With age though, the 39-year-old confesses, the thrill of performing live has given way to a jumble of jitters and nerves.

“The older I’m getting the more nervous I get on stage – I love live performance and I love TV but TV is less stressful. You can always go again. On stage you just go for it and you just have to get on with it. But it’s exciting.” She pauses before adding: “It’s always reassuring when you hear nice applause.”

Chicago opens at the New Theatre Oxford on Friday and runs until February 20. To book go to www.atgtickets.com/venues/new-theatre-oxford.