Claire lights up Cliffs as Paulette (From Echo)

Claire lights up Cliffs as Paulette

7:40pm Saturday 21st January 2012 in Leisure By Hannah Marsh

IN days gone by, the celebrities of the day were those who made their names on stage, not on screen.

Matinee idols and West End stars were the pin-ups of the age, but these days the famous faces you see on stage seem to be dropped in to boost ticket sales.

However, Claire Sweeney is different. Although still known to many people for her stint in Brookside, it’s on the musical theatre stage where she made her mark and built her reputation and became one of its biggest stars.

She’s played iconic roles including vivacious murderess Roxie Hart, in Chicago, and Miss Adelaide, opposite Patrick Swayze, in Guys and Dolls.

And until next Saturday you can see her at the Cliffs, starring as brassy hairdresser Paulette in musical Legally Blonde.

“I love her,” enthuses Claire when I catch up with her backstage at the Westcliff theatre.

“There’s vulnerability there. She suddenly gets the man of her dreams. It’s lovely.

“She’s loud and funny – the way she’s obsessed with Irishmen.”

Claire fell in love with the part when she saw the show first open in the West End. She was actually offered it prior to this run, but had to turn it down as she was touring in the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black one-woman show Tell Me on a Sunday.

“It’s a lovely contrast to that,” she says. “Tell Me on a Sunday is a one-woman show, a real rollercoaster of emotions. To come from working on something like that to this, which is so light and fluffy, and where the pressure’s not all on my shoulders, is great.”

Legally Blonde is adapted from the film of the same name, which starred Reese Witherspoon in the lead role. It sees California girl Elle Woods, played by Faye Brookes, put down her credit card to follow her heart to Harvard, after being dumped by the man of her dreams.

Along the way she meets brash hairdresser Paulette, who helps her see the worth of her brains as well as her beauty.

Paulette has a comic storyline of her own, as Elle helps her legally win back her beloved dog after it is taken by a cruel ex-boyfriend. Then Elle helps her win a prize of an altogether different nature – super-hunky deliveryman Kyle, played by Benfleet actor Lewis Griffiths.

“I hadn’t done the part since November,” admits Claire, as the cast have just had a Christmas break – with Claire doing panto.

“I had to rehearse on Monday and then we went onstage on Tuesday. I was a bit nervous, but now I’m really looking forward to getting to know Paulette again.”

Claire started her career aged just 14, singing in clubs in her native Liverpool. It wasn’t long before she was working on cruise ships and then she landed the part of Lindsey Corkhill in TV’s Brookside.

Unlike many stars who leave soaps only to spend years trying to shed their character and soapstar reputation, Claire says she loved her time on the programme and would not change it for the world.

“I don’t want to shake it off,” she says adamantly. “Brookside is me, it gave me my first break on TV. I probably wouldn’t have got this lot without the profile it gave me. I’m under no illusions.

“I thank you Brookside, you gave me a great six years.”

Claire says her theatre highlight was playing opposite Hollywood star Patrick Swayze in Guys and Dolls.

She says. “I didn’t get it the first time, then they came back and said ‘we want you to do it, but with Patrick Swayze’.”

She lists working with Patrick – who tragically died two years ago after a battle with pancreatic cancer – as wonderful.

She admits. “He was the most beautiful man, talented and generous as an actor. He was a very kind, very sensitive, very generous actor – not at all starry.”

She looks downcast and adds: “I can’t believe he’s dead. It’s very sad, such a loss.”

Another highlight for Claire was Tell Me on a Sunday, which Southend fans will have seen when it came to the Cliffs last year.

Not only was she chosen to star as the English girl in New York, falling in and out of love, but Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black actually rewrote the show to fit around her. They tailored the script so the character was, like Claire, from Liverpool, and penned her a new song.

“Having been a Lloyd Webber show fan for years, to do a one-woman show of his – that he’d tailored for me – was just incredible,” she says.

There’s no rest for Claire once she finishes her stint in Legally Blonde in a month’s time.

She’s staying onstage, but heading in a different direction. This time she will take on yet another iconic part, Rita in Willy Russell’s classic, Educating Rita.

It will see her team up with Matthew Kelly – who’s also starring in Legally Blonde at the moment, as Professor Callaghan.

The pair know each other well. “I did Stars in Their Eyes with Matthew,” laughs Claire. “Twice! It was about 15 years ago. I did Celine Dion the first time and Barbra Streisand the second – so I’ve known him a long time.

“Now we’re doing Educating Rita and it’s fabulous. It’s fantastic. I’ve only ever done one play before, I’ve always done musical theatre.”

The new play opens in April in London before going on tour.

Claire’s busy with another project too. She’s putting together a fashion line for Fashion World – which she’s excited about. She says: “Because I live on the road, I wanted to do the perfect capsule wardrobe. You can put all the stuff in a bag and it can take you anywhere.”

The collection, for women sized 12-22, will be released as a spring/summer collection.

But despite the hectic lifestyle, there’s one role Claire would still love to play one day.

“I’d probably like to do Blood Brothers most of all,” she says. “That was the first musical I saw and that got me into musical theatre. My mum took me as a kid and I just fell in love. That’d be lovely.”

Claire insists on giving me a warm hug before she scuttles off to the stage.

“I’m really looking forward to doing the matinee. Now I’ve got the first night out of the way, I’m just looking forward to it.”

Legally Blonde, the Cliffs Pavilion, Station Road, Westcliff. Until January 28, at 8pm, with Saturday and Wednesday matinees at 2.30pm. £20.50-£41.50, call 01702 351135.