From walking the cobbles to treading the boards, Natalie Hale talks to former Corrie star Bruno Langley.

Flashdance is, as every child of the Eighties worth their salt knows, the gloriously improbable story of Alex, welder by day, dancer by night.

The film is up there in the Eighties Pantheon of enduring, camp hit blockbusters, which includes Top Gun, Dirty Dancing and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

So sparks are sure to fly when a new musical based on the iconic 1983 movie explodes on to the stage at Bristol Hippodrome next month.

The new production stars Bernie Nolan (The Bill, Brookside), Noel Sullivan (Hear'Say), stage actress Victoria Hamilton-Barritt and former Coronation Street resident Bruno Langley, who talked to me from the balcony of his hotel room in Belfast, where the cast are currently entertaining audiences.

Set in Pittsburgh, USA, Flashdance tells the unlikely story of 18-year-old Alex, who combines her butch day job as a welder with her real passion as a dancer and whose dream is to win a place at the prestigious Shipley Dance Academy.

"Alex is a steel welder by day and a flashdancer by night – as you do," laughs Bruno.

"It's about her following her dreams to get out of this small town and making a better life."

This is Bruno's first crack at musical theatre, having previously turned down a plethora of other roles.

"I have been offered a lot of musical theatre work, but this is the one that stood out to me. The others were just filling a role that someone else had left – just retracing their footsteps.

"But this is a brand new show and it gives me a chance to put my stamp on it. I get to be creative, which for me is what performing is all about."

Bruno takes the role of bad boy Jimmy Kiminsky, a childhood friend-gone-bad of Alex – a part written specially for the musical.

Of Jimmy, Bruno says: "People perceive him as not a nice guy. He's an 18/19-year-old street kid living in Pittsburgh and he's just out of prison for robbery.

"He does fancy Alex, but is really looking for money. It's absolutely brilliant playing a baddie – I've only played good guys before."

Choreographed by Strictly Come Dancing favourite Arlene Phillips, the show is full of pulsating raw energy and breathtaking choreography performed to hits from the movie including Maniac and the Oscar-winning classic Flashdance – What A Feeling, along with 10 original numbers.

It's these new songs that 25-year-old Bruno believes marks out Flashdance as something a bit different from the current spate of jukebox and movie-to-musical productions.

He explains: "People who've seen the show say it is a cut above. The audiences love joining in with the songs they know and we've had great feedback about the new numbers, too, which is great.

"Bernie Nolan has an amazing voice and Victoria, who plays Alex, is a rising star. She is going to be big – she's absolutely amazing."

The cast are a year into a gruelling tour, so it's important that they keep the show feeling fresh and energy-filled every night.

"I've just been reading an acting book about the challenges of keeping things fresh when you've been doing a long run. You have to get out there and just pretend that it's the first time you have ever said those lines.

"It's hard, but it helps that we have a great, fun cast and an energetic, upbeat show. If I was doing a depressing play for this long I'd have gone mad."

The all-singing, all-dancing part is a world away from his best-known role as Todd Grimshaw in Coronation Street.

Long before the soap acquired its effeminate, high-pitched, hyper-camp bartender Sean Tully to represent its gay community, Todd was a quietly confused teen who got himself betrothed to his permanently pregnant childhood sweetheart Sarah Lou, before working out he might actually prefer boys.

The character went on to make front page news with the much-hyped gay kiss – a Corrie first – between Todd and brother-in-law Nick Platt, played by Adam Rickett.

"It was a great storyline to be involved in," says Bruno. "And I got to go back for a while, and it was fun to revisit the role and catch up with the cast.

"But I'm looking forward to doing new things now. Never say never, but I think Coronation Street is in the past for me.

"I'm always interested in broadening my horizons," he continues, "which is why I agreed to do this musical. But after this very long and tiring tour, I think I'll give musicals a miss for a bit.

"Ideally, I‘d like to do a straight acting role in film next because that's the thing that I've done least.

"Richard Attenborough once said that he knew that he had made it when he had a TV script, a stage script and a film script sent to him at the same time.

"I'm not at that stage yet, but I'm certainly working at it."

Flashdance appears at the Hippodrome from Monday, April 6, until Saturday, April 11. Tickets cost £12.50-£29.50 – call 0844 847 2325.

© The Evening Post, 26/3/09

<< back