Doing Footloose is real adventure for Brookside star

A musical based on one of the most popular films of the 1980s will thrill crowds at Wolverhampton's Grand Theatre during a week-long run. Footloose will open on Monday and continue until June 25.

Grand spokeswoman Vicky Price said the production would include classic 80s anthems like Holding Out For A Hero, Let's Hear It For The Boy, Almost Paradise and the title track Footloose.

It will star former Brookside actor Steven Pinder as Reverend Mark Shaw and Max Milner as Ren. Steven said: "The show has been going really well. We started it back in January and we have been going ever since. We have had two weeks off in 20 weeks and we have been to Ireland, Wales, up and down England.

"It has been brilliant but audiences are slightly different in different parts of the country.

"In Scotland and the north it gets a bit raucous, they are quiet cheery in the South. It has gone down really well in Birmingham at the Hippodrome and I hope we get similar reaction in Wolverhampton.

"The Black Country has always had good audiences. I haven't played The Grand for four or five years.

"The last plays I did there were Dial M for Murder and The Constant Wife. They were very well received and I am really looking forward to coming back."

He added: "It has been a bit of an adventure because I hadn't done musical theatre before. It was also a chance to play different characters.

"I do very little dancing in the show, I wish I could do a little bit more. It is only for about a minute but that minute is intense. When I first came in and saw the rest of the cast dancing, I was left absolutely breathless. They are extremely fit and I have all respect for them.

"I am 51 now so I would like to do a bit more but not too much. I have done three jobs back to back now on the road so the first thing I've got to do is go home to Chester and stay there for a while."

Another production that will get performers to their feet is Birmingham Royal Ballet's Passion and Ecstasy, which will run at Birmingham Hippodrome from June 22-25 and has been directed by David Bintley.

BRB spokesman Simon Harper said: "Passion and Ecstasy is full of quivering jumps and turns, dance phrases that freeze into glitteringly unpredictable poses, and speeds that reach apparently impossible highs.

Meanwhile, an explorer described by Sir Ranulph Fiennes as being "one of the best ever" will talk about his exploits at Oakengates Theatre @ The Place. Ed Stafford will visit the venue to talk about his world record-setting one-man walk along the Amazon River.

He said: "When I came up with the idea everyone told me it was impossible and stupid and that I would die.

"I was quite adamant that it was possible. I thought it would take a year and it was two-and-a-half years.

"The classic dangers are the animal dangers – there were jaguar prints all around – but I didn't really think we'd be attacked.

"I have another big expedition planned for September next year. Invariably, it will be harder than the last one. Everyone was saying you don't have to top the last one, it can be smaller. I thought 'What is the point in that?' I want to do something that goes even further.

"It's something that's never been done before."

Andy Richardson