Bev: I'm the queen of the Knight

It's a task that would make most of today's so-called singers panic. Taking to the West End stage night after night to belt out the songs of Whitney Houston is not for the faint of heart – and definitely not for the faint of voice.

Luckily, Beverley Knight is neither.

This is a woman with one of the best voices in the country – homegrown and nurtured in the gospel choirs of Wolverhampton – and, after more than two decades in the music business, is taking on a bold new challenge.

Beverley has just landed the role of Rachel Marron in the stage version of Oscar-nominated blockbuster, The Bodyguard. It's a character made instantly iconic but the late Houston in the 1992 film.

But how does our soul superstar feel about filling those most famous of shoes and taking on songs including I Have Nothing, Saving All My Love and, of course, I Will Always Love You?

"The singing part doesn't trouble or worry me," she chuckles. "That is something I know and, because the songs are a part of history, I know them really well. It's the acting!

"It is a totally different universe to my singing career. When the film came out it was huge and I have very big shoes to fill but it would be more terrifying if I was stepping into the shoes of say Meryl Streep – top-of-the-game acting – I take comfort from the fact that Whitney wasn't an actor before taking on the film role, she was a singer too."

The 40-year-old (yes, really) will begin her run at London's Adelphi Theatre in September, starring opposite former Casualty hunk Tristan Gemmill.

"I'm really really excited," says Beverley. "When I was at school I did lots and lots of musical theatre and I loved it. I was always in the school productions at Woodfield and Highfields and with Wolverhampton Youth Theatre, where I did West Side Story and The Mikado, but that was the last time I did anything like that.

"Then I went to the University of Gloucestershire to do religion and after that my music took off so this is the first time in 25 years I've done any musical theatre.

"I am very very excited. At the moment I am not nervous because I am learning my lines and they are going in. So now I am OK but come opening night it might be a different story.

"I am doing my level best to practise everything, I want to be completely on the money. I want to be off book, which means you don't need your script any more - see I am learning all these new theatre phrases I have never heard of.

"But it is the total reverse of the music industry. You are doing the same thing every day for starters. Usually, I am singing songs I know, songs I wrote, I am doing stuff I know backwards, now it's weird to have someone going 'You need to be to be at this point at this time giving off this kind of feeling.'

"It is a big big role and it was made so large by the soundtrack itself, which was massive. It was the biggest soundtrack of all time."

She's not wrong. To date, it has sold more than 45 million copies and includes numbers such as Queen of the Night, So Emotional, One Moment in Time, I'm Your Baby Tonight and Run to You. Beverley's favourite is I Have Nothing.

"It's a brilliant song but such a big, big, massive, massive one," she says. "It will be lovely to sing that every night but it's technically the most difficult song to sing – even more so than I Will Always Love You. That one is more open to interpretation, you can sing it in your own way a bit more. I'm so familiar with that song I can approach it without thinking I have to sing it exactly like Whitney but I also appreciate that is the one the audience will have come to see.

"Whitney was a big influence. But I have to keep in my mind that I'm playing the part of Rachel and I have to divorce Whitney the woman and Whitney the singer from the role that I am playing. I have to remember that I am playing Rachel not Whitney.

"But I would be stupid and lying if I didn't think 'Isn't this sad' when I was singing some of these songs, especially because she passed away in such tragic circumstances. But I want to put my own stamp on the role."

But with such a gruelling catalogue to sing, is Beverley worried about the toll it will take on her millions-selling voice?

"You've just got to be sensible," she explains. "Get lots of rest and hydration. Don't overextend yourself all the time, let the mic do the work. Another weird thing about the show is that the mic is in the wig. I had no idea! It's another thing I'm learning about the theatre world. I am just watching and learning all the time."

Beverley was born and raised in Wolverhampton, growing up in Penn Fields. The avid Wolves fan went to Woodfield and Highfields schools and sang in the choir at the chapel in Temple Street, now called All Nations Christian Centre.

"All my family and friends from Wolverhampton will come down to see the show," she says. "Mom is even talking about coach parties! But it's great that I have that support."

As well as The Bodyguard, Beverley is undergoing another big life change – getting used to life as Mrs O'Keefe.

The singer married her property developer partner James in front of 140 guests in a music-filled wedding at a stately home in West Sussex last September.

She walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of her track 100 per cent, sent out Sgt Pepper-style invitations and had R&B diva Jocelyn Brown performing. Beverley joined Jocelyn on stage for a version of Ain't No Mountain High Enough before treating guests to a solo rendition of Prince's I Wanna Be Your Lover.

"I really loved it and I really love being a Mrs. Not just any Mrs – Mrs O'Keefe, I've got my little signature sorted now," she says. "It was an amazing day. It was magical, tremendous. Incorporating music was so important to both of us on the day and having the music gave it a real festival feel on the evening. It was perfect. Everyone loved it."

The wedding also gave Beverley chance to indulge in her other passion – fashion. She co-designed her silk organza gown and had diamond-encrusted shoes specially made by experts at Jimmy Choo.

"I've got my wedding shoes on display in my posh shoe area at home. I haven't even taken off the little bits of grass because I didn't want to lose anything from the day.

"I've got around 500 pairs of shoes now. I give so many away to charity but I can't give them away fast enough because I'll buy more. I'm not very sensible when it comes to shoes."

Beverley was also style-conscious at this year's Glastonbury festival, where she performed a set comprising material from all seven of her albums, four of which went gold and her greatest hits platinum.

"It was great," said the Brit and Mercury nominee and MOBO winner. "For once we had no rain and the difference it makes is incredible. Even when I'm there as a punter, I still want to look fab but it's so hard when it's raining. And it's so hard to keep a smile on your face and look stylish when you're cold and wet. I walk around in my wellies and shorts but I still want my walking-around outfit to be as good as my stage outfit. This year I finally got it right."

For the foreseeable future, The Bodyguard takes up all of Beverley's time but a new album is never too far away from her thoughts.

"I will be doing an eighth studio album but not immediately. For the first couple of months I need to know I am completely dedicated to this role and nothing gets in the way of my concentration. Once I feel totally familiar with the stage show I think I will allow myself to think about a new album and start writing and tinkering with ideas.

"Music is still my heart and passion. It is something I absolutely know what I'm doing with and it's great to be able to do it all the time. And I'm so proud of all the female UK singers doing so well right now. I love people like Emeli Sandé, Laura Mvula and Jessie Ware.

"It's 20 years since I first started and it was a different era back then so I think it's just fantastic to see Brit girls doing so well all over the world.

"I think I made it through because I came from a live music background and I understood music so well in its live form. I had ideas about songs as a whole, I knew what I was talking about. And that's the advice I would give to any young female singer now: don't let them call you a b*tch or a cow, follow your heart and your gut feeling, don't let people change your vision. Be a strong woman."

Unfortunately, our time is rapidly running out but before we go, there's chance for one last question: does Beverley have any messages for everyone back home in Wolverhampton?

"Yes, I miss you!" she shouts. "I don't get to come back as often as I want but I will always be a Wolverhampton girl. I'd love it if people from the Black Country and the West Mids came down to see me in The Bodyguard – it will mean a lot to me, to know that my own think I'm doing well.

"Oh, and one more thing, don't give up hope on the Wolves. We'll be back!"

By Elizabeth Joyce

• Beverley Knight joins the cast of The Bodyguard at the Adelphi Theatre from September 9. Visit thebodyguardmusical.com or call 0844 579 0094.

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