'I can't wait for whatever comes my way': Queen of the West End speaks out ahead of Mansfield show

And theatregoers in Mansfield can see her remarkable talents up close in September when Kerry Ellis performs at the Palace Theatre.

Kerry has performed some of the biggest roles of the past 25 years, and has also toured extensively with Queen’s Brian May while dazzling fans around the world with solo tours.

It’s been quite a journey for the girl who grew up wanting to be a pop star. And she will reflect on how far she has come in her new solo show, Queen of the West End.

“It all started for me when I was a young girl,” said Kerry. “I must’ve been three or four when I went to a local dance centre. I just took a shine to it and that passion never left me. I loved it then and I still do now.”

Dancing grabbed Ellis and made her feel alive. She wanted to be a pop star, as well as a star of musical theatre, and looked up to Elaine Paige, in whose shoes she has since trod.

Ellis had a double cassette of Les Miserables, which was hugely influential. She knew that show from start to finish and would sing along with the cassette. It was the same with Miss Saigon.

“My path wasn’t calculated, not in the slightest. I was listening to music, loving it, and rehearsing it. Everything stemmed from there.

“I loved singing, I loved dancing, and I loved the world of entertainment. I’d do anything I could. I was rehearsing myself without realising it. I was stretching my voice and seeing what I was capable of, without knowing. I think dance gave me discipline and being part of that dance school, when I was younger, was really important. I’d have to turn up three or four days a week, I’d have to be physical, I’d have to be on that ballet bar at quarter past three. There was a discipline with dance that stood me in brilliant stead later in my career.”

She was a dreamer as a child and her parents were supportive. They brought into her goal of performing in Broadway and on the West End. At 19, she got a job singing on a nine-month cruise around the Caribbean and she never looked back.

When she came back, she did a quick tour of Magic of the Musicals, with Marti Webb and Dave Willetts, and then went into My Fair Lady. She was the understudy for Eliza Doolittle, which was played by Martine McCutcheon.

When McCutcheon became unwell, Kerry stepped up. “I had no dress run, no costume run, nothing. It was in at the deep end. I didn’t have time to think and even though it’s a long time ago, I don’t think I can remember doing it. It was just such an adrenaline rush."

Her life changed forever and the offers flooded in. Brian May was once in in the audience with the casting director for We Will Rock You and asked her to audition. Kerry got the role.

”We Will Rock You was a whirlwind of madness and craziness. There was a frenzy of huge celebrities and big, iconic people surrounding the show. The whole thing was a one-off. Nothing like that had really happened before. A stream of celebrities came to watch the show as soon as it opened. We met so many people, from Emma Thompson to Beyonce, from Britney Spears to P!nk. My hero, Liza Minelli, came along too. It was endless. The Royals came. It was crazy, it really was.”

Ellis moved into Miss Saigon. “Miss Saigon was another of those iconic roles. It was a show that I loved, growing up. The role of Ellen wasn’t massive, but it was a well-respected, leading, female role. It was a big tick off the list.”

She starred in Les Misérables – the show she’d gone to see as an impressionable 13-year-old. “Fast forward to 2005 and I was in that show, on that stage. I’d come full circle. I was doing all of those iconic songs that I’d always wanted to sing.

“There’s something special about the big hits, like Memory, in Cats, or I Dreamed A Dream, in Les Mis. People are waiting for you to sing them. They literally buy their ticket just for that. So to have that moment with those iconic songs is magical. I do look back very fondly and gratefully for that. I have great pride. I got to be part of those musicals and sing those great songs.”

Wicked was a game-changer. It took Ellis to Broadway and helped her to fulfil another big ambition in my life.

“Broadway was everything I thought it would be – good and bad. When I went there, I’d been doing the show in London for nine years and it was a really tough show. Anyone who’s been in Wicked will tell you how difficult it is. Vocally-speaking, it’s unlike anything I’d ever sung before. It’s so much more difficult. I’d never been challenged by anything as much as I was by Wicked and I went through good moments, tough moments where I blew my voice out, and moments where I had to retrain myself to sing the show because it was so difficult.

“The Broadway gig came up and I literally finished the show in London on the Saturday, flew on the Sunday, then was in rehearsals on the Monday. Two days later, I was opening the show on Broadway and I was absolutely knackered. I was there for six months, and it was wonderful, it was absolutely a dream come true.”

“So what’s coming in the future? I don’t know. The future is not yet written, is it. But I know one thing, I’m having the time of my life and I can’t wait for whatever comes my way.”

Kerry Ellis - Queen of the West End comes to the Palace Theatre on Wednesday September 17.

Standard tickets cost £32 before fees.

Visit mansfieldpalace.co.uk or call 01623 463133 to book.