‘Doing this musical was a no-brainer’

He’s famous for his role in Casualty and going on to win Strictly Come Dancing but these days Tom Chambers is the leading man of musicals.As he visitsWales with the Crazy For You tour, we chat to him about his successful career on stage

YOU can’t beat some glorious Gershwin – and the composer has no greater fan than Tom Chambers who is fulfilling a teenage dream by starring in the musical Crazy For You. By the time the curtain came down on a production of Crazy For You in the early ’90s, a then 15-yearold Tom knew his heart lay in performing.

“It was the very first live musical I ever saw on stage and it just filled me with so much entertainment and wonder. It was amazing to see what they did with the theatre space and how the story was told.

“It was the only bit of theatre which truly inspired me,” he recalls.

And in a career which has featured a number of crazy twists of fate as well as some fantastic roles, he is relishing the chance to recapture that teenage dream and this time play the lead role in the production which is visiting Swansea next week as part of a UK tour.

He plays Bobby, a banker sent to close down a failing theatre who falls for the daughter of the building’s proprietor. Determined to win her heart, he adopts the guise of a Hungarian impresario in order to save the theatre and win her heart.

And so, the stage is set for an all-singing, all-dancing story set to a Gershwin soundtrack which includes the likes of They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Bidin’ My Time and, of course, I’ve Got Rhythm.

Tom admits he had always has a bit of a performing instinct from rattling his feet on the kitchen floor at home from a very young age, and then enjoying watching black-and-white films starring the likes of Gene Kelly, but it was a school play that saw him tread the boards for the first time.

“I was playing football during a school break and the English teacher, who was directing the play, said no one had auditioned for it so there was a compulsory 3 o’clock audition. I ended up getting the title role in Dracula Spectacular.

“I loved that relationship recognition between the audience and I. It was fantastic making them respond.”

Drama school followed which included a stint understudying Keith Chegwin in the pantomime Cinderella at Basingstoke and his first job after leaving was a Spanish TV ad for Kit Kat.

Tom says: “I thought this is great. I am going to get non-stop work.”

But things did not quite work out like that. He had to turn down a role in The Bill because they needed an HGV driver although Tom has now got his Class 1 lorry-driving licence.

And when he turned down a role in the arena tour of Bob The Builder, his agent fired him leaving him in a quandary about what to do next. He enjoyed some success with the movie Fakers which was privately financed and enjoyed a limited cinema release but the work was drying up.

So, he took one final shot at success by aiming to get onto the Royal Variety Performance in the days before Britain’s Got Talent and YouTube.