West End Shirl ...the star whose life’s like ALL your favourite musicals

As she reveals her memoirs are heading for Broadway, why Strictly judge Shirley Ballas’s life was made for the stage

SHIRLEY BALLAS has revealed that she is in discussions with Broadway producers about turning her blockbuster life story — as told in her autobiography Behind The Sequins — into a musical. The 61-year-old Strictly judge’s eventful life has had twists and turns worthy of any stage show.

From her extraordinary rise out of childhood poverty in Merseyside, reminiscent of the Blood Brothers plot, to a sizzling love affair between dance instructor and student straight out of Dirty Dancing, every chapter of Shirley’s life could be a musical. ALISON BOSHOFF spots the similarities . . .