Melanie C on the honour of playing Blood Brothers’ Mrs Johnstone on the Liverpool Empire stage

Mel C

Melanie C talks to Catherine Jones about bringing ‘Mrs J’ back home

HARDENED theatre critics gave her a standing ovation when she wowed them in the West End, and now Melanie C is on her way to Liverpool to reprise her stellar performance in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers.

Once she can find her script that is.

“I’d put it in that, you know that safe place we always put things in and can never find them?” admits the 36-year-old. “You know you’ve always got one of those drawers, one of those cupboards, in the kitchen with odd things in.

“Well, it was in there and happily I’ve found it.”

Phew. The show can go on.

It’s six months since Melanie last wriggled into the pinny of Mrs Johnstone, stage musicals’ most famous charlady, but she says returning to the part to bring it to Liverpool was a no-brainer.

She explains: “It was coming towards the end of my run in the West End and I had a meeting with one of the executive producers, and he just said, ‘well, we have an opportunity to go to Liverpool in November and we wondered if you’d like to come along?’ And I just jumped at the chance.

“In fact I’d secretly been hoping they were going to ask.”

She adds: “The Liverpool shows are legendary. It’s just such an honour to be able to play Mrs Johnstone in Liverpool.”

When she arrives with the cast next week it won’t be the first time the Whiston-born singing star has stood on the Empire stage however.

She recalls an early appearance hot-hoofing it in a charity gala as the young Melanie Chisholm.

“It’s a very long time ago. I remember Sonia was the compère,” she says. “My dancing school was doing 42nd Street.

“But I’m so excited to be coming back.”

When it was first announced that the mum-of-one was taking on the role of “Mrs J”, as she fondly refers to her, there were a few raised eyebrows.

After all, Willy Russell’s tragic heroine is essentially an acting role and Melanie’s dramatic credits mainly centred around an appearance as herself in the 1997 movie Spice World.

But she was determined to prove her credentials, which include three years studying musical theatre at college.

In fact, she even appeared in Blood Brothers as a child at school in Widnes.

“I played Mrs Lyons (the rich housewife who buys one of her cleaning lady’s twin sons with tragic consequences). But it’s a lot more fun playing Mrs J,” she laughs.

“Musical theatre is something I’ve always enjoyed since I was a kid. When I was at school I went to dancing class, and we did singing as well as dancing, and at school I really enjoyed the drama side of things and I was always in the school plays.

“I think my first lead role was Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, and that’s where I got my taste for it.

“Then that inspired me to go to performing arts college. So I did train in musical theatre between the ages of 16 and 19.”

In fact, life could have been very different for Melanie if two auditions she went for at the same time had gone the other way.

She reveals: “I was auditioning for Cats around the same time I was auditioning for the band that became the Spice Girls.

“I feel so fortunate that I was part of the Spice Girls and that was a destiny that was made, but it’s been so lovely that that, in itself, has given me the opportunity to come back and be able to work in the theatre.”

It was perhaps fate that also led the singer to Mrs Johnstone.

She gave birth to daughter Scarlett Starr in February last year and admits that she “didn’t have a clue” whether she wanted to continue her career or not.

But after six months Melanie decided the time was right to start looking around for new opportunities.