SOLIHULL actress Kirsty Malpass is heading the cast of a new musical at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre.
Crush opens on Friday (September 4) and will star the former Arden School and Solihull Sixth Form College pupil as the glamour games mistress Miss Givings.
Set in 1963 the musical follows the story of a group of teenage girls at the free-spirited Dame Dorothea Dosserdale School for Girls and their horror when their new Headmistress turns out to be a tyrant with strict Victorian values.
Crush is written by Maureen Chadwick – the creator and writer of hit TV dramas Waterloo Road, Footballers’ Wives and Bad Girls, and stage musicals The Realness, Bad Girls The Musical and Joséphine.
The show, which also features Four Wedding and Funeral star Sara Crowe, and respected stage and television star Rosemary Ashe, will run from September 4 to 18 at the Belgrade, before heading to Brighton and London.
Kirtsy’s stage career has seen some stand-out performances – in the West End in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in Stroke of Luck at the Park Theatre, in Chariots of Fire at the Gielgud Theatre and in Jerry Springer the Opera at the Cambridge Theatre.
Her national tours include The Sound of Music, It’s a Wonderful Life and Honk!
Tickets currently available from the box office on 02476 553055 or online at www.belgrade.co.uk.
Visit: www.crushthemusical.com for more infomrtaion.
Kirsty Malpass interview:
Q: What sort of pupil were you? Did you like school?
A: I was a good pupil – a ‘joiner-in’ who was heavily involved in choir, drama, debating, most sports squads. I was captain of the rounders team. I really enjoyed school. I was the sort who volunteered for things to make up the numbers even if I was rubbish at whatever it was!
Q: What was your favourite subject and why?
A: English. Probably because I was good at it!
Q: Who was your favourite teacher and why?
A: Mr Knight – my English teacher, He sadly passed away very recently. He used to do a lot of drama based approaches to literature which obviously appealed to me.
Q: Any school stories you can share with us?
A: I was involved in a hockey accident at school that knocked one of my teeth out – it was fairly traumatic! Especially as it was supposed to be a netball practice. I believe the girls now have to wear mouth guards in hockey because of it.
Some friends and I once broke a clock playing volleyball in the main school hall. We managed to put it back together, except for the timehands, which we had to leave lying in the bottom of the clock. No one noticed until after assembly the next day, when no one could tell the time! We never owned up to it! (sorry – that’s as naughty as I got!)
