Viv Hardwick discovers that Joanne Clifton has a thoroughly modern mission when it comes to switching from Strictly success to stage musicals

THE title track from Thoroughly Modern Millie invites you to “check your personality” and there can’t be one much bigger than world champion dancer and Strictly Come Dancing star Joanne Clifton, who is determined to step into the role of musical headliner.

“The producers did take a chance on me. I’m not fully trained, but I’m the type of person who has goals and once I’ve reached one I like to move on and try something else,” says Clifton about being cast in the central role of Millie Dillmount, a Kansas girl determined to make it big in New York City.

The show is playing this week in York (Feb 27 to Mar 4) and will play Newcastle in July.

“There is obviously pressure on me, but if you love what you do then it’s achievable. I’m aware that being on Strictly is part of the reason why I got this role. But, at the same time, I’m a full believer that if I’m not good enough I wouldn’t accept the job. That’s why I’m still training and moving up slowly.

“The thing is with me, that I always wanted to do musical theatre. It was like a childhood dream. When I was little my parents couldn’t afford for me to do both dance the musical theatre. My parents and grandparents were dancers, so I’d been involved in that for years.

“When I wanted to go to musical theatre school, my parents said, ‘We’ll support you in whatever you want to do, but can you chose one or the other?’ So I stuck with dancing, apart from having a few private lessons in singing, and then moved over to Italy to train for 14 years,” says Clifton.

The result was a World Ballroom Showdance Championship win in 2013 to go with victories in the European Professional Championship and World Dancesport Games. An invitation to return to the UK and join the hugely popular Strictly TV series came in 2014 and Clifton decided it was time to regenerate her idea of a stage musical career.

“I spent two years training in singing and acting and now my ambitions have come full circle,” she says.

“I started out in a small fringe theatre, above a pub called the Rose and Crown. My first part involved one line and the song Let’s Face The Music. I got a little bit of experience and then played Marilyn Monroe in the Norma Jean Musical and I slowly moved up.

Mention of the famous tap dancing “to make the lift work” sequence in Thoroughly Modern Millie proves to be more challenging that one might expect for a dancer. “Well, this is the thing. I’ve had to learn tap dancing for this show. I’m a trained dancer, but I’ve never done tap, so this is a new thing I’m learning.”

Winner of six Tony Awards including Best Musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie is based on the 1967 Academy Award-winning film starring Julie Andrews. With music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan and a book from Scanlan and Richard Morris, the show features the Jazz Age in 1920s New York City, when ‘modern girls’ were bobbing their hair, raising their hemlines, entering the workforce and rewriting the rules of love. Other hit songs include Gimme Gimme and Not for the Life of Me.

Clifton reveals that she decided to avoid watching the movie or trying to find footage of the 2003 West End version starring Amanda Holden and, later, Donna Steel, which closed after eight months, but did better box office with a 2005 tour which again starred Steel.

“I could never compare myself to Julie Andrews because she’s a legend and I can’t even be in the same sentence as her. But if I’d watched her as soon as I got the role, it might have influenced me in the way that I play her and it wouldn’t be me. I tend not to read reviews or anything from the past and just try and go my own way with the help of the director.

“I’m just doing a little bit of Kansas in the accent, but Millie’s in New York, so what she says is a little bit mixed. I have had dialect coaching and having done an American accent in my last two shows I know I can do it.”

Clifton will be finishing the tour after Newcastle, but is in no mood to slow down. “I think that we get about five weeks off during the six months of touring and at least one of them will involve a Strictly Come Dancing cruise. So I can do both. There is a lot of dancing in this show anyway, so we keep really fit. Some of the cast go to the gym and take part in spinning classes and things when we have a morning free. Sometimes I go to the gym, but at other times I just fancy sleeping in,” she jokes.

At the moment, she is fascinated with audience reaction to Thoroughly Modern Millie particularly when “different audiences find different parts funny” and hopes that the show does well enough to finally conquer the West End.

“Without sounding big-headed, after being British, European and World champion, I can’t really get much further with dance ambitions and it is such a short career for some people. You need a lot of determination and strength and it’s also the times that you have to accept defeat that make you stronger.”

Having won last year’s 14th series of Strictly with Ore Oduba, is it time for Strictly to gain a strong female chairman to replace Len Goodman? “Well, maybe I could be it. I’m not even sure whether I’ll be dancing in the next TV series. No one does until you’re asked back,” says the thoroughly modern mistress of dance.

  • York Opera House, Mon, February 27 to Sat, March 4. Box Office: 0844-871-3024 or atgtickets.com/venues/grand-opera-house-york/
  • Newcastle Theatre Royal, Mon, July 10 to Saturday, July 15. Box Office: 08448-112121 or theatreroyal.co.uk