12:09pm Saturday 6th June 2009
Suzanne Shaw has swept aside her fears of walking down the aisle and is really letting down her hair on stage at Consett, she tells Viv Hardwick
A FEW months ago Suzanne Shaw admitted she was terrified of marriage, hardly surprising when you’ve been engaged to the spectacularly unsuitable Darren Day, but now she’s about to tie the knot with DJ Jason King.
I tease her about being under pressure to sell the rights to a celebrity mag like Hello!, and she confirms she has… to OK!
“It was true I was (frightened of marriage), but I’m going ahead in two weeks time. I’m looking forward to married life. We have sold our souls to a magazine. I didn’t want to do it, then I did, so unfortunately I can’t reveal too much about it. The ceremony is all indoors and I’m aware that once you sign a contract you’re signing your day away.
I have made sure that it is the kind of day we want it to be,” says Shaw who has been determined to stay in charge of the wedding ceremony plans.
“I’ve had help from bridesmaids, but all the colour of dresses, flowers and what will happen is down to me,” adds Shaw, who lives near Beaconsfield, Bucks.
Shaw’s only taking a three-day break from touring in the notoriously-named Vagina Monologues, which plays Consett’s Empire Theatre on Wednesday.
So what’s a nice girl like her doing in a show like that, where the V-word is chanted loudly by her and co-stars Sue Holderness and 3 Non Blondes TV comic Tameka Empson along with the, mostly female, audience?
“It’s actually quite refreshing to do something else and be that little bit more controversial. But this show is educational and emotional as well.
“Normally these are the kind of conversations that women shy away from. I’d never have thought about discussing subjects like this with my friends before. When I first heard the show and these women tell of their experiences I thought ‘yeah, I feel like that too’.
“Most of the tour has been in front of an all-female audience, apart from the one poor bloke who doesn’t know what it’s about and is made to come along by his wife – by the interval he really regrets that decision. But very much it’s a laugh-out-loud production,” she says.
So has her bridegroom-to-be seen the show? “Yes, he’s been to see it once. I’m not sure he’ll come back. He’s not scared easily because he’s also seen me do The Rocky Horror Show. That’s the great thing about my job… you don’t get to do this thing if you work in an office,” Shaw jokes.
APART from a brief appearance in The Bill, Shaw hasn’t done a lot of acting since leaving college and says she always thought she was going to be an actress rather than a pop singer.
After the Vagina Monologues and a family holiday her next big project is certainly a little different. She’ll be joining Aled Jones at the Lowry, Manchester, for a stage version of the classic film, White Christmas, which will run in the traditional panto slot.
What’s fascinating about the 27-yearold is that her most high-profile successes have come on reality TV. In 2001, ITV’s Popstars created the mould for today’s “select your favourite” shows as millions watched her plucked from obscurity to join Myleene Klass, Kym Ryder, Noel Sullivan and Danny Foster in Hear’Say. More recently, Shaw won Series 3 of ITV’s Dancing On Ice after 13m viewers voted last year. It was a spectacular comeback by the performer who had been in financial and mental health meltdown after she and Day parted company a few weeks after she gave birth to son Corey – Day famously saying “I don’t do family”.
“A lot of people I meet do feel they know me and my son and a lot about my life, which they do, because I’m not one for not talking about it. I’m a private person, but I will talk about my family and how I’m feeling,” says Shaw, who admits to becoming addicted to TV’s Britain Got Talent to the extent of being in the audience for last Saturday’s final.
“It was a wonderful show. I still think that the decision to appear was down to Susan Boyle.
“Those who are auditioning have no idea about people’s backgrounds and the idea was to find great British talent and I feel the people who deserved to win it did win it on the night,” says the performer who confesses to supporting 12-year-old singer Shaheen Jafargholi and Diversity, the dance act who won on the night.
As for her own status in the world of entertainment, Shaw jokes: “I don’t like the term celebrity these days. I’d much rather be known as a working actress/singer because I rarely do these showbiz events because I think I’m a rubbish celebrity when it comes to things like that.”
■ Vagina Monologues, Empire Theatre, Consett, Wednesday.
Tickets: £17.
Box Office: 01207-218-171
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