No regrets

4:55pm Thursday 18th October 2007

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Michael Quinn talks to Steve Pratt about having no regrets as a TV Grease also-ran as he takes Dirty Dancing on tour to York

WINNING isn't everything. Ask Michael Quinn, one of the finalists in ITV1's talent show Grease Is The Word.

He made the final eight of the series to find a new Danny and Sandy for a London West End revival of the musical Grease.

"I had an amazing time and will never regret it, " he says "It was a brilliant experience and I learnt so much. It was almost like a showcase for me, performing in front of millions of people."

He'd already starred in a West End musical, Jailhouse Rock, before auditioning for the TV show and isn't exactly short of work at the moment, so the experience and exposure more than the winning was what mattered.

Quinn is currently touring in The Music Of Dirty Dancing, a concert version of the 1987 film, which visits York's Grand Opera House on Tuesday, featuring an eight-piece band and company of dancers. He and Cats star Laura Brydon head the cast of the production which features the songs from the film that's now also been turned into a stage show.

"We're having a really good time, " reports Quinn. "It's a concert version with all the songs. Dirty Dancing is one of my favourite movies. I always danced as a kid and then I saw Patrick Swayze in the film. Then I found out he's got a good voice too.

"I have a friend who's in the musical Dirty Dancing in the West End, so I'd see that. Our show is nothing like the musical. It's like going to a concert but you're in a theatre with a band and eight amazing dancers and this knockout girl Laura. She's a superstar in the making. She looks like Reese Witherspoon and sings like Lulu".

Quinn's other credits include two years touring as Gaston in the national tour of Beauty And The Beast, playing the Pharaoh in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Cinderella's Prince in Sondheim's Into The Woods.

HE also has a number of pantomime appearances on his CV and this Christmas joins Bradley Walsh as the title role in Aladdin in Milton Keynes.

He trained professionally at Laine Theatre Arts, starting out acting, and recalls the first thing he did was the Battle of Agincourt speech from Shakespeare's Henry V. Musicals came later.

Going into reality television could have been considered a risk for someone who was already working steadily. He can blame his appearance on comedy duo The Krankies. Jeanette Krankie in particular. "She said to me, 'go in for a laugh' and I did, " he says.

"I'd already done a couple of West End shows and performed in a casino in Las Vegas. But I wasn't doing anything at that moment and got to the final eight boys."

Since then he's filmed an episode of BBC1's Hotel Babylon as well as embarking on The Music Of Dirty Dancing tour. "I'm not going to deny I would have loved to win Grease Is The Word, but I'd have been irrevocably cast as Danny Zuko, " he says.

HIS musical influences are more Rat Pack than Grease. He says he was obsessed with Rat Packer Sammy Davis Jr and is a big fan of Elvis, having watched all his movies. But he points out that he wasn't playing Presley in the stage musical Jailhouse Rock but the character the performer played in the film of that name.

Quinn doesn't want to be typecast.

He likes to show off his versatility and not do the same sort of thing all the time. His dream role, he says, would be Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago.

He has ambitions to get back into acting, saying he'd love to do a show like BBC1's Holby City. "I'd love to get some weird character who doesn't sing, " he says.

The Music Of Dirty Dancing: York Grand Opera House, Tuesday. Box office: 0870-6063595 or go online at www.GrandOperaHouseYork. org. uk