It’s been five years since Daniel Boys competed for the part as Joseph and since then, as he tells Steve Pratt, he’s been kept busy with his stage musical career

SEEING Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rollerskating musical Starlight Express had a profound effect of young Daniel Boys. “I remember my parents taking me to see it as a little boy and I’d never seen anything like it,” he recalls.

“I didn’t know what a musical was but fell in love with it and said I want to do that. I kept singing and bought soundtracks of musicals. I started going to open auditions for shows at 15 – all those professionals there and me a teenager with no experience.”

Top of his to-do list when he was younger was Les Miserables and he loves the show – “it’s stunning” – but wonders if it hasn’t become too much of a tourist attraction these days. That’s not to say, I suspect, he’d turn down the chance to be in it.

“I like creating characters and doing shows that have not been revived for many years,” he says. His latest venture, High Society, more of less falls into the latter category. The Cole Porter musical hasn’t exactly been ignored, and the film version with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly is no stranger to TV screens but this is a fresh tour with Michael Praed as the ex-husband who turns up to wealthy socialite Tracy Lord’s wedding and disrupts the proceedings.

The songs, in case you need reminding, include True Love, You’re Sensational and Did You Evah!

Boys, a would-be Technicolour-coated Joseph in the BBC’s Any Dream Will Do talent show, plays the role Frank Sinatra did in the movie – Mike Connor, reporter for a scandal magazine called Spy.

He didn’t go back to watch the film again to avoid being reminded of Sinatra’s performance and to allow himself to make the part more his own.

The performer knows a few journalists and says Connor is a nice journalist (yes, there is such a thing). “He doesn’t really want to be there, he wants to be a serious writer,” he explains.

He’s never had problems with journalists despite the massive scrutiny under which Any Dream Will Do put him. “It was a bit freaky,” he admits. “I had reporters knocking on the door and peering through the letterbox. My housemate loved it, of course. Once I was misquoted and got annoyed but nothing serious has happened to me.”

He’d never sung any of the High Society songs before but found it’s one of those shows where you’ve forgotten just how many of the songs you know. They’re familiar and catchy enough for him that if he catches sight of the audience he can almost see them singing along.

“The stage musical is slightly different to the movie. I think when they did that they gave all the songs to Frank Sinatra because of who he was. I don’t sing as many songs as he does in the film,” he says.

It’s five years since he competed to play the lead in a London revival of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. His hopes at the time was that the primetime Saturday show would provide a platform for him to get known in the business. It worked as he’s hardly stopped working since.

The Any Dream experience was “really surreal”, he says. “People don’t realise we were there for weeks before the programme started airing, living with each other and having constant rehearsals. It was really fun and really tiring at the same time, and slightly stressful because you wanted to do well each week. I have such fond memories of it.”

As a loser, he’s had almost as many opportunities as if he’d won and in addition he doesn’t have the Joseph label round his neck. He was offered the tour of that show last year but declined.

“As much as I’m proud being the show and loved it, it’s difficult to shift this label. I don’t want to be known for just one role.”

His work has included Avenue Q in London’s West End, Rent in the West End and on a European tour, Grease in Scandanavia, Japan and London Victoria Palace, a national tour of Sunset Boulevard and Sweeney Todd at the Royal Festival Hall.

Touring figures quite a lot and, as he moves around the country with High Society, he could not be happier. In a way touring is his favourite job because he gets paid to travel. Playing Grease in Japan was an odd experience. “They were silent the whole way through the show and at the end they went crazy. There were hundreds of people waiting at the stage door wanting pictures and autographs, like we were massive celebrities.”

Once he finishes in High Society in July, he plans on getting on with producing his second album for which he’s currently finding and writing songs. His debut album in 2009 was produced and financed by him. “I’m overwhelmed it’s been such a massive success.” he says.

“Any Dream Will Do have been shown all over the world and is still being shown. It’s bizarre when I get orders and post the album to America or South Africa. I keep getting emails for people who say they’ve seen it. I’ve even had orders from Russia.”

  • High Society: Newcastle Theatre Royal, March 26-30. Box office 0844-112121 and online theatreroyal.co.uk