5 minutes with: Beverley Knight

From her stage debut in The Bodyguard to her barnstorming performance in the WhatsOnStage Award-winning Memphis, in just over two years Beverley Knight has become somewhat of a West End superstar.

As she opens for a strictly limited run in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, we caught up with her for a bit of a chinwag.

I had Memphis booked in long before I started on The Bodyguard. I thought I’d be all done and dusted after Memphis but I extended twice and ended up doing a year with that. Then I got offered Cats and it was something I couldn’t really say no to. It’s a surprise to still be working in theatre, maybe not in the traditional sense but you never know where life’s going to take you, and when opportunities pop up you’d be dumb to say ‘nah, you’re alright’.

There was nothing that was not brilliant about Memphis, which is why, for the love of god, I don’t understand why it’s closing. The audience finds these shows eventually, but it’s not quick enough for the people at the top that make the decisions. It all comes down to money, if the return is not swift – in any area of the arts – everybody gets cold feet. I’ve seen it over and over again in the music industry, talented people who are shelved because they didn’t get the hits immediately. It seems the same with musicals. Time and money is always the crucial thing, when those two things collide, that’s when you have a problem. You need a little faith, but these people can’t afford to have that faith.

I saw Andrew Lloyd Webber on the first day of rehearsals for Cats, but he’s been off working on School of Rock, which I really want to see, I love that film. But I have been working with Dame Gillian Lynne and Sir Trevor Nunn everyday, which is incredible, Dame Gillian is 89 and she’s still there saying: ‘I want you to do this… you’re leg must do that’. You’re looking at her like ‘you’re 89 and you have no chill’, it’s just incredible and Sir Trevor with his absolute eye for detail. It’s a whole new league of musical royalty and it’s wonderful.

I got the phone call from Andrew Lloyd Webber and he asked me if I’d do the role. It was not like I could say ‘well actually I have an album I’m supposed to be working on’ – which I do, and I have to get sorted – but that wasn’t an option, it was like ‘of course I’ll do it Lord Lloyd Webber’. Once I put the phone down I scratched my head and thought ‘did that actually happen?’ It’s one of the most iconic roles in musical theatre, "Memory" is one of the most recorded songs ever, I had to say yes. I’m loving it, I love being a cat!

We had two weeks to rehearse and tech, and during that time I was also doing Memphis, so I’m not lying when I say I’m absolutely knackered.

Cats is back for the third time in a year because it is just so loved. It’s that simple. There was a bloke there this weekend in full cat regalia, make up, the whole thing. They do face painting for the audience as you come in, I thought it would be for the kids, but the adults love it. People carry this from childhood to adulthood, everybody has different recollections of seeing it, they have a story about it. It’s so dear to people’s hearts that whenever there’s another production of it, people flock to it.

I don’t have a cat myself, but there was a lot of movement taught to us to ensure that we were thinking and moving in that feline way. It’s amazing how you get into it, I do it without thinking now, it’s like an instinct.

Cats runs at the London Palladium until 2 January 2016.