Fabulous start to Lucy's professional career as Footloose heads to Brighton and Southampton

After a hugely successful three weeks in Zurich, the show is now on the road in the UK heading to venues including Theatre Royal Brighton from February 21-26 and Mayflower Theatre, Southampton from May 3-7.

Lucy graduated from Mountview – and is thrilled to be making her professional debut on such a big show.

It’s reward for all the difficulties and frustrations of completing her degree during a pandemic.

“It was a really tricky time. We did the whole of the second year on Zoom. I had like a little set-up in my home and just performed in front of that. It was quite an interesting time! But we did do a show on Zoom and it was really good fun. It was called Tales Of The Unexpected and it was written by the director that we had. It was a really creative show. We all pulled together to create the piece which then just went out on Zoom.

“We did half of it live and half of it pre-recorded. We did a couple of songs live and somehow it worked really well. Some of it didn’t work but some of it really did and obviously when you’ve got people watching on Zoom you realise that there are different challenges. But it was just great to be performing. We did it for other students at Mountview who were watching online.”

And the third year wasn’t much better: “It was really challenging too. In the third year we devised a show about the history of London and we wrote most of the songs and most of the speeches and that was postponed for seven or eight months. We were rehearsing in our own rooms on Zoom but we managed to get there in the end.

“But my final show was cancelled. We were one week away from teching the show but the lead role got Covid and we were not able to do it. We were supposed to be assessed and they just did an emergency assessment, just trying to assess us on the process rather than the performance. The whole thing was just about trying to keep positive.

“What was really difficult was that Mountview were trying to prepare us for an industry but we had no idea how that industry would be affected. It felt like we knew what the industry was supposed to be like and what it had been like but coming out we didn’t really know what it was going to be like. And I never ever had a live audience in the third year.

“I found that in a really weird way I didn’t have an understanding of whether what I was doing was right. I had all those typical actor’s doubts running through my head but in a way. The good thing was that everybody was in the same boat and we were all trying to rally each other.”

But now Lucy can put it all behind her with Footloose: “I am so grateful and so excited to be doing this. I couldn’t believe it. I knew all the songs. I grew up listening to 80s music with my parents and I absolutely knew the songs. I was actually supposed to be directing Footloose with my local Stagecoach and it was literally supposed to be now. I had to tell my boss that I couldn’t do it because I had got the job on the tour. I just couldn’t believe it. I found out and I sat there in silence for five minutes before I told anyone!”

She’s playing Ariel: “And I think the key to Ariel is that I think there are a lot of similarities to myself. She is so passionate and has such energy for life. She has had troubles in her life. Her brother died in a really tragic accident. She struggles to find a relationship with her dad but the key thing is her energy and her passion. She never lets anything hold her back. She just keeps driving forward with what she believes in. It is just such a great way to be and it feels especially important after the two years that we have all had, that idea of just keeping pushing forward and doing what you believe in.”

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