IT took Kate Bush over 30 years to return to the stage, from her 1979 Tour of Life to her 2014 Hammersmith Apollo residency, Before The Dawn.

Her loyal army of fans are remarkably patient. In An Evening Without Kate Bush, a tribute show with a difference, performer Sarah-Louise Young, explores the music and mythology of one of the most influential voices in British music, but also celebrates the fans.

“I’ve always loved Kate Bush’s music,” says Sarah-Louise. “As a child of the 70s I remember that first appearance on Top Of The Pops and those amazing videos and songs. Kate is a true icon: her music is unique, spanning nearly five decades, selling millions of records, but the woman herself is something of an enigma. Her fans created their own community, ‘The Fish People’. They are at the heart of An Evening Without Kate Bush. We wanted to celebrate them through her music.”

It can’t be easy, capturing that vocal range and dance movement. “It’s definitely a vocally athletic workout! With the movement I spent a day working with the amazing Tom Jackson Greaves, a director and choreographer. We watched a lot of her videos. Quite by accident, nicknames we came up with for her moves, The Pulse, the Champagne Whipcrack, for example, found their way into the show. That’s often how it happens with devised work. With the costumes, my brilliant co-creator, Russell Lucas and I tried to evoke her, not copy her. She uses a lot of nature and bird imagery, hence the feathery headdress. The cleaner’s outfit for This Woman’s Work is as much a nod to the cleaner’s story we mention at the start of the show as it is to her TV special where Kate sang Army Dreamers dressed as a cleaner. That’s one for the super-fans.

“We did of course watch a lot of footage, videos, everything we could find, to get to know her journey as an artist. Her early interviews are so uncomfortable. She’s often being asked banal or overtly sexualised questions.

“She’s so polite but it’s great to see her later in her career take the reins and shut down lines of enquiry which show interviewers have no idea what they’re talking about.”

Do you have to be a super-fan to enjoy this show? “Absolutely not. Of course if you are a super-fan you’ll hear lots of the songs you know and love, plus some hidden gems for those in-the-know. But none of that is at the expense of audience members who have perhaps come along with a fan friend or just out of curiosity. When someone tells me after the show that they didn’t know her work but are going home to listen to her music, then I am thrilled.”

The show is partly interactive - how does that work? “I’ve been working in cabaret for over 20 years and my primary aim is that the audience have a good time. It’s great to be challenged but I want them to feel safe.

“I’m always careful to choose people who want to participate. If someone doesn’t want to play, their body language communicates that. So far I’ve never chosen anyone who didn’t want to be asked. There’s a lovely moment where I invite a couple to dance together. During our Edinburgh Fringe run we had a mum and her son come and dance which reduced the whole room to tears and in London, a couple who’d recently broken up but wanted to stay friends joined us on stage.

“There’s always so much love in the room.”

It was important to Sarah-Louise to create a show that Kate would approve of: “It’s been created with love, respect and a hefty dose of joyful eccentricity!”

There’s love for the fans too: “People have shared incredible, personal stories: there’s a man who proposed to his wife to The Kick Inside and a lad who found courage to come out to his parents after listening to Wow. We’ve heard from fans who went to every single Tour Of Life date and have tattoos of her lyrics on their arms. We call it a ‘chaotic cabaret cult’. It’s playful, anarchic, touching, full of music and laughter. I love hearing people’s stories, I come to the foyer afterwards to chat to anyone who wants to stay and talk.”

How difficult was it to choose songs for the show? “It was a massive challenge as there are so many across a huge time span. The Kick Inside and Hounds Of Love are a lot of people’s favourites and first experience of her work. We take well-known songs like This Woman’s Work and Cloudbusting and give them a twist. If you speak Russian, you might enjoy joining in with my version of Babooshka!

“Her fans have travelled with her as she’s evolved. And she influenced so many other artists. She never shied away from writing about the largeness of life, epic themes; the loneliness of love, the wonder of creation, the sensuality of being human. She’s one of us and yet totally Other.”

* An Evening Without Kate Bush is at The Studio, Bradford, on Wednesday, March 2. Call (01274) 432000 or visit bradford-theatres.co.uk