David Behrens discovers how former Bros star Luke Goss is finding life on the musical stage in Grease.

There are, says Luke Goss, some aspects to the entertainment industry which no-one would ever consider cool.

He says this without a hint of irony, so to make a connection with his own former life would be churlish. Goss is a musical star now - he's headlining Grease at the Alhambra from Tuesday - and it's to the world of high-kicking, costumed spectaculars that he confines his discussion.

"Joseph," he says, perhaps ungraciously, of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's classic, "is not quite cool enough today.

"A fantastic show - but it wouldn't appeal to me. I feel a bit odd even watching it."

The rise and fall of Bros, the teen sensation which flickered as fitfully as a faulty fluorescent bulb towards the end of the 1980s, is a matter of old history to Goss now - relevant only in so far as it affects his current performance.

"Often, my history is an obstacle to me," he says, "But Grease is one of those shows where it actually enhances my work. It seems to help the whole chemistry of the character."

He discusses his motivation for Danny Zuko as an actor would discuss Richard III with his director. "I think this is really an ensemble piece, you know."

The definitive performance as Zuko, he acknowledges, was that of John Travolta in the 20 year-old movie. "When someone gets something so obviously bloody right, you can't help but look to that.

"And the fact that Travolta is cool again gives Grease extra credibility. It's about that place we've all been to - immaturity and first dates and trying to have sex. Pubescent situations that any generation can relate to and laugh at."

Goss's current tour is a mammoth undertaking. A run in the West End was the prelude to a series of mini-residencies up and down the country - the company is spending four weeks in Bradford alone - which will take him right up to next Christmas.

"The reaction been incredible," he says. "Doing eight shows a week is exhausting, but it's much more rewarding to work in the provinces because the audiences are so alive."

A post-Christmas run in Oxford afforded Goss the opportunity to discuss his life to date with some particularly sceptical members of the University Union.

"The arrangement was that they could ask me anything they wanted: Bros, the money, my love life. They weren't going to give me an easy ride but I was prepared for it. My vocabulary was switched on and my mind was switched on - and in the end they were slightly daunted by me. If they were going to give me a hard time, they backed off.

"The asked me the price of my house. I told them that that wasn't in the interests of academic progression - very politely, of course."

Goss's past has also occupied the thoughts, at least in passing, of his co-star, Alison Carter.

She was a pop-worshipping teenager at just the time Luke and his brother was wondering on Top of the Pops when they would be famous. "But I wasn't a Brosette," she says. ". I was 15 or 16, and I was going through a phase of being too cool to be a fan of just one pop group.

"I preferred Duran Duran and Adam Ant. But I remember seeing Luke on Saturday Superstore many years ago. Funny, how life works."

Alison, whose first starring musical role this is, is a stranger to Bradford but not to Yorkshire.

"I was in Scarborough for quite a while, in the Black and White Minstrel Show. It's still very popular in the summer with coach parties. Let's just say, it's less offensive in Scarborough than it would be in Brixton."

She had further experience of the arcane world of theatrical blackface when she understudied the female lead in the West End production of Jolson.

"At the end of the day, " she says, "it's work. And I didn't actually have to black up myself."

Grease opens at the Alhambra on Tuesday night, with Monday-Saturday performances until March 21, and matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

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