The Cross-dressing, suggestive choreography and risqué song lyrics of the Rocky Horror Show might be a step too far for some. Not Diana Vickers.
“I like a challenge,” the Huncoat actress declares, speaking to us fresh off a flight from LA, where she spent three weeks on a working holiday.
This life is now normality for the 24-year-old star who was first thrust under the spotlight when she auditioned for the X Factor back in 2008. Her hippie style and striking falsetto voice caught the nation’s attention, and that attention hasn’t really wavered since.
And such attributes make her an ideal choice to play eccentric Janet Weiss.
Her major acting debut was in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice in 2009, and now she is taking on a musical featuring a transvestite scientist who has created a Frankenstein-style monster, which opened at the Manchester Opera House this week.
She said: “I knew I just had to get the part and Rocky Horror Show is just so different to any other musical – it’s extravagant, cheeky and fun.
“I mean, it’s not every day you are dealing with suspenders and nipple tassels in front of hundreds of people, is it?” she laughs, as she recalls her audition for the part five months previously,
“I didn’t just fall into acting after the X Factor. I have a style, but I’ve also had a lot of training.”
“I’ll be honest, I’m really, really nervous about playing Janet,” she admits, after insisting acting did not come completely naturally to her.
A huge fan of touring and travelling, Diana, who has tasted significant solo success with her self-penned music, is joined on this new touring version of Richard O’Brien’s bonkers show by former soap actor Ben Freeman, pop star Paul Cattermole and Coronation Street’s Charlie Condou.
“I love touring, it’s one of my absolute favourite things to do and as a cast we’ve had a right laugh so far.
“The audience really get into Rocky Horror Show and I just know the northern ones will be the most rowdy.”
“I have really northern friends and I find myself talking more northern when I’m around them.
“I spend loads of time back home but never enough,” she added.
Rocky Horror Show has some huge, iconic numbers - Time Warp, Damn-it, Janet, Creature of the Night, Sweet Transvestite to name a few - that can easily swallow up a petite-framed vocalist like Diana. But she’s not afraid to get stuck in and is convinced her experiences performing on the X Factor every Saturday night mean she and is more than capable of singing live as Janet.
The actress, who has also designed her own vintage clothing range, Dee V, said: “Being on a theatre stage is a different energy but I took the platform The X Factor gave me and went with it.
“Everyone has setbacks and I have auditioned for a lot of things I didn’t get, but theatre is just so magical I am so excited to have this chance to play Janet.”
Diana will be busy touring the country for the next seven months, but she already has her eye on her next major role.
“I would love to play Roxy in Chicago or one of the leads in Wicked. They would be my dream roles,” the star said.
The blonde siren is clearly keen to show her versatility further, but having already featured in farcical comedy The Duck House, completed an acclaimed turn in Little Voice and now stars in one of the wackiest shows out there, it would be fair to say she has already proven it.
