Zoe Birkett returns to The Bodyguard at The Hawth in Crawley

The last time she was Rachel Marron she wasn’t married, she wasn’t a mum. Plus of course she has grown hugely as a performer in the years since then . She’s now a very different vocalist, a very different person. The result will be a very, very different performance.

Zoe did 14 months in the show last time round. She returns to it this time after an intense two-week rehearsal, and she will be on the road with the show to some of her favourite places in July and August – and then in September makes her debut at The National in The Witches.

“I have always been a huge Whitney Houston fan all my life and I just jumped at the chance to do The Bodyguard the last time but I've now been in the West End for the last 15 years. I've just had a crazy couple of years. I've just finished The Great British Bake Off Musical and also did Moulin Rouge last year and now I'm going into The Witches in September. I had this gap this summer and The Bodyguard just asked whether Zoe was around at all and whether I would like to reprise the role.”

The answer was a very definite yes: “I'm a very different actress now and a very different vocalist to the last time I did it. And I’m married now and now I’m a mother. The first time I did The Bodyguard was the first year of my relationship with my husband and we were just figuring out each other’s lives. The first year was him understanding what my job involved. We got married and we walked down the aisle to Whitney Houston and my daughter is now six so so much has changed.

“But of course, it's also great to go back to such a challenging role. You have got to do Whitney Houston's back catalogue and she really isn't exactly the easiest vocalist out there. She's such a powerhouse. She has been my idol my whole life but that's just one aspect to the performance. You've also actually got to play Rachel Marron, and I'm not going to play her as a Whitney Houston tribute. But the point is I do have a very powerful voice too and when I did it first time round that's what a lot of Whitney Houston fans loved about the show. But it's actually also really demanding a role as an actress. You do go on a very big journey. She is a very, very strong and very feisty character. When I think about the part, part of me is thinking of someone like Beyoncé. She is no fool at all. She has worked all her life and she's not going to let anybody turn her life upside down.”

Which is of course what happens when she gets a bodyguard foisted on her for reasons no one is yet telling her: “They keep her away from the fact that she has a stalker until halfway through the show. She's just got this new security man and she is just thinking ‘Who is this guy?’ But she is a mother and she is very selective about the people that she has around her and when she becomes aware of the severity of the stalker then she is saying she will let Frank get on with his job.”