GARETH Gates had such a blast in his first comedy performance last year, he is reprising the role on the 2017 international tour of Footloose, The Musical, playing York from Tuesday.

"We toured for the whole of last year, when 160,000 people saw the show," says the 32-year-old Bradford actor and singer. "They asked me to do it again, and I'd enjoyed it so much, I thought, 'let's have another crack at it'.

Gareth is not appearing in the tour's opening week at the New Wimbledon Theatre this week, so York will mark his return to playing Willard in a musical based on the 1984 film that starred Kevin Bacon and featured such songs as Holding Out For A Hero, Almost Paradise, Let's Hear It For The Boy and Footloose.

Footloose tells the story of American city boy Ren McCormack (played by Joshua Dowen), who has to move to a rural backwater, where dancing is banned. All hell breaks out as Ren cuts loose and soon has the whole town up on its feet.

"I play the show's comedy role, which is something I'd never done before, and I'm really enjoying it," says Gareth, who rose to fame in the inaugural series of the pop talent show Pop Idol in 2001, since when he has appeared in such musicals as Les Misérables, Legally Blonde and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

York Press:

Gareth Gates: "I'd enjoyed Footloose so much, I thought, 'let's have another crack at it'," he says 

"To be playing a comedy role is a great opportunity for me. I had a meeting with the producers, who said they were thinking of taking the show on the road and they weren't sure which part I should do, so I read the script and thought, 'how about the comedy role?'. We were all apprehensive at first but it worked out really well, so that's why they asked me back."

The chance to be funny on stage had eluded Gareth until Footloose. "It's something I've struggled with in life, because of my speech impediment: I was always desperate in a pub or a social situation to get a laugh, just like anyone else, but it was always tricky, but as soon as I'm on stage and I learn the script and play a character, the stammer has never been a problem; it just goes. So to get laughs on stage is a great sense of relief for me."

As last year's box office figures would indicate, Footloose is as popular as ever, but what makes it such a rip-roaring good show, Gareth? "The director [Racky Plews] has tried to keep it as close to the film as possible, so fans of the film who've come to the show have been very pleased with what they've seen," he says. "It has that big Eighties feel to it, which is important too, and the whole show has a feelgood atmosphere, based around the story of this guy who comes into a town he's not familiar with, where the people don't believe in what he believes in but he sets out to change their opinion and be accepted by them."

Amid the well-known Eighties hits, Gareth sings a number new to the stage musical. "I get to do a song called Mama Says as the character I play is very close to his mum, so he sings about what she's taught him over the years, and it turns out she's a bit of a crazy lady!" he says. "It's the comedic song in the show."

Look out in particular for Gareth's big moment: Let's Hear It For The Boy. "That song is all about my character, who's a cowboy who can't dance and has to learn to dance," he says. "It's great fun!"

Footloose, The Musical runs at Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york