Grease, Grand Opera House, York, January 14 to 19

Next week, Craig is at the Grand Opera House in York, midway through a year-long run in the national tour of this ever-popular show.

"I came into the show last August and I'll be on the tour until August - and I've been talking about doing it in the West End. They've asked me about doing it and I'd be delighted," he says.

Now 31, Craig already has West End credits on his CV, playing the title role of Buddy Holly in Buddy, and he has starred alongside Robert Mitchum and Bo Derek in the film Woman Of Desire and performed with Sir Cliff Richard at the London Palladium, but the leather-clad role of Danny Zuko has provided him with his most memorable performance of all.

"I'd been doing Buddy in Singapore when I nipped back to South Africa and heard about this outdoor stage version of Grease that David Gilmore was directing. He'd done the original Grease production with Craig McLachlan, and he knew of me because we'd worked together on the Happy Days musical.

"He was asking around where I was and was told that I was back in the country."

Lucky for Craig. He ended up playing to 25,000 people the first night, and 30,000 the next - and that night David Gilmore offered him the British tour too.

"From my point of view, doing Grease outdoors in a stadium was my most exhilarating stage experience: being up there, being that loud, in such a huge space in front of all those people," says Craig. "The cameras are on you all the time and everything you do, big or small, can be seen on the screens, so you have to keep it simple with no superfluous movements - but you also have to keep it real as the audience see every move."

Enjoyable as that experience was, he prefers performing Grease indoors. "I believe the truest way to do it is in the theatre," he says.

Craig also believes that there is no point in trying to compete with the most famous Danny Zuko performance of them all: John Travolta in the 1978 film.

"Danny is John Travolta's role. I know I'm playing a role that's been immortalised by someone else, so I don't fight it. That's what people have come to see; I know that," he says. "If I feel I'm being too much like Craig, then I'm not happy with it. if I do something like John Travolta does it and I feel like him, then I think I'm doing it right."

That philosophy applied equally to his performance as the Fonz in the first stage production of Happy Days, the musical. On that occasion there was the added pressure of performing under the direction of the Fonz himself, Henry Winkler, star of the long-running television series.

Craig recalls Winkler treating Happy Days as his precious baby but says: "He was a very giving director and it was a wonderful experience working with him. I enjoyed it most when he was out there watching the show, saying what he thought of it."

Craig's career has been dominated by musicals yet he did not plan it that way. "When I went to university it was not as a musical performer. I studied straight acting and comedy but I didn't study any singing at all," he says. "But then, after doing Strindberg and Shakespeare, I got offered The Rocky Horror Show. So there I was in gold lam and bleached hair, and it was fantastic but it wasn't what I'd predicted for myself.

"However, it's gone on from there, I've got sucked into it, not unwillingly, and I've found myself doing this for 11 years now!"

With his talents in demand for such roles as Danny Zuko, Craig's wish to do more television work will have to remain on the back burner.

Grease, Grand Opera House, York, January 14 to 19. Performances: Monday to Thursday at 8pm; Friday, 5.30pm and 8.45pm, Saturday, 5pm and 8.30pm. Tickets: £10 to £26; ring 01904 671818.

Updated: 08:57 Friday, January 11, 2002