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9 September 2006 GORGEOUS actress Dawn Steele could be the new KT Tunstall according to her Tutti Frutti co-star. The Monarch of the Glen and Sea of Souls b eauty has b een learning the guitar for the stage version of the classic TV series. She will play Suzi Kettles, the role brought to life by Emma Thompson, while Tom Urie, best known for The Karen Dunbar Show, will play Danny McGlone, the part which made Robbie Coltrane famous. And Tom, 37, reckons Dawn, who took part in last year's singing show Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, is a musician in the making. Tom, who sang on Scots DJ Mylo's debut album, said: "Dawn's problem is she doesn't know how good she is. "She arrived on the first day only able to play two chords and now she is phenomenal. I think she will end up as a KT Tunstall-type. "I've said to her time and time again, 'mark my words Dawn you'll be making an album,' because she's picked it up so fast and she's playing everything live on stage. People are going to notice." However the 30-year-old, who played Lexie in Monarch, is less convinced and admits she's terrified. As Suzi in Tutti Frutti, she joins a Sixties band called The Majestics who are touring in the Eighties, although their lead singer Big Jazza has died. Jazza's brother Danny is drafted in to help and brings old art school friend Suzi to play guitar with the bickering band. Dawn said: "I've only been learning the guitar for four weeks and it's quite difficult. "The guitar is terrifying me. Help." Dawn is having lessons and has also been rehearsing for three hours a day with Tom and the rest of the band. They still have two weeks before the play opens in Aberdeen on September 21. It is being staged by the National Theatre of Scotland at His Majesty's and is adapted from the original script by John Byrne from his 1987 television series. And while Dawn has had experience singing on national television as part of Fame Academy, it hasn't prepared her for playing the guitar. She said: "I'm concentrating more on the guitar than the singing. "Although I said after Fame Academy that I'd never sing again, what I meant was on television. This is on stage and I'm playing with a band. "I will definitely continue to take lessons after the play but at the moment I'm just learning four or five songs from the show. "It's been good fun and it's a great skill to have, not that I'm really skilled in it as yet. "And I honestly wouldn't have been able to put this play on if Tom hadn't got the part." For Paisley-born Tom, playing Danny and Big Jazza in Tutti Frutti is his chance to show he's more than a support actor. He's best known for roles in Chewin' The Fat and The Karen Dunbar Show and in particular as the keyboard player in cheesy duo Almost Angelic, who turn pop songs into cabaret. And while Almost Angelic poke fun at that kind of music, Tom is an accomplished musician. He studied Rock Music at Perth College and has worked as a session musician with Mylo, singing on his tracks In My Arms and Valley Of The Dolls on his I debut album Destroy Rock I & Roll. And Tom reckons despite I being actors, I The Majestics band that have come together are good enough I to go on tour. He laughed and said: "I've already been thinking of I getting the band I and actually doing atour for real. It I would be great. "I love being the front man of a band J anyway, it gives me a f chance to show off I and stroke my ego." Tom admits he "pesttered to death" directorTony Cownie the part. He said: "How often does a role come along that calls for a big fat guy who can Sing and play the keyboards? It's the role my life. But I only found out about it after the National Theatre had finished auditions. "They hadn't heard of me and had two or three people in mind already. But I couldn't sit back and let it go by and I got my agent to call them everyday for three weeks and eventually Tony agreed to see me for10minutes in his office. I went in with my guitar and a couple of day later he called me back to audition with Dawn and I got the part." Of course in many ways that was the easy part of the deal. Now Tom has to make a role that is synonymous with Robbie Coltrane his own. Tom said: "It is daunting because when the TV series was on in the Eighties it was event television. "It was the same thing as happened with Chewin' The Fat, kids in the playground the next morning were all going, 'Oh my God, did you see Tutti Frutti?' "I loved Tutti Frutti when it came out, but I' don't want to watch it now. Robbie is a fantastic actor but I don't want to impersonate him. "It's like playing Basil Fawlty. The fear is the people will say 'well that's not Robbie Coltrane,' so that's why I've looked at it fresh point of view." There are rumours that Robbie, Emma and other members of the original television cast - Richard Wilson, who played the band's manager Eddie Clockerty, Katy Murphy, who played his nippy secretary Janis Toner, and Maurice Roeves, who played Vincent Diver - have been invited to the opening night. Tom gulped and said: "If Robbie's coming to see it I don't want them to tell me. That would be too much. But afterwards it would be great to meet him and see what he thought." Dawn feels the same way. She won't dye her long black hair for the role and will instead wear a wig - and she rekons much of the stage show will be different too. We normally hear of plays bring turned into television shows, but with Tutti Frutti the process is happening the other way round. was originally a six-part television show and its writer John Byrne has been working it for the stage. He's been at rehearsals every day twealking his script and while Dawn says it's slightly terrifying" having him around, she also knows the play, at around three hours-long, will have to be different from six hours of television. Sinngle girl Dawn, who lives in London, Said: "I only vaguely remember Tutti Frutti from the television. Of course I recall Emma and Robbie. I have watched a copy of it and it's just so Eighties. "Some of the costumes we've got are incredible. It won't be the prettiest we've ever looked though." Tutti Frutti is at HMT, Aberdeen, from September 21 for 10 nights until Sepember 30, before moving to The King's Theatre, Edinburgh, for six nights from October 3-7. Next year it will tour again, opening at The King's Theatre, Glasgow, on 12-21. For tickets for Aberdeen call 01224 6411 22 or online www.hmtaberdeen.com or for Edinburgh call 0131 529 6000 or online www.eft.co.uk I've said to her time and time again, "mark my words Dawn, you'll be making an album"' From here |