With singers – John Graham-Hall, currently appearing at The Met in New York, and Merseyside soprano Helen Williams – for parents, surely it was a no brainer that Katie Hall would go into the ‘family business’?
“I think I was actually the black sheep of the family, because I don’t do opera,” giggles the 23-year-old.
“Maybe I will one day, but not for a long time. Musical theatre is the thing I’ve always been passionate about, so I’m going to stick here for now.”
Well, you would, wouldn’t you, if your first three professional roles had turned out to be Cosette (in Les Mis in the West End and on tour), Phantom’s Christine, and now Maria in the revival of West Side Story.
And black sheep is an apt description of the young Puerto Rican girl who falls for a boy from another background and a rival gang – something that would make her an outcast among her own people if her secret love was discovered.
West Side Story, based loosely on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, may be more than 50-years-old now, but its themes – of love, hate, broken home lives, gang culture and what choreographer Jerome Robbins described as ‘the futility of intolerance’ – remain as pertinent in 2013 as they were in 1957.
“I’m just realising what a brilliant piece of work it is,” enthuses Katie in a break from rehearsals with director/choreographer Joe McKneely, himself a former assistant to Robbins.
“It’s one of my favourites – Leonard Bernstein was an absolute genius.
“It just seems to me to be the most brilliant pairing of all three disciplines that you will ever see in a show.”
She adds: “I remember the first scene we worked on was the meeting scene with Tony in the gym.
“And there’s not really a lot of it, it’s just a couple of words, but it’s just so brilliantly crafted.
“I was getting butterflies doing the scene. I’m absolutely falling in love with the part, I’m so excited to play it.”
The singer isn’t a complete stranger to the role, having performed several of Maria’s songs at school and she recently saw a new production of the show by the National Youth Musical Theatre, of which she is an alumnus.
“My boyfriend was the musical director,” she reveals. “It’s all fate!
“That was very different, in Manchester in a warehouse, and it was new choreography. It was a brilliant production. And it was also brilliant having 16-year-olds actually playing 16-year-olds.”
The new UK tour opens in Liverpool in a fortnight, and it will be Katie’s second appearance at the Empire in six months after Phantom of the Opera earlier this year.
“Liverpool is actually the venue where I found out I’d got the part of Maria,” she smiles.
“And it’s the place my mum grew up, and my grandparents lived most of their lives in Wirral.”
She’s practically a Scouser.
“I’ll embrace my inner Scouse,” she laughs. “I’ll get a Scouse brow! I’ve got to have something. I’m supposed to be Puerto Rican and I’ve got blonde hair and pale skin!”
It’s true the make-up department might be kept busy toning down her English rose looks.
But for Katie, there was never any question about not doing the role, despite it taking her away from home for several months on tour.
“It’s lovely to go off and see different parts of the world, and there are cities I love visiting like Liverpool, and Edinburgh as well,” she says.
“Obviously I miss home. But there was no way I was going to say no to playing Maria in West Side Story!”
West Side Story is at the Liverpool Empire from September 24-28. Call 0844 847 2525 or visit www.liverpoolempire.org.uk.
