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Swayze is a nervous Guy
By This is London Last updated at 00:00am on 06.06.06
Patrick Swayze gets an eyeful of his Guys And Dolls co-star Claire Sweeney.
Hollywood heart-throb Patrick Swayze met his leading lady, Claire Sweeney, after signing up to star in the musical Guys And Dolls.
Swayze is to make his West End debut this summer as gambling man Nathan Detroit, while Sweeney will play his fiancee, Miss Adelaide.
The star of Ghost and Dirty Dancing said there was an instant chemistry between them.
"Immediately I looked in her eyes I thought 'This is going to be good'," he said.
Swayze admitted he was nervous about facing British critics. "There's a little fear factor involved," he said.
"I gather the critics come on the first night you're on so it's kind of like being shot out of a cannon.
"I've only got three weeks of rehearsal and, needless to say, I wish I had more. It's intimidating and exciting."
He said of Guys And Dolls: "I think this is one of the best scores and best books ever written for musical theatre.
"I saw the show last night and the sense of pace, the energy, the rhythm and the song that happens on stage was so contagious."
Swayze will appear at the Piccadilly Theatre from July 10 for an initial eight-week run.
The stage musical of Dirty Dancing, the Eighties film which shot Swayze to fame, opens in the West End at around the same time - and Swayze predicts it will be a hit.
He said: "It's definitely going crazy everywhere it's opened. It's like the movie that would not die. It keeps going.
"I still have blue-haired old ladies come up and pinch me on the rear then run back to their friends and say 'I did it, Martha, I did it!'
"When something works, it's really about the heart. It's about this funky little Jewish girl who gets a guy because of the beauty she has inside. It's one of those moments that really works."
Swayze began his career in musical theatre and has appeared as Billy Flynn in the Broadway production of Chicago.
He will move to London for the duration of the production with his actress wife, Lisa Niemi.
"We both love London and this is our first chance to get to act like locals and be here for a while," he said.
Sweeney is best known for her role as Lindsey Corkhill in Brookside and more recently played Roxy Hart in Chicago.
She said: "I met Patrick for the first time last night and we can't wait to get on stage.
"I feel really proud because of this show. There are not many roles that I have desperately wanted to play but when I got the part of Adelaide I was thrilled."
