Former Grease Is The Word winner Susan McFadden has swapped the halls of Rydell High for a backwoods cottage in her new role as Milly Pontipee in Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.

“It was such a good contrast from Sandy in Grease,” says McFadden, as she prepares for a matinee performance of the musical.

“I had done the TV thing with Grease Is The Word, so I was worried about getting typecast. It was important to me to move on and do something new.

“Milly is a much more mature character. She has a lot more responsibility than Sandy who was just a 17-year-old schoolgirl.”

Milly is the new bride of rough and tumble hillbilly Adam, who she marries in a whirlwind romance.

She is in for a shock though when she arrives at her marital home, and discovers she is expected to care for Adam’s six brothers as well as her husband.

So she cooks up a plot to get them off her hands, trying to turn the macho hunks into refined gentlemen to win themselves wives.

The musical, which is based on the 1954 MGM film, is set in the much less-enlightened 1850s, when the idea of not only loving but also honouring and obeying your husband was regarded as a wife’s duty.

But for McFadden the dated ideas and language are all part of the fun.

“This musical is so past its time it is comical,” she says. “You would never use some of the language nowadays, especially the language towards women. But a lot of the comedy comes from the way it is written.

“The plot could be seen as quite sinister but it is all innocent and light-hearted. It is a simpler time, which is nice to see in this day and age.”

The musical was voted the third most popular of all time by BBC Radio 2 listeners in a 2005 poll, beaten to the top by Les Miserables and The Phantom Of The Opera.

McFadden puts this down to simply “great songs”, which include the feminist-baiting A Woman Ought To Know Her Place and Bless Your Beautiful Hide, and the dance routines.

The film is remembered for its impressive set dance pieces, utilising the tools of the woodsman and based around wood-cutting, and the famous raising the barn scene.

This stage version, which was first developed on Broadway in the early 1980s, recreates most of those famous scenes live.

For McFadden the added attraction of signing up for the touring version of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers was the chance to travel the country.

“It is great to be in a different place every week,” she says. “Because I’m Irish I never got to go around the whole of England and see all the towns and cities.

“Grease Is The Word seems so long ago now. I have been through so much. The year in the West End flew by.

“I’m grateful for the doors it has opened for me. I was a struggling actress before. I haven’t had much time to reflect, but I’m praying this continues.”

  • 7.45pm, 2.30pm matinees Thurs and Sat, tickets from £20, call 08700 606650