"I have the skin-tight black trousers," says Hayley Evetts.

"I only have a minute to get into them and its quite a shoe-horning job. There's four people who do the wigs and shoes, and one lady whose job is to help me put on my trousers - they are the priority."

When this former Pop Stars and Pop Idol favourite was growing up in Birmingham, she used to work in her mum's fancy dress shop "renting out Pink Lady costumes". And when she was five, she would watch Olivia Newton-John perform Summer Nights on Top Of The Pops, later falling asleep on her first trip to the cinema because she thought the ballad marked the end of the movie.

So Evetts is, inevitably, excited to be playing Sandy in the stage musical of Grease, a role she first took up in 2003 and returned to in July.

"It sounds sad but, although I'm in the show, I can happily go home of a night and watch the DVD," she laughs. "I will never be sick of Grease."

Voted into the number one spot by viewers of Channel 4's 100 Greatest Musicals, this technicolour slice of Fifties' Americana premiered on Broadway six years before the John Travolta and Newton-John movie.

"A lot of people think the stage show is going to be exactly like the film but it's not," says Evetts. "Although there are similarities in our performances.

Paul Manuel, who plays Danny, has got the John Travolta laugh down really well and he's there blow-drying his quiff every night."

As to Evetts' performance, if you're wondering whether she can match Newton-John's entrance for You're The One That I Want, you might recall that she is probably the only Pop Idol contestant ever to have received the compliment "sexy" from Simon Cowell.

"I was standing there on stage after I'd done Old Devil Called Love just thinking, 'come on, Simon, throw it at me', and he just came out with 'you are so sexy,'" she laughs. "It was a bit 'eurgh'. But at least he didn't slate me."

Starts at 7.30pm Mon-Thurs, 5.30pm and 8.30pm on Fridays, 5pm and 8.30pm on Saturdays. Tickets cost £15 - £26.50, call 01323 412000.