KELLY BUCKLEY catches up with the delightfully chatty Brian Conley as he is walking through the stage door of some theatre or another, where he is two weeks into the tour of Barnum.

It’s coming to our sunny shores from Tuesday, September 30, until Saturday, October 4, at the Cliffs Pavilion, Westcliff, and stars Brian, who plays the real-life Phineas Taylor Barnum, “America’s Greatest Showman”, alongside Linzi Hateley, who plays his wife Chairy.

“I’ve always wanted to play alongside Linzi,” says Brian between asking someone for the keys, (I assume to his dressing room), “I’m a great admirer of her as a performer and she’s the best kisser in the business.”

The story, as youmay have guessed with Brian in it, is told in a musical format. It follows the irrepressible imagination and dreams of P T Barnum, and his life and marriage to Chairy.

It reveals a couple who looked at the world from opposite sides of the spectrum, and also reveals she was the practical one who made Barnum’s dreams come true.

The production follows the legendary showman’s life as he lit up the world with the colour, warmth and excitement of his imagination and finally teamed up with J A Bailey to create Barnum and Bailey’s Circus – the Greatest Show on Earth.

“It’s going really well,” said Brian.

“You only have to look at Twitter and our responses. We’ve had a standing ovation every single night.

“It’s a lovely show, a real people show, with a wonderful story.

“We started working on it a year ago, and adapted certain aspects from the original version, just to give it a bit more weight. Barnum ended up having an affair and then was desperate to get back to his wife – a wonderful part of the story – and we wanted to give more weight to that.”

Brian added: “What is clear, is Sir Cameron [Sir Cameron Mackintosh is presenting the show with Michael Harrison] doesn’t need to do this for the money, so he puts on something that reallymatters to him and everything has to be absolutely right.”

Part of this are the costumes, which Sir Cameron is said to insist are as accurate as possible. “My costume cost £10,000,” explained Brian.

Phineas Taylor Barnum was remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Although Barnum was also an author, publisher, philanthropist, and for some time a politician, he said of himself: “I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me”. His personal aims were “to put money in his own coffers”.

“The circus part came about later,” explained Brian, who has now researched the life of Barnum in minute detail. “He made his money first of all by doing the weird freak shows – you know, having the bearded lady, the fat lady.

“He also introduced his first major hoax – a creature with the head of a monkey and the tail of a fish, known as the Feejee Mermaid. He had put out this wonderful picture of a topless mermaid and people thought ‘this is alright’, but went in and discovered differently.

“But it was OK, he made it OK, because he just tweaked things in the right way and insisted he wasn’t duping the public. He was the king of advertising and the way advertising is done today is really all down to him.”

Brian obviously gives his roles 100 per cent. He told me he ended up becoming an expert on Al Jolson when he played that role, and in this one, has had to go so far as to learn to walk a tightrope – he has been training for this since Christmas with the Camden Circus Academy.

“Oh yeah,” he said, “you can’t just wander in thinking you’ve got five weeks of rehearsal and that is that.

Like anything, it’s a huge, daunting prospect, and when I was asked to do this, I did think ‘oh God, am I able to do it?’ “I mean I’m no spring chicken and I’ve got to walk on stilts, do acrobatics, and I’m on stage the whole time. I even get changed on stage.”

I asked if Brian had changed at all physically since starting the role.

“Yes, well my wife says so,” he replied. “She said I’ve now got muscles in my legs. Doing the tightrope walking, you use muscles you’d not normally use, and in your feet, because you are walking in the middle of your foot, not the outer parts. When it hurts you know you’ve got the right spot.

“And I’ve been bruised, I’ve fallen off and sprained my foot, had a nasty bang on the head, broken my finger... I’m still having to wear a support onmy foot. But it’s a great part of the show. He walks the tightrope when he is considering going into this affair you see, with the girl on the other side, so it’s a great bit of drama.”

At 53, Brian is grateful to have been in the business professionally since the age of 12, and insists he doesn’t tend to make plans these days, just sees “where it goes next”.

“I’ve never done a proper day’s work in my life,” he said. “I’ve survived. My dad was a London cabbie and he helped me through my twenties and gradually things started happening.

“It’s funny because my dad used to laugh at my long skinny wrists, and now I’m doing this. I’ve got two small muscles appearing in my arm. The most excercise I was doing before this showwas walking the dog.

“I’m on this tour for a year and a half and then we’d love it to go to London. We will see.”

He added: “It really is a great show, with circus acts and audience interaction for the first 20 minutes, so they really feel they are part of the show.

“I really wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it was a great show to be in.

“There is loads of comedy, a great story, and it’s a great musical.”

  • Barnum is at the Cliffs Pavilion, Station Road, Westcliff, from Tuesday, September 30, until Saturday, October 4. Tickets, priced £26.50 to £40.50, are available from southendtheatres.org.uk