Ruthie Henshall is raising the curtain on her life, as she tells Tim Hughes

Ruthie Henshall has lived her life through the public eye. A star of some of the biggest shows in the West End and Broadway, this suburban girl made good has rubbed shoulders with theatrical icons and royalty while her stories from the sets of Chicago, Cats and Les Misérables are of the stuff of legend.

So it was only natural that when the time came for her to share her experiences, she do so before a live theatre audience.

Her one-woman show sees the celeb interspersing anecdotes and memories of a life in musical theatre with performances of the hits which made her career. And, for an actor who thinks nothing of standing before thousands on stage at the London Palladium, Royal Albert Hall or the Big Apple’s Ambassador Theater, her appropriately titled Intimate Evening tour is a much more convivial affair — calling in at theatres in Chipping Norton and Didcot.

“It’s a walk through my career and life using songs and stories,” she says. “It’s about the people I’ve met, things I’ve done and the ups and downs.

“There are songs from the shows but also some Beatles, Billy Joel and songs that mean something to me.”

Ruthie is talking to me at her home in Suffolk, where she lives with her daughters Lily and Dolly, close to her parents. So does she miss London? “Not really. I’ve been there, done that and wouldn’t go back for love nor money. I love it here!”

Christened Valentine Ruth — but nicknamed Ruthie — the budding actor was raised in Bromley, the daughter of a newspaper journalist father and theatre-loving mum, and studied her craft at the Laine Theatre Arts School in nearby Epsom. She made her first profe-ssional appearance at 19 and, a year later, debuted in the West End, in Cats.

From there her career snowballed. The following year she played a bar girl in Miss Saigon at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and was the first to play Aphra in Children of Eden at the Prince Edward Theatre.

Aged just 25, she played Fantine in Les Mis, and shortly after went on to star in the Broadway hit Crazy For You.

Other highlights include She Loves Me, for which she won an Olivier Award, singing Gershwin at the Royal Festival Hall, reprising Fantine at the Royal Albert Hall, appearing as Nancy in Oliver! at the Palladium and playing Roxie Hart in Chicago. She starred in the stage version of Peggy Sue Got Married, Hey, Mr Producer!, The Woman in White and Blithe Spirit, and took the title role in Marguerite. Her Broadway roles include starring roles in Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together, Chicago and The Vagina Monologues, while TV work has included judging in ITV1’s Dancing on Ice and in US crime series Law & Order, comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, BBC legal drama The Case and Dr Who spin-off Wizards vs Aliens.

So when did she realise she had ‘arrived’? “I remember standing on stage at New York’s Schubert Theatre on the opening night of Chicago, and thinking ‘Ruthie Henshall from Bromley in Kent, standing on a Broadway stage!’ It was a moment of clarity; a dream come true — and there have been a few moments like that.”

While still only 46, the show finds her looking back at her career. “I’m happy,” she says. “I’ve achieved what I set out to do — and more.

“I was always a girl in a hurry. I wasn’t hanging around. I had that arrogance and confidence of youth. I had places to go, and I got there.”

Her off-stage career has been no less interesting. She had a long-term relationship with Prince Edward, was engaged to Gregory’s Girl star John Gordon Sinclair, and married Peggy Sue Got Married and Rent actor Tim Howar (also a musician and member of Mike + the Mechanics). They divorced four years ago.

She is unwilling to talk about all that, however, and anyone hoping for a royal revelation in her show will be disappointed. She swerves any discussion of her dalliance with the Queen’s youngest son. “I don’t blame you for asking though,” she giggles. “But people would rather hear stories about Lionel Bart and Stephen Sondheim, not my exes.”

For all the glamorous highs, there have been some terrible lows. Not least the death of her sister, Noel, who suffered a drugs overdose while living in San Francisco, 14 years ago.

She revisits this in the show with a moving rendition of Don McLean’s Vincent (Starry, Starry Night). “It’s sad because it relates to losing my sister. That was hard. Not a day goes by when I don’t think of her,” she says.

“I do go into my life, warts and all. I’m no different from 95 per cent of the world. Nobody gets away scot-free from pain, disappointment or tragedy. We are all coping with something. It’s not a point I labour but I have had things happen in my life that are devastating.”

She says the one-woman shows have not only given her a chance to look back, but also allowed her to get close to her audience — something impossible to do in the West End.

“You can’t see the whites of their eyes in a big theatre,” she says. “You’ve always got that ‘fourth wall’ between you and the audience. In a big theatre the audience are not meant to be there, but here they are — I connect with them, have a laugh.”

So what advice would she give to today’s budding musical stars? “You’ve got to know your goals, really want it and do what you need to get it.

“When I was younger, I never said ‘no’ to anything. I’d do any job. If there was a charity gig on a Sunday, I did it — and I got to know lots of people. It’s good to have that determination and vision.”

So where did she get it from? “I think my mother,” she laughs. “It’s something she’d have loved to have done; she had a lot of ambition for us and passion.”

So are her own children keen to follow her footsteps? “They never seem interested in what I do, which I see as healthy,” she says cheerfully.

“They can make up their own minds at some stage. It sounds corny, but all any mother or father wants is for their children to be happy.”

But she admits she wouldn’t have done anything else: “It’s a wonderful life,” she sighs. “I’m proud that I’m still doing it and have got to play the roles I have. But it’s a career you only do for the love of it. I’m passionate but realistic.

“Lots of people do it for a while, leave it and have children. There’s no security in it. You never know when your next job’s coming and you only have two weeks’ notice at any stage.

“But because it’s so wonderful we love it!”

An Intimate Evening with Ruthie Henshall
* Friday, February 14
Chipping Norton Theatre
Tickets £20 — visit chippingnortontheatre.com
* Saturday, March 8
Didcot Cornerstone
Tickets £16-£18 — visit from cornerstone-arts.org