Thea Sharrock: Saving all her love for Whitney To those who know her work, Sharrock may seem an odd choice for this sort of show. By the age of 30 (she is now 36) she had been artistic director of two of London's pocket powerhouses - Southwark Playhouse and the Gate in Notting Hill. She has since directed, among many other intelligent star vehicles, A Voyage Round My Father, Equus, Cause Célèbre, After the Dance and The Sunshine Boys. But for all her ability to deliver a well-made commercial hit, she has never yet gone anywhere near a musical. Sharrock's contention is that she'd not directed a film, either, until last year, when she shot Henry V for the BBC's Hollow Crown season. And that has been a vital induction. Prepping a musical is much more like prepping a film. You have to know exactly what you want on day one of rehearsals, unlike doing a new play, where there is only so much you can do until you get into the room. That still doesn't quite explain why she's saving all her love for Houston. The producer who sent Sharrock the script never expected to get her actually to direct it. In April last year she was simply asked to look over a script and comment. Nobody mentioned the world musical. It was just, 'There's been an adaptation of the film. And I said, 'That's got to be one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. Do I really have to read this?" " But she loved it. The producer, Michael Harrison, "nearly fell of his barstool." So why the initial scepticism? Because it's a terrible movie! I was shocked when I watched it again recently just how bad it is. Whitney is terrible in it. If I say what I really think it's going to get me in trouble. She has said her piece to the original scriptwriter, Lawrence Kasdan, and he agreed with her. He is the first to say that if he had directed it, it would have been very different. Kasdan originally wrote the thriller about a bodyguard and a soul singer who fall in love for Diana Ross and Steve McQueen in the Seventies. Then McQueen died and the script was shelved, only to emerge after Kasdan made The Big Chill and Silverado with Kevin Costner. Costner produced the film and, to play the character of Rachel Marron, he cast the biggest-selling female singer of the day. What Sharrock kept quiet until she was in the meeting is that she was a secret devotee of Whitney Houston. I'm the right age for I Want to Dance With Somebody and all that. She was a big part of the pop world while I was growing up. I went to school while that was going on. It's as simple as that. When she repairs to the rehearsal room after this lunchtime debrief, she certainly seems to be into the music, dancing along as she pieces together a complex nightclub sequence with a choreographer and a large ensemble. The actress cast as Marron is Heather Headley, who on Broadway was the original Nala, the female lead in The Lion King, and has gone on to have her own recording career. Not that she'll be singing every song in the show. In the book adapted from Kasdan's script by Alex Dinelaris, audiences will have to get used to the idea of Houston's back catalogue being parcelled out among the other characters. That said, it remains a huge opportunity and an epic burden to slip into Houston's place behind the microphone, especially since a long shadow was cast over the show's preparations by the permanent silencing of Houston's voice this year. "I understood straight away the weight that was going to rest on Heather's shoulders," says Sharrock. It's an enormous sing. Whitney had a phenomenal voice and some great writers got onto that quick and wrote some great songs for her. It does feel different now that she's not here any more. The positive side is it's turned it into an opportunity for us to celebrate her. Every day we acknowledge the fact that if it wasn't for her we wouldn't be here.