Baz Luhrmann’s smash hit musical Strictly Ballroom starring Kevin Clifton and Maisie Smith will be at Canterbury's, Marlowe Theatre from March 13 to March 18.

Directed by the fab-u-lous Craig Revel Horwood, the 10 month tour sees ex-EastEnders star Maisie make her musical theatre debut in the lead female role of Fran.

The show, choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood and Strictly Come Dancing's Creative Director Jason Gilkison, is based on the award-winning, global film phenomenon, ‘Strictly Ballroom’ that inspired the world to dance and spawned the smash hit TV series 'Strictly Come Dancing'.

We chat to Maisie about future plans, advice from her mum and pre-show rituals...

The show is pretty full on, how are you finding it?

Weirdly when I come off stage I’m just filled with adrenaline. It’s more the daytimes. I sleep in till about 3pm most days.

My body clock is really on its head at the moment, my sleeping clock. I think being on that stage just brings out so much energy in you and you hear everyone cheering and everyone singing along, it makes you so excited every night that I don’t get to sleep until about 2 o’clock every morning!

What's most challenging for you?

I think it’s doing eight shows a week. I am absolutely exhausted by the Sunday. And it’s so mad how many of my friends say, 'oh do you want to meet up on Sunday?' Or want to meet up in the day and I’m like, no. I want to go to sleep. And that’s what I've noticed that I didn’t expect. That on your days off you’re not going and exploring the cities, you’re sleeping. That was the biggest shock.

Do you have any pre-show rituals?

Do you know what no. I actually don’t. Because I tried all these different things and none of them work. So as long as I’ve warmed up my body and my throat I just hope for the best really! And luckily I seem to do alright. But I tried different things, like right at the start I had lemon and honey tea before every show and then it soon went out the window because it didn’t make a difference.

Do you suffer from stage fright?

Yes I do. Not so much now I’m getting into the swing of it, I feel like I know the show like the back of my hand, but the first couple of weeks, oh God I was shaking, I was gagging back stage I thought I was going to throw up. Especially when one of my family or friends are there, that’s just a different ball game. There could be ten thousand people in the audience, but if I know one of them, that’ll set me over the edge.

It's Mother’s Day this month, what's the best piece of advice your mum has ever given you?

Being in the public eye growing up my mum always said, always told me, to be myself. I’ve always been a bit weird, a bit different and she’d always just say, 'be your weird and wacky self' and I think that’s something that has stayed with me. It’s not allowed me to feel insecure about being who I am or get nervous that I’d say the wrong thing. I’ve just been taught to not care – which is a nice thing to keep with you.

What does the rest of the year have in store for you?

I’m actually moving in with my boyfriend Max in Manchester, which is quite a jump, but we're looking at the house as a project. We’re going to do it up, live in it for a bit, but I know I’m going to be getting the train back to Essex every weekend.

strictlyballroomtour.co.uk