WHAT do you feel knowing you were once part of a boy band, earning £250,000 a month...

And ten years later you find yourself in touring theatre, earning a tiny fraction of that amount?

Grateful. Very grateful. If you’re Antony Costa.

Antony was, and still is, a member of Blue, the pop group which began life in 2000 and in just four years notched up more than 16 singles and three No1 albums.

Success with songs such as Too Close and Sorry Seems to Be The Hardest Word (with Elton) made them millionaires.

But Antony blew the lot, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy with the taxman looking to recover some of the money the singer spent on £12k Versace shirts and renting lavish mansions along the road from Posh and Becks.

However, he’s come through all of that. Does he feel he had to go through the bad times with the band to get to this point?

“Yeah, of course you do, mate.

“At eighteen, you don’t know what life is all about. Then you have a few years with the band and you earn a lot of money and you run into financial difficulties.

“But you know what, you come out the other side.”

He adds, smiling; “I’m happy, I’ve got my family (his partner Rosanna and baby daughter) and that’s what I work for these days.

“And here’s the thing; I could have gone down that whole depression, drinking, drugs, route but I didn’t

“I’m quite strong in that way. I just said to myself ‘There’s light at the end of this tunnel and I’m going to go through it. And I did.”

The light emerged in the form of musical theatre. Antony auditioned for theatre producer Bill Kenwright and landed a leading role in cult show Blood Brothers.

Now, he’s working for the same producer in Save The Last Dance For Me.

The show follows two teenage sisters through the summer of '63 as they embark, for the first time without their parents, on a holiday to the seaside.

Full of freedom and high spirits they meet a handsome young American who invites them to a dance at the local U.S. Air force base.

“It’s amazing,” says Antony of the reaction to the show. “We opened last week and it went down a storm. It’s got some great music songs such as Be My Baby and Please Mr Postman.

“These songs are legendary, regardless of age. And the great thing about the show is it has a great love story as well.”

The story is written by sitcom writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, of Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart fame.

And it contains some dramatic moments.

“I play an American air force guy, Milton and me and my friend, Curtis, are normal boys who meet these two sisters at a dance.

“That’s where Curtis and Marie meet for the first time. But Curtis is black. And because is the sixties, he has to put up with the ignorant, racist comments, the little abuses.”

He adds of the writers; “They’ve done a brilliant job, mixing the story with the songs, and just when you think the show is going a little dark, there’s an upbeat song comes along.

“And at the end, everyone gets up and dances.”

Anthony is fast becoming a musical theatre veteran, having also starred in Boogie Nights.

“I’m no Michael Ball yet,” he says, grinning.

“But I love musical theatre. I love getting on stage and becoming someone else on stage for two and a half hours every day.

“I love entertaining a crowd, and when they go away happy I feel as if I’ve done my job properly.

“I want to feel I’ve given a hundred and fifty per cent every night for the next seven months when I’m in this show.”

The singer feels he’s earned the chance of a second career in showbiz.

“I didn’t get this gig because I was in Blue. I got this gig because I auditioned for Bill Kenwright and he saw I could do a job.”

Was he concerned about going up for the auditions, having to prove himself as not only a singer but as an actor?

Producers wouldn’t have known – or cared – he had been acting since he was a teenager, once appearing in Grange Hill?

“Yes, you have to change people’s perceptions. But I got the gig because I’m good enough.”

He thinks for a moment; “I’ve done episodes of Casualty and Holby City. And these people didn’t call me up because I’m in Blue. They called me because they liked the look of me for this particular part.

“The thing is, mate, I love proving people wrong. I love it when I surprise people, for all the right reasons.”

And in the press blurb for the show he’s described as the ‘handsome young American.’ That can’t be bad, Antony?

“Well, one out of three ain’t bad,” he says, laughing. “And I guess my American accent isn’t bad.”

Accents come easy. It comes from attending the English Cyrpriot American Academy as a young boy in Larnica.

Who did he choose to be, did he pick an American actor?

“Obviously you think about De Niro and Pacino, but when I did the read-through a few weeks ago, I came out with my first few lines and Bill Kenwright stopped the show and said; ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Marlon Brando is in the building!’

“And everyone was crying with laughter. But it made everyone feel relaxed and I don’t mind being the butt of someone’s joke if it’s all for a good cause.

It’s clear Antony Costa can laugh at himself. It’s already known he can sing and now theatre fans will see he can act as well.

“I might not by an oil painting but I’m good with accents,” he says, grinning.

He adds, in more serious voice; “I could be a lazy so-and-so and sit back and wait for the phone to ring but I know Hollywood is not going to call. It’s all about graft.

“As long as I’m working I’m happy. I have been low, I’m not going to deny that, but right now life couldn’t be better.”

• Save The Last Dance For Me, The King’s Theatre, May 3-7 also stars Wayne Robinson, Elizabeth Carter and Lola Saunders