LOUISE Dearman smiles when asked if she has any idea what it feels like to be engaged for fourteen years?

After all, if you want to play a character such as Miss Adelaide, the female lead in Guys and Dolls, surely you have to inhabit some of their characteristics?

“I haven’t been engaged for fourteen but I have been engaged for seven,” the musical theatre stars says, grinning.

“I keep saying to my boyfriend 'If you think I’m going to wait another seven years like Adelaide then you've got another thing coming'.”

Louise adds, grinning; “I think it’s fair to say I have a fair idea of where Miss Adelaide is coming from.”

Guys and Dolls’ Miss Adelaide’s world is one of gangsters, gamblers and nightclub singers.

At the centre of the show’s storyline, Miss Adelaide is the long-term fiancée of gambler Nathan Detroit, who runs an illegal craps game.

But Nathan just won’t commit to the couple’s relationship.

With Miss Adelaide pushing him to give up gambling and make an honest woman of her, will his unorthodox career to come to a halt?

To complicate matters, Nathan bets gambler Sky Masterson one thousand dollars that he cannot get Sarah Brown, a missionary, to go to Havana with him.

Will Sarah take off to Cuba? Will Nathan lose the bet and have to think about getting married?

Bedfordshire-born Louise admits the role of Adelaide is great to play.

“The show is so well written, so you can see the character emerge the moment you walk on stage.

“And I really do get into her. I feel for her. I feel frustrated when I’m playing her. And I find myself welling up when I play her.”

Really? A hard-bitten professional who has thousands of shows under her belt, the only lady who has ever played the role of Glinda and Elphaba in the west end production of Wicked?

Louise is an actress who appeared in thousands of performances of the likes of Evita, a young lady who first began dance lessons at the age of three.

And her eyes fill up when Adelaide is all lost and ignored?

“I do. I can’t help believe in her. She’s so natural. What’s great about Miss Adelaide is she doesn’t even realise the brilliant lines that are coming out of her mouth.

“She is the sweetest, kindest woman. She’s cute, she’s patient and she’s not a nag.

“And the great thing is the audience really want her to do well. You really feel the audience warm to her. And they all want the same thing – which is for her to be married.

Louise adds; “She adores Nathan. She doesn’t want to be a huge star now in the way she once did. She just wants to be with Nathan.

The musical theatre star has only every understudied this role before.

“And this is a different production,” she says. “I play her very differently from that first production. What we offer here is a slightly heightened performance.”

Louise has been determined to play as a wide as range of parts as possible during her career.

“When I began it was Jan in Grease and the next part was something the same in Fame,” she recalls.

“I didn’t want’ to just play the perky comedy girl. I wanted to do a do so many different things.”

Evita was great to play, she reveals.

“I loved the show but felt broken at the end of each night, playing this character who was broken, and wondering why she did what she did.”

It’s certainly been a feather in her cap to play both the Wicked witches.

Who is she closest to in terms of her own character, Elphaba or Glinda?

“Definitely Elphaba,” she says, grinning, “even though I don’t look as green as her, unless I’ve had a heavy night before.”

Louise works hard at body maintenance.

“Sometimes, I’ll go all day without speaking, just to protect my voice.

“And I try to give my all. On a matinee day I won’t sleep in light because the last thing you want to do is run on stage, half asleep trying to give it jazz hands.”

Louise, who will be appearing new musical, Side Show, at the end of the year, doesn’t confine her on-stage performances to musical theatre.

She recently returned from a month-long singing tour with Josh Groban she has featured in a number of concerts as a guest vocalist such as Michael Ball.

Right now however, her entire focus in on playing the ditsy red-head with a desperate desire to become a wife.

“Sometimes men have to be nudged a little bit,” says the actress, laughing.

• Guys and Dolls, the King’s Theatre, until Saturday.