YORK turns pink from Tuesday when the first British tour of Legally Blonde The Musical makes its Yorkshire debut at the Grand Opera House in a fortnight-long run. Should you need a crash course in all things Blonde, this is the Olivier Award-winning musical spin-off from Robert Luketic’s decade-old movie, transformed into a stage show by Tony Award-winning director and Olivier Award-nominated choreographer Jerry Mitchell.

Based on Amanda Brown’s novel, as well as the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film, the story remains the same in Laurence O’Keefe, Nell Benjamin and Heather Hach’s effervescent musical.

In a nutshell, college sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods never takes no for an answer, so when boyfriend Warner dumps her for someone serious, she puts down the credit card, hits the books and heads for Harvard Law School, accompanied by her loveable Chihuahua, Bruiser.

In a “dream come true” piece of casting for dark-haired Faye Brookes, she dons the blonde wig to play plucky Elle Woods, the role originated by Reese Witherspoon in the 2001 movie and later performed in the West End with Best New Actress success in the Olivier awards by Sheridan Smith.

Faye, a musical theatre graduate from Guildford School of Acting with the Principal’s Choice Award to her name, has landed the plum part after making her West End debut in Grease at the Piccadilly Theatre.

Understandably, competition was supremely fierce. “Oh, no, I definitely had to go through auditions!” says Faye, after York Twenty4Seven somewhat naively asked if she had been headhunted. “I started the process in April and I must have done about nine rounds. I was even sent to New York to meet the Jerry Mitchell, the original director, in mid-May.”

Was that the big sign that you were in the running, Faye?

“I didn’t even know that they were that serious about me. But Jerry Mitchell is always involved in the selection process and he was in New York at the time, overseeing the opening of his new musical, Catch Me If You Can,” she says.

“I was flown over to New York, had the audition with Jerry the next morning and flew back to England the next day.”

Mr Mitchell gave little away as to whether Faye was soon to be in the pink. “In the hour’s audition, I did the various scenes that I’d done with the director in England, and Jerry just left after an hour saying ‘lovely to meet you’,” she recalls.

“The reason Jerry had me there was to get the maximum out of me during that hour… but we did have a little bit of a ‘catch-up’ about what I was doing at the time and what kind of person I was, just to dig deeper about me – and I asked him about his new show too.”

Faye heard nothing at first. “But a week later, I got a call, half asleep, nine o’clock in the morning,” she says, reliving the moment. “I’d finished working in Grease in January and I’d been slogging away at other things, dabbling in teaching, working in Jack Wills, so I was an average Jo living in Wimbledon… and then I got the best news I’d ever had in my life.”

Elle’s bells, she would be playing Elle Woods.

“Then came the hard part, actually playing Elle! I never stop!” says Faye. “When I played Frenchy in Grease in the West End I covered the role of Sandy, practically for a month at a time as the celebrities doing Sandy had only short contracts because of other engagements, and that was fine for me as I was getting the spotlight, but Sandy is a walk in the park by comparison with playing Elle.

“All Sandy has to do is be that sweet girl! Whereas Elle is knocked off her feet several times and you think, ‘Elle, go home, give up’, but there’s this fire in her soul and I just love playing her. I can’t believe any other job would be so creative.”

Faye revels in Legally Blonde having a strong message for women. “It’s saying ‘Don’t judge a book by the cover’ and that’s a great message for any age, from little girls upwards,” she says.

“If I’d got told that as a young girl, I would have been stronger still. Inside all performers is that feeling that we don’t want to be judged all the time. We want to be ourselves.”

Playing Elle has made Faye “very reflective”. “It’s been hard not to leave my work at the door because I’m constantly thinking about the layers to this woman… and she’s a real woman, regardless of her being a sorority queen,” she says.

Just as Elle has boundless determination, so Faye describes herself as a perfectionist with a hard-work ethic inherited from her father and a clear-sighted career goal from a young age.

“I must have started going to drama classes in Manchester when I was eight or nine, and I took it seriously to the point when I thought, ‘Do you know what, I think I’m going to try for drama college’. I had this drive in me and just knew I wanted to act,” she says. “I didn’t think I’d be playing a leading lady at 23, but to have this role at this age, I’m honoured.”

Faye is contracted to playing Elle for a year. “If they want me to stay, I’ll accept the offer without a shadow of a doubt,” she says.

And so the naturally brunette Miss Brookes is settling into life as a blonde, and you know what they say about blondes having more fun. “Clearly they do! Look at Elle. She’s living the high life,” she says. “There’s something about being a blonde; that sunshine.

“So I do know that blondes have more fun but I’m just as glad to know that brunettes have more mysteriousness about them and I’m proud of that.”

Faye will not be changing her own hair colour any time soon. “And I’ve noticed that the reviews are saying I’ve brought out the intelligence in Elle, so maybe that’s down to being a brunette,” she says, scoring a final brownie point.

• Legally Blonde The Musical runs at Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday to August 20. Performances: 7.30pm, Monday to Saturday evenings; 2.30pm, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or grandoperahouseyork.org.uk