Last Night A DJ Saved My Life: The Musical

Congress Theatre, Carlisle Road, Eastbourne, Saturday, November 14

WHEN it comes to describing his new stage show Knight Rider and Baywatch legend David Hasselhoff is quite plain – this is not Les Miserables.

“The writer Jon Conway is from a panto background,” says Hasselhoff from Blackpool where the show opened.

“It’s like a panto audience – they boo and hiss and I break the fourth wall to talk to them.

“It’s more along the lines of We Will Rock You or Rock Of Ages.

“The reviewers have said anyone who likes The Hoff or the songs of the 1980s and 1990s will love it.”

Hasselhoff plays Ibizan DJ Ross who finds himself in the middle of a musical revolution as the pop hits of the 1980s are replaced by acid house and the rise of club culture.

At the same time his estranged wild child daughter Penny, played by Stephanie Webber from BBC talent show The Voice, reconnects after a three-year gap and falls for Shane Richie Jr’s holiday rep Rik.

It was the relationship between father and daughter which Hasselhoff wanted to explore in the show.

“Jon approached me along with a record label and the producers telling me I was box office gold,” he laughs admitting he finds it ironic having penned a song called Box Office Poison 30 years ago when his stint as Michael Knight ended.

“When Jon asked what he should write about I said a father/daughter story.

“I have daughters and I worry about them as a parent. It’s something which is pretty appropriate for everybody when they come to see the show. The ages of the audience is incredibly varied.”

The soundtrack includes songs ranging from Yazz’s The Only Way Is Up and Spice Girls’ Spice Up Your Life, to 1990s club favourites by Snap and Adamski.

As he does with all his projects Hasselhoff has invested in the show – something he did when Baywatch hit big on TV screens in the 1990s.

“It’s an investment,” he says. “I work hard, for not a lot of money, living out of a suitcase. But if it hits it will hit big. We can take it to Las Vegas, China, Italy, all over the world.”

He remembers the Ibizan explosion of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“It was the beginning of the dance, rave and techno scene which created this place kids could go to and get off their heads,” he says.

“The reality as the 1980s turned into the 1990s is they all paid the price – they didn’t know what they did could be addictive, they just wanted to stay up late. It starts off as a fun thing, but then people are losing their jobs and their lives and their reputations. We don’t hit that too heavily though. It’s not about selling a heavy idea – it’s about getting out, splitting your sides laughing and forgetting about the economy and weather over here for a minute.”

Hasselhoff never managed to get to the notorious party island.

“I was on my way to Ibiza as a lot of my friends had been there,” he says. “But they warned me off as they said I would get mobbed. We went to Mallorca instead.”

Being mobbed is a very real problem for Hasselhoff. The power of The Hoff was something he first discovered in Australia ten years ago.

“I was driving down the streets around Sydney Harbour and people were stopping their cars saying: ‘It’s The Hoff’,”he recalls.

“I had stopped drinking and taking drugs a long time before – I couldn’t work out what was going on. People were jumping out of their cars like zombies.”

He is taking advantage of his name now – having just finished filming an advert purely based around shortening his surname to “take the Hassle out of Hoff”.

“My father passed away last year,” says Hasselhoff. “He would have got a kick out of it.

“Rather than change my last name as an actor I decided to die by the sword or make it the most famous name in the world. When the Guinness Book Of World Records said I was the most watched television star on the planet I showed it to him.”

And Hasselhoff isn’t about to stop any time soon – he has been shooting his series Our Man Hoff around Abu Dhabi and Dubai, he is taking his one-man show An Evening With Hasselhoff to Australia, and he is starring in Peter Pan in Glasgow this Christmas.

“They always say the US doesn’t get panto but I do,” he says.

“We’ve turned this show into a modern pantomime and the audience loves it.

“I want to say a big thank you to everyone in the UK – I’ve been dating a Welsh girl for five years and I feel like I’ve become such a member of the family.”

Starts 7.30pm, tickets from £27.50. Call 01323 412000.