Actor Sam Kane is relishing his role as the only man in a show that has got women of a certain age all fired up… Sam has won rave reviews as the only male in Hot Flush! a musical all about the menopause.

“There was a time when the word menopause, if said at all, was always mouthed, never spoken out loud,” says Sam. “We’re saying, ‘Celebrate it, embrace it as the next chapter of your life’. Don’t mourn it as a loss, there’s no need to take it so seriously.”

Sam plays a variety of roles in the show, which celebrates middle-age. It’s about four women who have problems with husbands, lovers, a lack of sex or, in one case, too much of it. One thing they all have in common is that they’re all fighting ‘The Change’. Actress Lesley Joseph will be one of Sam’s co-stars – the rest of the cast has yet to be announced. “The women meet up every week in the Hot Flush club. I’m the barman who listens as they discuss their various relationships with men – and I’m playing several other roles too,” says Sam.

Hot Flush! is aimed at older women, although Sam says it’s for all ages.

“The show allows audiences to laugh at themselves, you wouldn’t believe how many women come up afterwards and say ‘That’s just how I felt’,” says Sam. “There hasn’t been enough of this entertainment for women aged 35 upwards, yet they’re a large percentage of the theatre-going population.

“The show is liberating. It makes the audience feel fantastic and you can’t say better than that when you’re entertaining a room full of people.

“The characters each deal with the menopause differently and women who’ve been through it, or are going through it, can identify with this.”

Sam is an established musical theatre leading man, having starred in such shows as Boogie Nights and Carousel. He shot to fame as amiable hairdresser Peter Phelan in Brookside then took on a very different role in Coronation Street, playing a paedophile who lured a young Sarah Platt to his home via the internet.

“We saved two lives from that storyline, so it did its job,” says Sam. “It raised awareness of the risks kids were taking over the internet. Soap has a big responsibility to tackle social issues, they have such huge audiences. I’m particularly proud of my time in Brookside because it was groundbreaking, where it went, the other soaps followed.

“Soap actors work harder than any other actors. My wife (glamour model-turned actress Linda Lusardi) was in Emmerdale and they do six episodes a week so they have to be up to scratch.”

Hot Flush! is on at St George’s Hall on Thursday, March 26. For tickets ring (01274) 432000.