The old devil still has the best songs

Ben Elton's new musical draws on the legend of Faust - and the hits of Rod Stewart

"For me to do a musical based on greatest hits as powerful as Rod Stewart's, I applied the same principle I did with the Queen show, We Will Rock You, which is to try to get inside the spirit of the artist as well as the songs," says Ben Elton about his latest venture.

The show is, believe it or not, a version of Goethe's Faust. Called Tonight's the Night, it's a musical comedy featuring 20 or so Stewart hits, such as "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?", "Sailing" and "Ooh La La".

"The music is incredibly inspiring. It would have made a great musical even if Rod Stewart had been a grumpy old git," Elton says. "But anyone who wore the leopardskin leggings he did in the late 1970s quite clearly has a sense of humour."

Although Elton didn't want to do a biographical show, he did want the show to reflect the "vibe" of Stewart. "With Queen, I came up with this mock legend that reflected the grandiose pomp of one of the great outrageous bands. With Rod, I wanted something that reflected the Rod we all love."

So Elton came up with the story of a shy, gentle fellow who hasn't got the courage to ask out the girl he loves. He wishes he had a little something of what his hero Rod Stewart clearly has, and of course, the Devil turns up and offers him a Faustian pact. "The rest, I'm afraid, proves that you can't change your destiny. You play with the cards you are dealt."

Elton obviously needed the permission of the rock legend himself. "Arnold Stiefel, Stewart's producer and now co-producer of the show, told me that there was no way Rod would be interested in reading an eight-page treatment, so we put on a mini-production last year in a hotel conference room, and Rod and his girlfriend Penny Lancaster came to watch. Of course, I was terrified because it does have a laugh at his expense. But he loved every minute of it. So did Penny."

The young cast is choreographed by Stephen Mear of Anything Goes and musically supervised by Gareth Valentine of Chicago. Diane Pilkington plays Mary, the girlfriend of Stu Clutterbuck, who makes the sudden transformation into Rod Stewart. Pilkington made her stage debut in 1998, playing Fantine and Cosette in the Trevor Nunn-directed production of Les Misérables, as well as playing the Protestant girl in another show with an Elton script, The Beautiful Game, in September 2000.

"Obviously I do get pretty confused as Stu's girlfriend, as he goes on tour all over the world and gets more rock'n'roll," Pilkington says. "At the beginning he is very geeky, but when he turns into a rock star he changes his look; leather trousers and flamboyant coats, and his hair gets sprayed up more. It's like I'm in love with someone who is not there. Well, he isn't there. He has swapped his soul for Rod's."

Pilkington, small and dark, admits to having felt a little out of place at times rehearsing the new show. "There are obviously a lot of very leggy blonde women in it," she says.

'Tonight's the Night - The Rod Stewart Musical', Victoria Palace Theatre, Victoria Street, London SW1, from 7 Nov (020-7834 1317)