MULTI-TALENTED entertainer Faith Brown spent New Year in Edinburgh enjoying Hogmanay with her family -- but desperately missing her Buckinghamshire home, her dogs and her cat.

Although she had turned down other touring opportunities, she felt she had to seize the chance of playing the starring role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, which opens at the Opera House in Blackpool next Wednesday.

Rich-voiced Faith has been on the road since last August and will be touring until October.

The gruelling 14-month tour has already taken her from Plymouth up to Newcastle and Hull, back down to Southampton and up to Scotland, but she enjoyed the fun and camaraderie of working and socialising in Edinburgh.

The Liverpool-born star said: "I have refused a lot of touring. I love to be at home, especially around Christmas, with my family. But Edinburgh was fantastic, sensational, and I really wanted this role.

"I am over the top in more ways than one and people often see me as a bubbly blonde -- they don't realise I am a singer first and foremost and that there is a serious side to Faith Brown. There has always been this straight actress waiting to get out."

This is the first time in this country that the musical Sunset Boulevard has been seen outside London. Set in the Hollywood of the early 1950s and based on Billy Wilder's classic film, it is a compelling story of faded glory and unfulfilled ambition.

Faith stars as Norma Desmond, a flamboyant silent movie actress who is planning a return to the silver screen. Thirty years previously, she had been the biggest star of all. Now, with struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis by her side, Norma is ready to take her place in front of the cameras once more. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End on July 12, 1993. The production was seen by more than two million people. The Broadway version broke all records for advance ticket sales and went on to win seven prestigious Tony Awards.

The new stage show is produced by Lloyd Webber's own company, The Really Useful Theatre Company, and directed by acclaimed opera and theatre director Robert Carsen.

Auditioning for the role as Norma, Faith's performance brought tears of emotion from Lloyd Webber.

"I glanced over and his head was in his hands. I thought 'he hates it' but it had brought tears to his eyes," she recalled.

"This is my very first heavy-duty straight acting part and I am enjoying it. I have got Norma under my skin now. If it went to film, in the same way that Moulin Rouge has been brought up to date, it would be tremendous. I would love to play the role."

Sunset Boulevard is at Blackpool Opera House from next Wednesday to Saturday, February 16. Tickets can be booked on 01253 292029.