Our own cool cat is back

For Tina Cross, turning 50 is no catastrophe. Photo / Janna Dixon

When a husky voice croons "Is it you or is it me, lately I've been lost it seems", it is suddenly, blindingly obvious that veteran entertainer Tina Cross is the voice of Shortland Street's theme song. In fact, before the lyrics were canned a few years ago, she sang the song at the soap's 10th birthday party while perched atop a giant cake, adding an extra, unaired verse.

Now the 50-year-old is singing it in the middle of a busy Auckland cafe, as people crane their necks towards the source of the oh-so-familiar tune. But Cross appears entirely at ease with the attention. A pop princess-turned-musical theatre star, this "Maori girl from Otara" was propelled into the limelight at 19 when her rendition of Nothing But Dreams won New Zealand the 1979 Pacific Song Contest. Chosen by Ray Columbus to perform on the TV talent show Opportunity Knocks, she went on to perform in many TV entertainment shows in New Zealand, Australia and England. She has also shored up various bands, including hot-in-the-80s pop group Koo De Tah, released hit singles and albums, and sung with Sammy Davis jnr, Tom Jones, The Village People and Meatloaf. Cross has also performed in plays and cabaret, and is now writing and strumming her own songs on guitar.

With her Madonna-esque reinventions over the years, Cross has morphed from girl-next-door to rock chick, glamourpuss to fresh-faced 40-something, and everything in between. And although she has performed worldwide she forged her career in her beloved home country.

In recent years she carved a niche for herself in musicals, scoring rave-review roles in all the biggies: The Rocky Horror Show, Cats, Chicago, Sisterella and Boogie Nights.

"With musicals, I originally thought: 'Why would you want to do the same thing every night for months?' It never made sense to me, but once you immerse yourself in a character and a role it's actually quite hard to shake it. And I love that licence to be somebody else and the fact that every time I step into a new pair of shoes, or an old pair, it just fits."

She is slipping into a well-worn but much-loved pair as Grizabella in Cats, which comes to the Civic, Auckland, from June 6. Drawn from the poetry of T.S. Elliot and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cats has enjoyed nearly three decades as one of the world's best-loved musicals. Direct from the recent Melbourne season, expect lithe cat-like costumes, wigs, tails, collars - and some seriously clever feline makeup.

Cross' delicate and slightly exotic features - a blend of Maori, Croatian and English genes - are overpowered by the heavy makeup, including the clumsy streak of lipstick down her chin because "Grizabella never quite gets it right".

When she first played Grizabella in 1995, "we spent six weeks learning about the character and two weeks crawling around on our hands and knees looking in mirrors. I was 36 then, but now I'm older I can relate to Grizabella more. Griz was once the beauty of the pack and not just another cat. She wants fame, fortune and glory but she fails miserably and winds up in the gutter, a starved broken cat," says Cross.

At the show's climax, Cross will sing Memory, one of Lloyd Webber's most memorable songs. "When she sings 'Touch me, it's so easy to leave me, all alone with the memory, of my days in the sun', well it's so sad. I haven't been through that kind of heartache but you can relate it to so many people's lives."

Grizabella is a tough role to play, Cross says, not so much because of the emotional intensity but because she is offstage for much of the first half. But backstage Cross isn't putting her feet up - she is staying strictly in character, and "living the story" as it would feel for Grizabella.

This year is shaping up as a big one for Cross. In February, she celebrated her 50th birthday and the 30th anniversary of the Pacific Song Contest triumph with two concerts with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the winning song's composer, her good friend Carl Doy. As well as Cats, she will be playing more festival and concert gigs, releasing a CD in April, and planning a national tour with genre-bending band The LadyKillers (herself, Jackie Clarke, Suzanne Lynch and R&B star Taisha). Then there's playing the ukulele in informal folk-rock group The Cruisin Band, and a couple of projects "on the boil" with Maori TV.

The project closest to her heart is establishing Aroha Wahine, her charity to help talented young Maori women. "I know it's a cliche but giving back is important and you get to a point in your life where you're comfortable doing it."

She's waiting for a break in her busy schedule to finetune the details of the charity, which at the moment is playing second fiddle to Cats rehearsals. "While I'm still in demand I need to take these roles. It's nice to know I've still got my foot in the door."

As a performer in her 50s, Cross admits that she may not get offered as many roles. So "youthful ageing" - maintaining her looks, fitness and body - is a priority. She eats healthily and exercises regularly. "I've had no cosmetic surgery done whatsoever," she says, "but I'm not ruling it out."

She sure looked trim and taut when she cha-cha'd her way through last year's season of Dancing With The Stars with ballroom champ Aaron Gilmore before their fifth-episode exit.

Although stoked to have raised $8000 for Hospice New Zealand, Cross says that the show threw her off balance. That was largely attributable to its live, competitive nature - and because she couldn't cover up any mistakes. "I found it really hard, especially because I've always been a perfectionist and I've had to temper that over the years. Teenage children don't usually do things the way you want them to."

Takapuna-based Cross is mum to Sean, 19, and Leah, 15. She's been married for 27 years to Wayne, "an old hippie rocker from way back" and now building-industry businessman. In 2007 she received an ONZM for services to the music industry. Another testament to her devotion to the industry is a music building, the Tina Cross Suite, which opened this month at her old school, Penrose High (now One Tree Hill College). "And I'm not even dead yet," she says. "Do they name things after people who are still alive?" But don't expect her to fade into the background. "Performance is part of me, something I have to do and love. I don't accept that I've got a past-my-use-by date."

* Cats opens at Auckland's Civic Theatre in June. Tickets are now on sale.