Corrs beauty Andrea Corr is set to make her West End stage debut next week.

The Dundalk singer will star alongside Niamh Cusack in Brian Friel’s Dancing At Lughnasa at London’s Old Vic.

The play won an Olivier Award for Best New Play in 1991 after transferring from Dublin to the National. Set in 1930s rural Ireland, the play tells the story of the five Mundy sisters. Andrea will play one of the siblings.

Although best known as the frontwoman of the Irish pop band, Andrea Corr has previous acting experience, having starred in The Commitments and The Boys From County Clare. She also had a role in the movie Evita, which starred Madonna.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph about how she landed the role, Andrea said: “My agent told me they were viewing for Dancing at Lughnasa.

“I loved the play so much, I saw the original production — when I went for the audition, I practically had an apron on with a hand-knitted cardigan.

“I went in there going ‘you’ve got to forget everything you’ve ever heard about me’.”

Andrea also said that she had almost given up on the idea of acting until she landed this role.

“Believe me, when you get the programme for this it will just say ‘theatre debut, please be gentle’. I did school plays, I’ve done a few films.

“I’d kind of given up on the idea of acting. I’d keep getting some film scripts, but I couldn’t just play the publican’s daughter.

“I thought this isn’t going to happen for me. But sometimes you have to walk away from something before it happens.”

Referring to the ceilidh dancing in the play, Andrea said it was a “very different kind of dancing to being in a band”.

But she said it had given her new found respect for celebrities taking part in Strictly Come Dancing. And she recalled her own foray into Irish dancing as a child growing up in Dundalk.

“I did go to Irish dancing lessons as a kid, but I was slapped and never went again,” she said.

Dancing At Lughnasa is at the Old Vic from February 26.