AS the UK tour of An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical heads for Llandudno's Venue Cymru, director Nikolai Foster says audiences are in for a surprise.

What kind of night are people in store for when they come to see the show?

People will be surprised when they come to see An Officer and a Gentleman. Because of the film’s iconic ending, I think a lot of people associate it with being a cheesy 80s romcom. Of course, there's nothing wrong with a cheesy 80s romcom - and we offer some tasteful cheesy choices in our production - but audiences will be surprised by the depth of this story and how moving the show is. It is genuinely uplifting because we invest in the lives of these characters and care about them.

What do you feel about the story makes An Officer and a Gentleman work well as a musical?

Filled with humility and quiet profundity, it delicately charts the lives and experiences of working class people in Pensacola, Florida, in the early 80s. In some ways these appear to be ordinary and unremarkable lives but the characters created by writer Douglas Day Stewart (based on his own experiences) have remarkable stories to tell. When you throw a load of 80s pop hits into this world, it truly is uplifting and sings in the way only a musical can. The songs in our show don’t propel the narrative forward but express something of the characters' inner lives and emotions that they are unable to speak in their everyday lives. The music heightens the emotions.

How does the story resonate today?

Delicately depicting the experiences of working class people, the story continues to resonate. At a time when we are finally starting to consider what a fairer society could look like - with particular emphasis on women’s rights, anti-racism and training opportunities available to those from disadvantaged backgrounds - this simple story from the 80s still has much to say about our society today. It is hard to appreciate the impact the giant factories and the military training facility has on every aspect of the lives of the characters Douglas imagined, following his real-life experiences training as a pilot at the famous naval air base in Pensacola.

An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical runs at Venue Cymru from March 19-23.