Jamie Campbell Bower has admitted he is feeling a bit nervous about making his musical debut in Bend It Like Beckham.

The Twilight hunk stars in Gurinder Chadha’s stage adaptation of her hit 2002 film, which starred Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley.

Jamie plays football coach Joe in the show, the role played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the original film.

The 26-year-old actor, who is a former member of the National Youth Music Theatre, confessed: “For me personally, having not, like a lot of the other cast, been a predominantly West End musical singer, I feel like sometimes I struggle, but it’s going well.”

Jonathan Rhys Meyers played Joe in the film (IFTA/PA)
Jonathan Rhys Meyers played Joe in the film (IFTA/PA)

He revealed he hadn’t asked Jonathan for advice, but was hoping he would come to opening night on June 24.

Jamie said: “I haven’t seen Johnny for ages, he played my father in the last movie I did [The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones].

“Hopefully he’ll come down for opening night and he can tell me if I did all right, or if I was just c**p.”

Meanwhile, Gurinder Chadha said she hopes the show can repair divisions among the nation after the election.

The story follows Jess, the 18-year-old daughter of Punjabi Sikh Indians from west London, who is banned by her parents from pursuing her dream of becoming a footballer because she is a girl.

Gurinder said: “The original themes of the film are about a second generation immigrant wanting to follow a dream that her father couldn’t, because of his circumstances. And so it has become a kind of 50-year history of Britain, of immigration and settling in, and all that captured with songs.

“It’s incredibly timely, particularly with the election coming up and all the issues that are being raised.

Gurinder Chadha has adapted her film for the stage (Ian West/PA)
Gurinder Chadha has adapted her film for the stage (Ian West/PA)

“I see that in the next few weeks the country is going to be segregated and separated and in conflict. And I’m hoping that my show helps put is back together again, because it celebrates what is great about the Britain that I know, that I grew up in and that I love.”

The British director also insisted the show is most definitely not a Bollywood musical. She said: “I was very sure that I wanted it be a West End musical first, and then I have a sort of weave of British Punjabi music going through it.

“So the word Bollywood is banned form our rehearsal rooms. It’s very West London, British Punjabi and very West End. It’s sort of a little bit like a Fiddler On The Roof, set in Southall.”

Previews of Bend It Like Beckham: The Musical, starring Over The Rainbow’s Lauren Samuels and Natalie Drew, begin from May 15 at London’s Phoenix Theatre.