Katherine MacAlister is on (Bay)watch for the TV icon starring in Last Night a DJ Saved My Life in Oxford

Where is The Hoff? was the question being asked in Oxford this week, as David Hasselhoff cancelled interview after interview from various locations around the world.

First he blew us out from California over the weekend, then Sweden and now Liverpool when he cancelled our chat seconds before deadline.

“There was an incident last night with some fans that went over the top,” his management team eventually admitted. More than that we don’t know.

Will he show up in Oxford is the next question. Considering he’s midway through the musical Last Night a DJ Saved My Life which opened in Blackpool in October and limps in to Oxford from Tuesday, one would hope so, despite the ‘incidents’ and bad reviews which seem to be plaguing the tour.

The Liverpool Echo said this week: “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life is not high art. It doesn’t pretend to be. Even if it’s low art, it’s not a particularly good example. What it does do, however, is give people the chance to be in the same room as David Hasselhoff for two-and-a-quarter hours and occasionally shout things at him in inappropriate moments,” before giving it two out of five.

Oxford is no different, with tickets selling worryingly slowly, but with an American film crew showing up next Friday as part of a series about The Hoff, bums on New Theatre seats are essential. And yet we have still heard nothing from the man who made red swimming costumes a worldwide phenomenon.

Stephanie Tye, press officer at the New Theatre, is more forgiving: “We can’t wait to welcome The Hoff and the cast of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life to Oxford. He is a legend and there has been a real buzz since it was announced.

“The show is full of songs that everyone knows, and I’m sure that the audience will be on their feet itching to join in by the end.

“To add to the excitement, they will be filming the Friday night performance to show on American television at a later date. It’s fantastic news that the venue and our brilliant audience will be seen in the States.”

The Hoff, for those who don’t know, is David Hasselhoff of Knight Rider and Baywatch fame, whose music career took off as his TV presence waned, most notably in Germany where he still reigns supreme.

However, having been in the Guinness Book of Records as the most watched man on TV, Hasselhoff’s fortunes changed.

With several divorces and misguided career choices behind him, he appeared in the UK last year to relaunch himself through Hoff The Record in which he played a fictional version of himself in an improvised six-part comedy on Dave.

Panto followed in Glasgow before Last Night a DJ Saved My Life resumed, obviously written with The Hoff in mind, although it’s not his show.

In it Hasselhoff plays Ross, an 80s DJ in Ibiza described as a ‘hilarious hedonist’. Sounds familiar? Ross doesn’t realise a new decade has dawned, disco is out and the club scene is in and he needs to keep up with the times.

Matters get complicated when his teenage daughter Penny (Stephanie Webber from BBC’s The Voice) arrives to stay.

The badly behaved parent is suddenly faced with the dilemma of trying to protect his wild child from sun, sex and drugs.

“It seems like everything in the show has happened to me,” Hasselhoff said at the time.

“My whole life has been like that. It’s been like one big panto.

“All I can say is that I have a special responsibility to make this show worth the money people are paying.”

Whether The Hoff is still ‘box office gold,’ however, remains to be seen.

SEE IT
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life runs from Tuesday to Saturday at the New Theatre, George Street, Oxford
www.atgtickets.com/oxford or 0844 8713020