The talkative half of the Pet Shop Boys tells Max Bell about their 15 nights at the Savoy - and his album of Noel Coward covers

Ordering a pot of tea at the Groucho Club, I ask the manager what Neil Tennant is likely to drink when he arrives for a light lunchtime grilling. 'Oh,' comes the reply, 'after last night, a large Bloody Mary I should think.' Nearly right. Tennant settles on tomato juice, and rubs his head. He has a lot on his mind. 'I'm in a state of constant terror,' admits the bespectacled singer, crunching on a celery stalk.

Somewhere, The Pet Shop Boys latest foray onto the London stage, and their first residency since the Performance tour (for which avant-garde director David Alden and designer David Fielding devised a typically ambitious spectacular), is days away. Fifteen nights have been booked at the beautiful Art Deco Savoy Theatre, tickets have been sold, bums will soon be shuffling onto seats... and it's not ready. 'We've got the song programme, we're doing our Nineties material mostly, with encores from the Eighties, and an acoustic bit, but the special films ~ haven't been shot,' Tennant sighs. Not any old films either. A contemporary British artist, 30-year-old Londoner Sam Taylor-Wood, has been hired to provide interactive video installations featuring Neil and partner Chris Lowe walking in and i out of the picture. Tennant was impressed by her Pent-Up exhibition. There are, however, a couple of problems. Firstly, Sam has just had a baby; secondly, the posh flat belonging to one of the Rothschilds, where the films will be shot, is being decorated.

What else could go wrong? 'I'm having nightmares that the Savoy Hotel will complain about the noise,' sighs the likeable, loquacious Tennant. Meanwhile, the Pets' latest single - a cover of the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim ballad 'Somewhere' from West Side Story - has offended Bernstein's eagle-eyed estate by bringing the piece up to post-Sharks-and-Jets speed, setting it in a recreation of the LA riots, complete with samples from the recent gangster movie Menace 11 Society. 'They don't like the line "when the riots stopped the drugs started". We've got to take it out and re-mix the whole thing.'

Tennant's understated vocal on 'Somewhere', a song previously covered by P.J. Proby and Tom Waits, ought to provide them with their 40th hit, cementing the odd couple's position, alongside Wham! and the Everly Brothers, as the most successful duo of all time. It was Lowe's idea. 'Chris always comes up with our covers. He suggested 'Always On My Mind' (Elvis Presley), 'Where The Streets Have No Name-Can't Take My Eyes Off You' (U2-Andy Williams), and 'Go West' (Village People). I came up with our other Sondheim piece, 'Losing My Mind', for the album we did with Liza Minnelli. But 'Somewhere' is very "us", don't you think? And anything relating to the word "west" is good news for us.'

Once the doors close on Somewhere, the Boys resume another project, a musical with Jonathan Harvey, writer of Beautiful Thing, focusing on current club culture, the shenanigans of the music business and sexuality. 'All our own experiences,' Neil hastens to add. 'Though it won't be a blockbuster. I'd happily do it as a piece of fringe theatre, because I've got quite low expectations. People always think that what we do is a huge commercial success and that's a bind.'

Although the Pet Shop Boys can hardly be short of funds, Tennant's Newcastle upbringing and early career as a jobbing writer on, Smash Hits have instilled in him a sense of proportion. To finance their Savoy stint- a definite money-loser - he and Chris will break the habit of a lifetime and play two summer festivals at the end of June. 'We're in the pop dance tent at Roskilde in Denmark and we're doing Finland - Turku - at the end of June. I've never been to a rock festival. I've never stood in a field. It doesn't- or didn't appeal. Actually, I'm changing my mind. Glastonbury has broken the mould. Michael Eavis asked us to headline there two years ago but we were a bit nervous. I regret that now.'

Given their track record as collaborators (satiss s fied clients include Patsy Kensit, Dusty Springfield, Liza Minnelli, Tina Turner and David Bowie), even those who find their music too milky-neutral have to concede that these Boys are among the great conceptualists of the age. Their shuffle of work-in-progress also includes a musical adaptation of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, a follow-up to last year's Bilingual album, and a solo escapade for Tennant that may well be his most ambitious undertaking to date.

'The trustees of the Red Hot Aids charity have approached me to oversee a cover album of Noel Coward songs - 20th Century Blues - in the same way the Americans did Cole Porter's for Red Hot And Blue. I didn't think that was terribly good - the songs weren't sung properly - so I'm talking to the artists before they go to the studio.' The Pet Shop Boys had already attempted 'If Love Was All', and Tennant sees the late Sir Noel as Britain's first global superstar, a walking history of British popular music. 'He created that English images of drinking tea, wearing a smoking jacket, the cigarette holder. He also invented playing Las Vegas. He is our Cole Porter. I want to bring the music and arrangements up to date while keeping the integrity of the melodies and words.'

Neil does Noel, and not a Gallagher in sight. It sounds like a tempting idea and he's already enrolled an impressive cast list: Elton John tackles the title song; Alex James and Damon from Blur have bagged 'Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans'; Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer stuck their hands up quickly for 'Mrs Worthington'; Bryan Ferry dons his tuxedo to warble 'I'll See You Again'; M People snaffled 'Dance Little Lady' and Madness are reforming for the umpteenth time to cocknify 'Mad Dogs And Englishmen. Other contributors include: Gabrielle, The Devine Comedy and the Boys themselves, who skim across the lugubrious surface of 'Sail Away'.

Our budding impresario's biggest coup has been to persuade Lord McCartney of Rye to apply his talents at the pianoforte to 'A Room With A View'. Macca has always understood Coward's Observation about 'the potency of cheap music' and it was McCartney who went alone to meet Noel when the Beatles were staying in the same Rome hotel in 1965. Lennon wasn't bothered, but McCartney thought: 'We can't snub Noel Coward! He's the grand old dame of British show business and we're the new young things.'

In his book England Is Mine: Pop Life From Oscar Wilde To Goldie, the writer Michael Bracewell spends some time going mad about the Boys, comparing their witty rhymes to Coward's. Yet Neil says he doesn't see himself that way. 'Morrissey maybe, or Jarvis Cocker. Actually, they are two crucial figures missing from the album. I wanted Morrissey to do 'There Are Bad Times Just Around The Corner'. Maybe he didn't see the joke. Bowie won't do 'London Pride' either.'

Just for a second, Neil's sunny disposition clouds over like the sky above Soho. It doesn't last. Outside on Old Compton Street, the West End boys and girls are about their business, but Tennant exits the Groucho stage right. He has an appointment with a Hanway Street curry and he's whistling William Walton's Battle Of Britain Suite.

Special thanks To Colin Trahearn for Supplying this