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EXCLUSIVE:Worthing announce their pantomime Superstar

Just a few days after the search for Jesus finished on TV, offers of work have started to come in for the finalists and Worthing’s Connaught Theatre have been fast out of the gate to snap up the services of Jon Moses to appear as Prince Valiant in this year’s traditional festive treat, Sleeping Beauty.

Originally put through to the finals as the reserve, Andrew Lloyd Webber was quick to notice Jon’s star quality, and superb voice, and offered him a place in the live Superstar shows. Jon jumped at the chance and managed to survive the entire first week of shows before being part of a dramatic double elimination.

Jon will now swap the TV studio for the chance to appear, in his first pantomime, alongside two panto greats. Celebrating forty years since he was six times Opportunity Knocks winner, piano player and accomplished pantomime dame, Bobby Crush will be taking the role of Nurse Katy Cough-Drop and Nikki Kelly, who spent eight years playing Sylvia in the classic TV show Hi-De-Hi, will exchange her Maplin’s uniform for something more appropriate to star as evil Fairy Carabosse.

Earlier today I talked to Jon about the prospect of his first professional pantomime. He said, “I am absolutely blown away by how quickly people have contacted me to start working and it’s great news for me, and I am really so excited. I’ll be working for Paul Holman Associates who are a fantastically well respected pantomime production company, who have done this for many years now, so I am totally over the moon about it and really looking forward to it!”

“We’re already looking at the songs for the show and one really good thing about this production is that we have a live band which I just think is absolutely fantastic and it will be a good combination of new music and older tunes and songs from musicals so it’s a great mix. I’m also really looking forward to working with seasoned professional pantomime stars like Bobby and Nikki and I just can’t wait because both of them are such big characters. Bobby won Opportunity Knocks so many times and he plays Dame so well and Nikki has the reputation of being one of the best female baddies in “Pantoland”.

I also asked Jon if we might get to see some of the dance moves he learned for the Superstar show and he told me, “Do you know what, I love a bit of a dance! I used to do productions where I used to sing and dance, but I think I might have to blow a few cobwebs away first. I think the next few months are going to be a very exciting time for me”

Sleeping Beauty, starring Jon Moses, Nikki Kelly, Bobby Crush, Tony Rudd and Sophie Bloom together with children from the Glendale Theatre Arts School can be seen at The Connaught Theatre, Worthing from 7 Dec 2012 – 5 Jan 2013

- by Paul Lucas-Scott

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