West End stars will fill the Gaiety Theatre this weekend, for a Christmas show, celebrating the songs from favourite musicals.

Many of the Manx-born performers will take part in ’A Taylorian Christmas’, a concert of songs and scenes from some of the best-known, winter-themed musicals, which takes place on Saturday, December 8, from 7.30pm.

Starring in the show, organised by the Taylorian theatre production company, will be a whole host of actors who have grown up in the island and come through some of the island’s performing schools and have since forged professional acting careers.

These will include Georgia Maddocks, Lucy Penrose and Matt Overfield, all of whom having appeared in many hit West End shows over the past few years.

Lucy, who was raised in Castletown, recently appeared in Judy, performing as a young Judy Garland, and has also just finished filming a TV series for HBO. She will also star in this year’s pantomime, Cinderella, also held at the Gaiety.

Matt similarly has many credits to his name, most recently is currently starring in Motown the Musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

This show will also cap a momentous year for Georgia, who graduated from the London School of Musical Theatre and was signed by the agents Brewis Scott Associates.

Also returning to the island for the night are Manx students Connie Watson and Bethanie Christian, who been studying music and musical theatre in the UK.

They will be joined by a cast of UK stage stars, such as Charlotte Kennedy, Lizzie Connolly,Natalie Green and Scott Hunter, who have all appeared in big name musicals, such as Wicked, Les Miserables and Yank.

Also appearing during the concert will be a long list of local stars, who frequently grace the Gaiety Theatre stage in Taylorian productions, such as Simon Fletcher, Mandy Griffin, Krissy Sutcliffe, Graham Crowe, Jack Divers, Rachael Braidwood, Kayleigh Parkinson and Liz Dixon, along with a chorus line of more than 35 younger singers and actors.

Among the songs to be featured on the night are ’It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’, ’O Holy Night’, Winter Wonderland’, ’Baby it’s Cold Outside’, ’Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas’ and ’Last Christmas’, taken from such shows as White Christmas and A Christmas Carol.

There will also be some of the more traditional Christmas favourites included.

Matt James, producer with Taylorian Productions, said that this show was inspired by the success of their ’Sunday Night at the Gaiety’ show, held during the summer.

He said he was thrilled to be able to bring so many UK stars back to the island to perform, and that he hopes that it will inspire some of the younger performers in the future.

’This is a dream come true to be able to stage these phenomenal shows.

’We do what we do purely to entertain the audience members by putting on the very best performance as possible.

’Taylorian Productions is also very passionate about encouraging all those enthusiastic performers in musical theatre to audition regardless of ability. The island has an abundance of talent which, hopefully with our encouragement and, subsequently your support by coming along to our shows, will lead to the natural progression of talented performers over the forthcoming years.’

Tickets for ’A Taylorian Christmas’ are £25 for adults, with £22.50 for seniors and under 16s £20, available form the Welcome Centre and the Villa Gaiety box office, on 600555, and online from villagaiety.com

by Mike Wade

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