Christmas came early to Orchard West on Monday 28th October for the launch of this year’s pantomime, Sleeping Beauty. Representatives of Imagine Theatre (the show’s producers) and members of the cast visited to discuss the pantomime and give short performances. Simmons and Simmons (locally based father and son panto supremoes), Christian Lee (Britain’s Got Talent finalist 2016) and Sydnie Christmas (locally based Britain’s Got Talent winner 2024) all gave excellent performances that had everyone laughing and impressed by their talent – even the Mayor of Dartford went on stage to be a glamorous assistant. Sleeping Beauty will be running from Saturday 14th December 2024 to Sunday 5th January 2025.
I had the honour of meeting with Christian Lee (Josh the Jester), Sydnie Christmas (Fairy Christmas), Lucy May Pollard (Sleeping Beauty) and Larissa Alexandrovnia (the wicked Carabosse) who are all part of this year’s cast.
Christian Lee
My first chat was with Christian Lee (an award winning comedian, actor, musician and mime artist and an Associate of the Inner Magic Circle) who reached the finals of Britain’s Got Talent in 2016. His views on YouTube have exceeded 500 million and Time Out magazine dubbed him the ‘King of Comedy Magic’.
We started by discussing Christian’s links with Dartford. He replied that he had previously had the pleasure of performing in Dartford with Cirque the Greatest Show and was incredibly happy to be back.
We then discussed his favourite memory from being on Britain’s Got Talent (BGT). Surprisingly, he replied that his favourite memory was not from live shows but from a semi-final rehearsal. He recalled how he had recognised someone who was smiling at him whilst watching from the wings but that he could not quite place the face. The penny finally dropped when the person moved across the stage and stood next to Declan Donelly – he could not believe that it had been Ant McPartlin! He added how supportive this pair were to him and all the other acts.
We moved on to talking about who had been his favourite judge of BGT. This was Amanda Holden but not just because she joined him on stage to be his glamorous assistant but that she has continued to support him and he has met her several times since.
After that I asked him what had resulted from being on BGT that he did not expect. His response: the initial lack of work. When asked why he thought this was, he replied that all his ‘bread and butter’ work dried up because they all thought he would now be too busy. He described how he had to ‘reinvent himself’ and take on an agent. He worked on cruise ships, at holiday parks and went into pantomime, including playing Wishee Washee in Aladdin in 2017 alongside actor Clive Mantle.
Our conversation then turned to how he feels have over 500 million views on YouTube. Christian laughed and said it made his fingers hurt with all the tapping (he really is naturally a very funny man), but then he reflected that he is more famous from having YouTube clips rather than any television work.
We finished our chat by discussing how Time Out magazine had dubbed him the ‘King of Comedy Magic’ and who he would award this title to and why. The answer was Joe Pasquale in the UK or Kevin James in the US because he finds them very funny and has a deep respect and appreciation for how they craft their comedy.
Sydnie Christmas
I was then delighted to chat with Sydnie Christmas – a singer and actress who won Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) earlier this year. She is a local lady (born in Sidcup). She has been very open about applying to BGT because she wanted to work in the West End in London but the work she was getting was generally taking her overseas. She had applied to BGT several times but this year proved to be the charm – and she has certainly charmed lots of people since she took the BGT title for 2024 and stunned everyone in the audience with her amazing voice. She made a point to thank the audience present for their support as she was sure that it was us locals voting for her that tipped the votes in her favour!
I asked her what her favourite memory was from being on BGT. She replied that it was when she sang ‘My Way’. She explained that she had been extremely nervous as she reached singing the last note of the song, but that those nerves had vanished when she looked up and saw a sea of wristbands glowing and swaying in the audience. In fact her ‘Auntie Tina’ gave her one of those wristbands afterwards as a memento.
People who watched BGT probably remember Sydnie’s audition and her being told that Simon Cowell hates the song ‘Tomorrow’. Sydnie described the awful feeling this gave her on top of already feeling nervous but the audience felt so supportive – she had already been on stage talking to the judges for seven minutes – that she decided to stick with it and thought, ‘Let’s try and change his mind.’ The rest is already history!
Our conversation then moved on to what had surprised her most since winning BGT. Her response was the ‘whole experience’ (as it had taken 4 attempts to get on to the show) and everything that has happened since has been amazing. Work flooded in from the instant she won. In fact Sydnie was so busy that it took the BGT team 2 weeks to catch up with her in order to pay her the prize money!
Sydnie has released an album called ‘My Way’ and has stressed that all of the tracks on the album presented themselves to her either because they have a special meaning to her or struck a chord with her. For example the version of ‘Over the Rainbow’ she has included was performed by Lauren Allred (an idol of Sydnie’s) in February 2024 and Lauren gave Sydnie permission to use it whilst they were Facetiming ahead of the live shows.
We moved on to talking about where Sydnie sees herself in 5 years’ time. “The amazing thing is not knowing,” was her reply. She mentioned that she felt honoured as she would soon be singing in Los Angeles as part of David Foster’s 75th birthday celebrations with the likes of Michael Bublé, Jennifer Hudson and Andrea Bocelli. She has always admired David Foster and it was something that she could only have dreamed of just months ago!
She continued to explain that she would love to play the role of Calamity Jane one day as the role resonates with her. “She is me, a blossoming lady, but someone who can get down with the blokes and Doris Day was amazing.”
Sydnie will be performing at the Royal Variety Performance on 22nd November 2024 as a result of winning BGT. She described herself as being “mega excited and there is no verb to describe how I feel to be honest.” The producers chose a song called ‘Believer’ from her album that was originally released by Imagine Dragons and how she had put a ‘Bond’ feel on the track as she would love to record a Bond theme. She described how all the acts for the Royal Variety Performance would probably have one day to rehearse which would mean her possibly running through the song twice before the live performance.
Sydnie is massively looking forward to performing in Sleeping Beauty at Dartford West this Christmas partly because it means she will actually be able to spend her first Christmas at home having been working away from home for many years.
Lucy May Pollard and Larissa Alexandrovnia
Finally, I had the pleasure of meeting Lucy May Pollard (Sleeping Beauty) and Larissa Alexandrovnia (Carabosse) for a joint chat. They are both West End actors: Lucy has performed in Matilda and Billy Elliot and Larissa in Sister Act.
I asked both ladies if they had any links with Dartford. Both knew Dartford fairly well: Lucy lives in London and has family in Maidstone so often passes through; and Larissa, who lives in Blackheath, fell in love with panto when she saw her first ever at the Orchard back in the 1990s. Larissa also had fond memories of visiting Zens nightclub some time ago with Craig Revel Horwood, whilst he was in panto here.
Being West End actors, we discussed their dream roles: Lucy would love to play Miss Honey in Matilda or Sister Mary Roberts in Sister Act and Larissa named Madam Morible in Wicked and Rosie in Mamma Mia. Imagining both of these ladies in those roles was not at all difficult! They also both agreed that it would be cool to be a judge on programmes like ‘Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream’.
We discussed the most memorable places where they had performed. Lucy had Royal Ballet training so her location was the Royal Opera House where she performed as a Spring Paige in Cinderella and remembered having to hold a pretend lamb. Larissa recalled being star struck when she performed at the Olivier Awards at the Royal Albert Hall and will never forget when she performed with the Sister Act cast at the Royal Variety Performance. In terms of where the ladies would still love to perform, Lucy’s was the Sydney Opera House (she is half Australian) and Larissa’s was the London Palladium.
The conversation then turned to the joys of working on stage. Both ladies agreed that one of the best aspects is working so closely together for long hours (rehearsing and performing) that supportive, lasting friendships are made and this creates a ‘positive vibe’ within each cast – something that is certainly true for the Sleeping Beauty cast this year!
I asked if both ladies had any advice for any aspiring performers. The immediate response: work and train hard; do not take rejection personally as it is always about the role not you; and to persevere as it is a ‘numbers game’.
We then discussed combatting nerves before performing. Both ladies admitted that they still get nervous before going on stage but that it is a good thing because as Larissa stated,”You don’t care enough if you are not nervous”. Lucy shared how she helps herself to combat nerves – she heard that the brain cannot process anxiety and gratitude at the same time, so when she feels nervous she looks around and focusses on something positive that she can be grateful for. The nervous knots then seem to undo. Whether or not the brain comment is true, this works for her!
It was a complete privilege to meet all these amazingly talented people and it looks like this year’s panto, Sleeping Beauty, is not to be missed. The producers state that family is at the heart of everything about the panto so there is sure to be something to entertain every member of the family from the youngest to the oldest. It will be running from Saturday 14th December 2024 to Sunday 5th January 2025 so grab your tickets before they sell out.