Jon Lee as Peter Pan

Singer Jon Lee flew into the UK from America earlier this month for a very important job – learning how to fly!

The former S Club 7 star is playing Peter Pan in this year’s panto at the White Rock in Hastings and top of his list of things to do was switching on the town’s Christmas lights on November 20, followed by learning his lines and practising how to look graceful while reaching for the stars above the stage of the theatre.

He’s previously starred as Marius in the West End musical Les Miserables, and was Oliver Twist 12 years ago in Oliver! at the London Palladium, but Peter Pan is his first panto.

He’s really looking forward to it. “Everyone can relate to him. All the kids want to be him and go and live in Neverland and not grow up. I just think it’s a great fantasy for all of us. The hero is always fun to play because you tend to survive to the end of the show!”

As the only flying he’s done before has been by jumbo jet – Jon now lives in Los Angeles – he’s excited about learning how to fly with just a wire to aid lift-off.

Ticket sales for the production at the White Rock have soared and are currently running at over twice the level seen in the previous five years.

Peter Pan producer Julian Chenery, who is also the creative force behind Shakespeare 4 Kidz said “We are delighted that the people of East Sussex are getting behind this show. When it was first produced in Croydon it was a five-star smash and since then we’ve made even more improvements to the production.”

“Not only do we have a highly talented – and very funny – troupe of experienced West End actors, but also singers and dancers from Laine Theatre Arts, one of the UK’s top stage schools, as well as local young talent from the Hastings area who will play John and Michael Darling, and of course the Lost Boys.”

Join Jon and a great cast which includes Hastings-based comic actor Steve Furst as Pirate Smee when Peter Pan opens at the White Rock Theatre on December 10.

Book on 01424 462 288 or for more information visit www.peterpanhastings.com

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Credit: Julian Chenery, S4K

Posted: November 25th, 2008