"There is going to be a little bit of Bublé... maybe!" - Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream star makes pantomime debut in Portsmouth
Darcy James is delighted to return to the stage this festive season as Prince Charming in Snow White – his first-ever panto and one nicely close to where he grew up in Farnborough.
Snow White is at Portsmouth’s Theatre Royal from Friday, December 12 to Sunday January 4.
It all comes on the back of Darcy’s success on ITV’s series Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream, where he impressed audiences and industry professionals with his vocal ability and stage presence. So much has followed on from there.
“I've never done the Theatre Royal before but Portsmouth was my local big town. I know it and I know the history – and the shopping! And this is going to be my first-ever panto. I haven't had the time before. You come out of drama school and either you have time or you don't but I'm so excited that I'm doing it and that it is local to home.
“This year just everything kind of worked out in the right order for it to happen and it's great that Portsmouth is so local as well. And it's a great venue with great people. It will be just lovely to see everyone so excited at Christmas. You can't do Christmas without panto, and panto is the best way to get in the Christmas spirit.”
He will be playing Prince Charming: “I would have seen myself in more of a comedy role really but I am excited to do this and I'm going to give it a little bit of a comedic twist. With every Prince Charming people sometimes just think it's a pretty face but I think that I can add some fun to it and I will certainly give him a bit of cheekiness.
“You just think that you can add some more things! I'm really excited to do the songs. There is going to be a little bit of Bublé... maybe! I do love my Bublé. I grew up listening to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin Bublé, and when you think about Bublé he is just such an entertainer really.”
Darcy has been working mostly in musicals and film and TV in recent times: “The past couple of years I've dipped in and out of it all. I found myself on the reality television show Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream a couple of years ago, and it all went from there really.
“I was really lucky that I got the show. 6,000 boys auditioned and 7,000 girls auditioned and they picked seven boys. The boys were all competing to be Sky.
“I went out a couple of weeks in but I've been doing this ever since. I think it pushed me to work harder, I would say. It's a hard industry anyway but knowing that you can get that far I think makes you think that you can make it, and really I just love theatre and film and TV. I just want to be doing anything creative, and stepping out of my comfort zone is a really big thing for me so I'm so excited to be doing panto.
“To be honest on Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream, the whole team were just so supportive. It was like doing another year of drama school. All the people that did the show were like brothers and sisters, and in fact one of the girls I was with on the show, Esme, is actually at the Kings Theatre (in Portsmouth) this Christmas.”
For Darcy it all comes at a busy and exciting time. He has just got back from Dubai where he played Teen Angel in Grease: “We are going to go back out there in February. We were out there for five weeks, and it was great. We left when it was still a bit sunny here and then came back and it was frosty but the people out there absolutely loved Grease.”
For tickets and more details visit the venue’s website at www.newtheatreroyal.com