Leading lady Nicole Faraday, Sonia in GODSPELL, meets one of the original 70s Sonias at Brentwood’s Strawberry Fair

25 Jun Leading lady Nicole Faraday, Sonia in GODSPELL, meets one of the original 70s Sonias at Brentwood’s Strawberry Fair

This week, Brentwood celebrated the promise of the coming of summer with an all day spectacular, The Strawberry Fair, which saw thousands of people partying in the sun (just!) to acts headlined by the cast of the community production of GODSPELL taking place at the end of June.

Part of that cast, playing the bubbly and possibly a little outrageous ‘Sonia’ is Nicole Faraday, who has also been confirmed as part of the cast for PHA Pantomimes’ Cinderella, at the Pavilion Theatre, Worthing in the role of the Wicked Stepmother.

Best known for her iconic portrayal as the glamorous murderess Snowball Merriman in ITV’s smash-hit series Bad Girls, Nicole has graced UK screens in some of the most successful shows on TV including ITV’s Emmerdale as man-eater Veronica and BBC’s Casualty as Dr Heather Lincoln.

She has performed throughout the UK in stage productions including Relatively Speaking, Jekyll and Hyde and A Streetcar Named Desire and showcased her impressive vocal talents as Eva Cassidy in Over the Rainbow and Shell in Bad Girls the Musical, a role for which she was a What’s On Stage nominee and winner of Best Supporting Performance at the TMA awards.

Nicole can soon be seen in upcoming British feature film Ask The Cheat and will be appearing in Godspell the Musical alongside former Worthing Panto star, The One and Only Chesney Hawkes, who played to great acclaim as Prince Charming in 2017’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and will be trying to seduce him, as Jesus, in Godspell at the end of June.

At The Strawberry Fair was local MP Alex Burghart and his family, including his mother-in-law Anne Clements who appeared the original 70s production of Godspell.

Nicky said, ‘It was quite a whirlwind of a day, meeting the Godspell ensemble (who sang Day by Day so brilliantly) and fellow stars from Godspell including Chesney Hawkes, X Factor’s Sam Callahan and Danny Rogers.

Suddenly the producer grabbed my hand and said I had to meet someone and I was introduced to the (rather dashing) MP who then explained that his mother-in-law Anne played Sonia a few decades ago.’

Anne said, ‘I have great memories of that show and realised back then it was a musical that would be onstage for years. I was in a cast of ten with Robert Lindsay and Jeremy Irons. I am so please that Alex and Hermione will be taking me to see this show at The Brentwood Centre.’

The company of Godspell are in daily rehearsals for a spectacular show which will include a half-hour ‘pre show’ of Circus by Little Stars Circus and Harlequin Gymnastics, and sees Chesney Hawkes ascend a fixed trapeze.

Tickets are onsale from The Brentwood Centre’s website www.brentwood-centre.co.uk and following Chesney’s appearance with his son Casey on Good Morning Britain, are selling quickly.