Conleth set to glitter in Tinseltown show

Lurgan's Conleth Kane (Boke Nubbins) and Hillsborough's Rhiannon Chesterman (Pookie Bogthrollop) perform one of the numbers from Paul Boyd's fantastic new musical Tinseltown.

Conleth, who was a frontrunner in RTE’s Fame the Musical four years ago, plays Boke Nubbins, a lovable young Tinsel from the Christmas village of Tinseltown.

He said: “I’m still trying to work Boke out. He’s quite innocent but he knows what he’s doing. Paul Boyd has written a lot of cracking tunes for me including the opening song, Spirit of Christmas which is really radio-friendly.

“It’s a parody of all those upbeat songs, similar to ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’. It captures the era of the 80s and 90s with all those big Christmas hits. Fifty per cent of Christmas is nostalgia. You listen to all those old songs and you never get sick of them. Paul has done really well to recreate that for a new generation of kids.

“Christmas is my guilty pleasure so it is right up my street. When he offered me a part in the show, I had no hesitation, I said ‘Book me In’. It is a chance to be a kid again. With this show you have to give 150%. It is full on energy from start to finish.”

Tinseltown, the 21st professional stage musical by the award-winning Newtownabbey born writer/director Paul Boyd, is a fantasy adventure exploring the quirkier side of Christmas. It runs at Theatre at The Mill from December 1 to 13. For more info go to www.tinseltownthemusical.com

Conleth Kane will also perform his debut Northern Ireland concert next Sunday evening (December 21) at 8pm at the Black Box in Belfast.

It will be an extremely intimate concert for fans of Christmas music and songs from the stage and screen.

Conleth will have two of Northern Ireland’s finest musical theatre exports joining him - Mikey Heath who is starring alongside Brian Conley on the UK Tour of Barnum, and Rhiannon Chesterman his co-star in Tinseltown who also appeared on the UK tour of the West End hit Hairspray.

The musical direction is under Northern Ireland’s leading musical director - Mark Dougherty of Riverdance fame.

Limited tickets remain for the show and Conleth will be performing one of the songs live, exclusively on BBC Radio Ulster on ‘The Arts Show’ today (Thursday) at 6.35pm to give everyone a taster of what to expect.