Mel B reunites for £2m show with Leeds panto producer who cast her when she was unknown

LEEDS pop star Mel B is to star in what is being billed as the world's biggest pantomime production of Snow White.
Mel BMel B
Mel B

The former Spice Girl will play the Scary Queen and co-produce the £2m show, while starring alongside Take Me Out’s Paddy McGuinness and ITV presenter Rylan Clark-Neal.

The show will reunite Mel - real name Melanie Brown - with producer Jon Conway, who gave her her first big break in a pantomime in Leeds, before she found fame.

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The new production will be staged over the Christmas period and will be performed at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham and the SSE Arena at Wembley.

Mr Conway said: “Mel auditioned for me when she was 18 and I recognised her as having been one of Bernie Clifton’s little ostriches when she was just seven.

“She spent three years with me before directly joining the Spice Girls. When we met up again recently, she is just the same genuine, funny person but now a world superstar.”

Said Mel: “I love panto and always take my kids, but I want to change the slightly cheesy image people have of the genre and present something on a spectacular scale whilst still retaining the traditional values.”

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She said she hoped her daughter, nine-year-old Angel Murphy Brown, would play “a version of mini-me in the mirror.”

The singer, dubbed Scary Spice, added that it would be “like a movie on stage” and revealed plans to take the show to New York next year.

McGuinness will play a court jester and Clark-Neal’s character is Fleshcreep, a henchman, while the Strictly duo will play Snow White’s parents.

Clark-Neal said: “I can’t wait to work with Mel B as the henchman to her Wicked Queen. She’ll be scary, the dwarfs will be happy and it will be wicked!”

The show will also feature Strictly Come Dancing stars Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace, along with a 45ft castle, water and fire effects, a cast of 100 performers and a 30-piece marching band.