Mevio UK

She shot to fame when she won the show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? in 2006, landing the role of Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music but Connie Fisher has devastatingly had to pull out of the show after being told a throat condition will prevent her ever singing professionally again.

Rather ironically, she has suffered a similar fate to that of Dame Julie Andrews, who played the part of Maria in 1965 movie.  Dame Julie lost her singing voice in 1997 after she had surgery to remove non-cancerous nodules from her throat.

Turns out that although Joe McElderry lost his record deal, he hasn’t lost his fans, as he triumphed in last night’s final of Popstar to Operastar.

After finding out he had won and beaten Cheryl Baker, he said, “I’ve had an absolute blast with Cheryl, I love her to bits.”  Baker added that, “I didn’t expect to get this far and he’s fantastic. I had my money on Joe from the beginning. I’ve loved it.”

McElderry, who won The X Factor in 2009, was ditched by Simon Cowell’s record label earlier this year but he hinted that because of winning the show, his music may take a different turn, “My voice has been refreshed. For a singer and for me that is just so exciting. This is not the end of opera for me. I will definitely sing more opera and who knows, lets see what happens.”

Will someone in theatre just give the boy a role in the West End?

He’s totally perfect for it.

She won over the public in Strictly Come Dancing and Kara Tointon, 27, is hopeing to do the same as she turns her talents to treading the boards of the West End.

Tointon is starring as Eliza Doolittle in the famous My Fair Lady (Pygmalian) play alongside Rupert Everett as Henry Higgins and Diana Rigg as Higgins’s mother at London’s Garrick theatre.

Seeing as it’s the first time Tointon has played a lead role on the London stage, she was accompanied by her dancer boyfriend , Artem Chigvintsev, for moral support who she met on Strictly.

Russian Chigvintsev, 28, is based in LA because of visa issues and seeing as Tointon is pretty much stuck in the UK for work, the pair are finding it increasingly hard to see each other.

In March, Tointon spoke to ES magazine saying, “Having a Russian passport is quite difficult, as I’m discovering,” and last week on Twitter she wrote, “Just waiting for my skype date with my boyfriend. A month of skype dates now ! Longest it’s been. Aggrrrrrrr ! “

The Batman Live Arena Tour will take to the road this summer in the UK and the stars of the show have finally been announced after holding open auditions in January this year.

Batman and Robin were joined by The Joker, Catwoman and The Riddler at their unveiling today at London’s Royal Horticultural Halls.

The show is a multi-million pound stage production, the scale of which, has never been attempted before.  Engineered by Anthony Van Laas, a renowned choreographer who has previously worked on Mamma Mia! and Sister act, he said of the show, “What’s very important is that even though we can do the flying and the stunts and the circus and everything you’d expect from an extravaganza, I’ve said from the very beginning unless we have a really good story with characters we care about, the audience would get bored in about ten or fifteen minutes.”

It’s being touted as being neither a musical, nor a theatrical production, but “an elaborate all-new, all-action arena production aimed at kids and families.” The story will focus on the story of  young Dick Grayson (Robin), a circus performer who loses his parents to organised crime.

The show will open on July 19th at the Manchester Evening News Arena.

He was the winner who beat Olly Murs and finished some six places ahead of Jedward, was likened to being the British version of Zac Efron by Simon Cowell and championed by his fellow Geordie Cheryl Cole, but winning The X Factor in 2009 hasn’t been the way to success for Joe McElderry.

This was ever more reiterated when he was the support for Jedward in a free outdoor concert in Lisburn, Co Antrim.

John and Edward Grimes aka Jedward, have gone on to become a huge success despite being panned by critics; they are set to pocket £3 million this year just from advertising deals and are well off enough to afford a private jet to take them from public appearances to private parties.  The duo are a bar mitzvah favourite but don’t come cheap – it’ll cost £25,000 to do it.  They are joined by stylists, make up artists and PR’s on their numerous appearances while McElderry has only a driver for company.

A source said, “It really has spiralled downhill for Joe.  You could blame Simon or his mentor Cheryl Cole, but if the public who voted for you lose interest there’s not much anyone can do.”

We hope he doesn’t join the Steve Brookstein alum of X Factor and appear at Pizza Express gigs seeing as he’s definitely more adept to musicals and would surely shine in the West End.

It only goes to prove that winning isn’t everything and all those runner ups have a lot to look  forward to.

They were one of the most successful popbands at the height of their fame but when they reunited last night to celebrate band member Jon Lee’s appointment as Frankie Valli in the West End’s Jersey Boys, they showed just how much things have changed and how time flies.

The band were reunited for the first time in almost a decade but it was new mother Rachel Stevens, who outshone all the other ex ‘Clubbers.

Stevens. 32, has been the only one who has remained predominantly in the public eye and has achieved success as a soloist after the band split and more recently with Strictly Come Dancing.  Hannah Spearritt, 29, has been acting in ITV1′s Primeval since the split, while Tina Barrett, 34, is  trying to launch her solo career.

Paul Cattermole, 34, showed off his changed physique since leaving behind the energetic pop routines.  Cattermole was actually the first to leave the band but then reunited with Jo O’Meara, 31, and Bradley McIntosh, 29, in 2003 as S Club 3.

Above: S Club 7 as they were

S Club 7 were a manufactured popband put together by Spice Girls mogul and Simon Cowell’s rival Simon Fuller.  They achieved success throughout the UK and Europe with hits including Don’t Stop Moving and Never Had A Dream Come True.  In total, they released four albums, eleven singles and sold over 17 million albums worldwide.

Jon Lee made his debut in Jersey Boys on 15 March.   He will alternate the role with Ryan Molloy who is in his fourth year of doing the multi award-winning show.  Lee is no stranger to the West End stage, aged 13, he played the title role in Oliver! at the London Palladium and more recently has appeared in Les Miserables.

Last night saw stars such as Charlotte Church and Barbara Windsor attend the opening night of The Wizard of Oz.

Cheshire-native Danielle Hope, 18, made her West End debut after winning the Over The Rainbow TV talent show last May after being whittled down from 9000 applicants to the finalists by Church, John Partridge, Sheila Hancock and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Lord Lloyd-Webber and lyricist Tim Rice have since then been working on adapting the original 1939 film for the stage with the addition of several new tracks.

Last night though, the star of the show was not Hope, nor was it veteran star Michael Crawford but it was Toto, the West Highland White Terrier.  Four of the dogs, affectionately known as Westies have been cast in the role and Toto is rarely off stage as he follows his mistress Dorothy from the tornado in Kansas into Oz.