LESLEY JOSEPH STARS IN THIS YEAR’S TRULY WICKED PANTOMIME AT THE GRAND OPERA HOUSE!

Following the record-breaking production of Aladdin, the Grand Opera House will, this Christmas, stage the truly wicked pantomime – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - welcoming Lesley Joseph to Belfast as the ultimate panto baddie - The Wicked Queen.

Lesley will join panto legend May McFettridge, who this year marks her 21st Grand Opera House pantomime, alongside Aidan O’Neill and Paddy Jenkins for Northern Ireland’s biggest Christmas show which has already sold over 12,000 seats, nine months in advance of its opening night!

Although her appearance in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs sees Lesley Joseph make her Belfast pantomime debut, she has previously appeared at the theatre as the legendary Miss Hannigan in the musical Annie. The television and stage actress, who was part of the Grumpy Old Women team in the final of last Saturday night’s Sports Relief Let’s Dance competition, is currently touring the UK in the sell-out musical Hot Flush!

Lesley has starred in countless plays and musicals as well as numerous television and radio programmes. Although she is best known as the neighbour from hell, Dorien Green, in the hugely -successful BBC sitcom, Birds of a Feather, she has also appeared in Night and Day, What Not to Wear, My Bare Lady and Ready, Steady, Cook. She has also presented reports for BBC Breakfast and GMTV and is infamous for serving up a disastrous main course and dessert on Channel 4’s Celebrity Come Dine With Me!

Michael Ockwell, Chief Executive Grand Opera House, commented:

“I am delighted that we will be bringing Lesley to Belfast to appear alongside May in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This is a fantastic coup for the Grand Opera House and I look forward to hosting two of the greatest female icons of the entertainment world. Our audiences will be guaranteed a fabulous night with style, grace and traditional Northern Irish humour.”

Staged by Qdos Entertainment, the world’s biggest pantomime producer, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will have the Grand Opera House hallmark of quality and outstanding value-for-money entertainment for all ages.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs runs at the Grand Opera House from Saturday 4 December 2010 to Saturday 22 January 2011.

Tickets can be booked by telephone on 9024 1919, online at www.goh.co.uk or in person at the Box Office located in the Grand Opera House foyer.