Stage school Strictly Showtime will be performing Matilda the Musical in Alton next spring.

Auditions begin next month and aspiring actors and actresses aged from 11 to 18 can take part.

Those selected for the show will rehearse once a week for just over two terms.

The licence to perform Matilda become available in the UK only recently so Strictly Showtime’s pupils will be among the first children in the country to stage it.

Teacher Jenny Abbott said: “The Covid-19 pandemic was a real challenge for us as we kept the show on the road via Zoom with weekly virtual rehearsals.

“We’re so pleased our students will now be able to stage a show as exciting as Matilda. We have some very talented individuals who have not been able to perform for almost 18 months and they can’t wait to stage such a thrilling show.”

Former Strictly Showtime pupils have had some notable successes, with Alice Carroll winning a music scholarship to the Island Free School in Ventnor and Grace Savery going to stage school.

And Mack Wellfare, who played many lead roles with Strictly Showtime, has won the National Theatre’s New Views competition with a play about autism called Perspective.

After putting on large-scale musicals involving hundreds of children in Alton for several years, Strictly Showtime is expanding into Whitehill next month.

Classes for children aged from seven to 12 will be held in Whitehill Village Hall on Tuesday evenings at 5.30pm from

September 21.

They will be auditioning and rehearsing for Alan Parker’s spoof children’s gangster musical Bugsy Malone – featuring custard pies and splurge guns – which will be staged next March. Classes in Chawton on Wednesdays and Alton on Thursdays will also be auditioning for parts in the show.

There will also be classes in Chawton and Whitehill for children aged four to seven, who will rehearse for a mini-pantomime version of Cinderella at

Christmas.

Children can try a class free – details at www.strictly

showtime.co.uk – and parents can email bookings@strictly

showtime.co.uk or call 07875 764788 for information. The group is Ofsted-registered so childcare vouchers can be used for payment.