On This Day: Darius Made His Panto Debut In 2010

On this day in 2010 Darius made his debut performance in the pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, at the King's Theatre in Glasgow.

Talking to the Daily Record at the time of the launch he said that before he took on the role of the Prince he had a few requests:

"I wanted seven real dwarves, I wanted to sing Michael Bublé songs and finally I told them that this Prince Charming doesn't wear tights - he wears a Kilt."

He was also pleased to be home for Christmas saying:

“ It's good to find a reason to be in Glasgow for so long. Part of the thing you want to do as a performer is play to your home crowd. It's rare you get a chance to do that to thousands of people over many, many nights in such a traditional family way.

"This has been a year of firsts for me - winning Popstar to Operastar to performing my first Opera with the Royal Philharmonic in front of 20,000 people.

"That scope and scale was amazing. It was a dream come true to be the bullfighter Escamillo, to be the youngest guy ever to play that role in professional opera and to be the only person to perform who isn't classically trained. But I missed the intimacy you get with an audience in a theatre. The 02 is so big you don't even know there is an audience because of the way the lights are.

"I love that interaction with the audience. You know you are doing your job because you can see their faces, you get instant feedback.

"Panto is like that. If you are not getting a laugh every 30 seconds, or you are not getting a boo or a hiss or a shout of 'he's behind you!' you are not doing your job right."

Darius revealed that it was seeing his intended co-star Gerard Kelly, who after a brain aneurysm, aged 51, when he was a kid that made him a lifetime fan of panto.

He said: "I fell in love with it when I was 10 years old, watching Gerard in Mother Goose at the King's. Then I watched him in Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty. I remember thinking he was like a cartoon character but was real. Then you realise it's because he wore the same wig in every show."

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