Musical theatre star joins Eastbourne concert

A former member of the all-female group Zyrah Rose who reached the semi-final of Britain’s Got Talent in 2016, Kara has gone on to enjoy great success in musical theatre including the lead roles in Cabaret and Cilla the Musical on regional tours.

But she’s currently awaiting a further knee operation – and the Eastbourne concert is a lovely way of keeping those vocal muscles in tone in the meantime.

“Zyrah Rose was an amazing experience and I'm still really close with the girls. We're still good mates but it's just that we went off on our own adventures. I would think we were properly together for about three or four years and it was just fantastic and we just loved performing together. I went to one of the girl’s weddings and another one is getting married next year. Emily's had a little baby and so have I so it has all been happening.

“But I was doing musical theatre before Zyrah Rose which took me off at a very exciting tangent and then I went back to pursue musical theatre and I got my big break playing Cilla Black in Cilla the Musical. I went for audition and somehow I managed to get the role. There were several rounds of auditions and eventually in front of Bill Kenwright himself. And we had a final round of auditions in the (rebuilt) Cavern Club in Liverpool where Cilla performed. For me it was just a question of listening to recordings and interviews to get her vocal tone. I couldn't say that I sounded exactly like she did but with the accent and the surroundings I do think the show was pretty believable and some people said that I did a good job at portraying her spirit. Her life was fascinating, knowing The Beatles and having the same manager as they did and coming from nothing, working as a coat check girl in the Cavern Club. It was really, really fascinating and I did it for about two years and I do hope that the show has another life but it just ground to a halt because of Covid.”

By which time Kara was on stage as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, another show which was cut short by the pandemic: “I suppose with Sally Bowles it was a question of trying to put my own spin on it but also understanding the humour and the charm and also the trauma behind the songs. They sound like pretty happy go lucky songs but when you really pay attention to what is happening in them you really get to understand what she was going through. It really was the most amazing part to play. But Cabaret also got cut short by Covid. We finished at the beginning of 2020 and we were supposed to go on for another two or three months after that. But we had been on the road for quite a while before then. I just loved the job. Vocally it was a lot easier than Cilla. In Cilla I had 18 or 19 songs and I was in every scene with never I break at all so Cabaret was easier!”