Second time lucky for Far North singer

Taipa's Lucy Houtas plays the part of Nancy in Oliver!, a Kerikeri Theatre Company production. Photo / Peter de Graaf

For one of the actors in the Kerikeri Theatre Company musical Oliver! it's a chance to finally perform in a show she auditioned for more than 20 years ago.

UK-born Lucy Houtas, now living in Taipa, had a 12-year career acting and singing in London's West End, making her debut in Beauty and the Beast.

She had a season as Miranda in Return to the Forbidden Planet, a sci-fi musical based loosely on Shakespeare's Tempest, and played the part of Alycia in Woody Allen's Murder Mysteries.

But then she moved to New Zealand and settled in Doubtless Bay. Raising a family kept her busy and in any case there were few opportunities for musical theatre in the Far North, so performing went on hold.

Her role in Oliver!, a musical based on Dickens' Oliver Twist, is her first time back on stage in a decade.

Mrs Houtas said Oliver! had special meaning for her because it was the first show she auditioned for after graduating from the London School of Musical Theatre.

She was called back three times but in the end nerves got the better of the freshly graduated 20-year-old and the part went to someone else.

When she heard Kerikeri Theatre Company was staging the same show she was determined not to miss out a second time.

"It's really nice to finally get to play it, almost 20 years later," she said.

Mrs Houtas plays the part of Nancy, girlfriend of the thuggish Bill Sikes (played by Willie Henley of Kaikohe), who takes a shine to the young Oliver but comes to a sticky end.

When she's not acting in Kerikeri Mrs Houtas runs Kaitaia's Community Choir.

■ Oliver! will be performed at the Turner Centre from July 11-15 with matinees on July 12 and 15. Tickets are available from the Turner Centre box office ($28 adults, $15 students/children).