Brian Beacom

ALICE of Wonderland fame is all grown up now.

The little girl who hung around with Mad Hatters and Cheshire Cats is still having all sorts of adventures, but she’s now a forty year-old woman living in a high rise.

She has a daughter. And when she takes an unused lift down into the bowels of the building a new adventure begins.

And this update of Lewis Carroll’s tale in new musical theatre show Wonderland is perfect for its star, Rachel Wooding.

“It’s the role I wanted,” says Rachel of the show with music by Frank Wildhorn.

“I have a daughter, Emilia who is two and a bit, and it means I get to spend the day with her having fun, and then going into theatre at night and having more fun.”

Rachel, who starred in Britain’s Got Talent last year is speaking from her Hertfordshire garden where her daughter is enjoying her first paddling pool experience

“I’ve just cut the grass before I got the pool,” says Rachel, smiling.

“I’m feeling really pleased with myself because it was turning into a real jungle.”

Yorkshire-born Rachel is already a well-known West End performer, having starred in the likes of We Will Rock You and Jersey Boys.

“I was playing the lead in We Will Rock You until 2014 when I became pregnant.

“Then I put all my efforts into this little person, and when Britain’s Got Talent rang me up and asked me to do it I thought the timing was right.”

She laughs; “And the auditions were handy. So I thought ‘Why not?’”

Rachel sang With You from Ghost – and left the audience and the judges slack-jawed at her performance.

Her BGT appearance attracted nine million hits on YouTube.

From that point, the offers began to come in.

“But I felt it had to be the right sort of role. I had appeared as Eva Peron in Evita, for example, and that was pretty dark.

“It’s not the sort of part you want to be doing when you have a two year-old to look after the next day.”

There was a huge pressure on Rachel while appearing as the Argentinian politician’s wife, the South American icon.

“It’s a hard role,” she recalls.

“You die on stage every night. Although it’s probably my favourite role.”

Yet, the run of the show coincided with the break up with her partner.

“It was sadness all around,” she recalls, “and not a nice personal time in my life. But weirdly, it helped me play the part.

“I wasn’t full of beans so I was able to tap into that seriousness.

“I guess you have to call upon whatever emotions you are feeling in order to get to the truth of the role.”

Rachel always wanted to perform.

“There’s no one in my family in the business. I remember when I was a girl my mum took me to see Les Mis in Manchester and I knew right then I wanted to do it.”

Rachel made it happen, taking off to London aged 16 to attend drama college.

“Luckily, I got to do it. And to still be doing it is no mean feat.”

There was no decision to be made between straight acting or musical theatre.

Rachel loves all forms of performance. Indeed, she has had straight acting roles in the likes of Coronation Street.

“I’m from Yorkshire, and I just wanted to work,” she says, emphatically.

“Luckily, when I’ve gone up for auditions for TV I’ve got them.

“But often when you’re in a long-term contract for a musical, TV producers are unlikely to take you on. It’s hard to fit you in.”

She loved the Street appearance. “Everyone was so friendly,” Rachel says of her part as hard-of-thinking knicker packer Kirk’s girlfriend.

Was she disappointed not to land a five year deal with a recurring role?

“The role of Mandy was easy to get. She was so me. But she was only every supposed to do a few episodes.

“So you accept that and just get on with it.

“But that’s not to say I couldn’t go back. Never say never.”

There’s no doubt Rachel loves musical theatre, and roles such as Scaramouche in We Will Rock You.

“I was playing a young, stroppy teenager,” she says, grinning, “which was something of a stretch at the time.

Now she gets to play her age in Wonderland, which also stars Coronation Street’s Wendi Peters as The Queen of Hearts.

“I do. It’s fantastic. And in this show you have everything you expect from the characters, but with a modern twist.

“It’s just so fantastic.”

Rachel adds; “Frank Wildhorn has written a lot of pop songs for the likes of Whitney Huston, and that come through in his work.”

The singer can’t quite believe how her life has turned out.

“I love it,” she says. “I get to look after Emmy during the day and then on stage I get my second wind and get to be Alice in the new Wonderland.

“It’s fantastic.”

*Wonderland, the King’s Theatre, July 3-8.