Ben will be our Prince Charming on the Eastbourne stage

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Ben Tyler heads to Eastbourne this Christmas for his first professional panto on the back of three years in The Book of Mormon.

This year’s Devonshire Park pantomime spectacular is Snow White which opens on December 6, the 23rd pantomime from the Devonshire Park Theatre team. Tickets are priced from £13. Call the box office on 01323 412000 or online at www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk.

“I used to do a lot of pantomimes when I was younger,” Ben says. “But this is my first foray into professional panto and it's just something I always wanted to do and didn't get the chance until now. I come from a proper panto family. We always used to go to the panto every year and I just loved it and I always wanted to be part of it. I think it was just loving the sense of fun. I was one of those people that sat in the audience and thought the people on stage are having such a great time that I want to be part of it and I thought that probably about panto more than anything else. I just love the silliness and the enjoyment of it all. I'm sure it's going to be really hard work but I'm sure we're going to have a fantastic time.

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“I have been reading the script in the last few days and I've got some ideas about how I want to play it,” said Ben, not long before rehearsals started. “But the great thing is that you can take your initial ideas about the script and then once you start, you can marry that up with what the director is wanting and what the other actors are doing and you just meld everything together. You come up with something that's going to be fun and that the audience will love and I'm really excited to be putting it all into practice.”

As for the role, he will be Prince Simon: “And there is a balancing act. I have always enjoyed playing people where I can bring some of my own colour and personality to it. Having read the script I can see there's a lot more personality than you would probably get with your typical prince charming but it's a nice thought to be able to add some of your own personality and to bring some of your own humour and show glimmers to make my prince different. I don't want to end up doing generic Prince Charming.

“I've just finished working on The Book of Mormon and I was in it for three years and it's definitely one of my all-time favourite shows. That was hard work too. It is really full-on high-energy and it's a difficult sing but the writing is just phenomenal. The script and the lyrics are exciting and the great thing is the care that everybody puts into it right from the producers to the original creative team to the resident creative team, and it all holds the show and ourselves to a very high standard that we have to hold to and that we have to maintain. It was a real bucket-list show for me. When I did my first show I thought I would never stay in anything for more than a year but it got to the end of the first year of The Book of Mormon and I realised I wasn't ready to leave it and exactly the same thing happened at end of the second year. It is such a great challenge. I was swing so I had nine roles to cover which really kept me on my toes. I really want to grow and challenge myself as a person in my work, and the great thing about this was that it never got easy. It was so much fun and so challenging that it was actually really easy to stay for a little while... well, for three years!”

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