Soap Star Jonathan Wrather to Star in The Palace Theatre Newark’s Beauty and the Beast This Christmas

The Palace Theatre are delighted to announce that soap superstar Jonathan Wrather will be spending the festive season in Newark as the odious Eugene in the brand new comedy panto Beauty and the Beast this Christmas.

Jonathan is a familiar face to soap fans all over the UK as he is currently playing the controversial character of Pierce Harris in Emmerdale.

Jonathan also played bad boy Joe Carter in Coronation Street from 2002 until 2003 as well as having roles in Fat Friends, Clocking Off, Holby City, Casualty, Silent Witness and the US hit series Bones amongst others.

A RADA trained actor, Jonathan has spent much of his career on stage including playing the iconic character of Harry in the UK tour of When Harry Met Sally, as well as starring in productions such as Edward II, The Duchess of Malfi, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and The Grapes of Wrath. This will be Jonathan’s second appearance in pantomime having previously appeared in the Victoria Theatre Halifax’s production of Jack and the Beanstalk way back in 2003.

Jonathan says "Doing panto is always enormous fun. Playing the baddie in one is great fun too as you get such strong reactions from the audience. Beauty and the Beast is a terrific story and I can’t wait for rehearsals to start this autumn.”

Steve Boden, Managing Director of Imagine Theatre who produce the pantomime says, “We are delighted to be working with Jonathan for the first time this year and thrilled to have him on stage with us at Newark. He is a hugely talented and experienced actor and, as per his character in Emmerdale, portrays a great baddie! Our panto character Eugene is similar to that of Gaston in the Disney version – his vanity makes it impossible for him to believe that Beauty does not love him and so he plots to kill the Beast. He really is a true panto villain!

This is our third year producing panto at the beautiful Palace Theatre in Newark with word spreading around the region about the quality and sales going from strength to strength. We are confident that Beauty and the Beast is going to continue the tradition of top quality panto at the Palace and will be another fabulous show.”

Beauty and the Beast runs from Friday 8 December 2017 until Wednesday 3 January 2018.