SOME of Ipswich's young performers are to star in a major touring musical - it has today been announced.

SOME of Ipswich's young performers are to star in a major touring musical - it has today been announced.

Students at Stagecoach Ipswich and Stagecoach Felixstowe and Woodbridge are celebrating today after winning parts in the forthcoming Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stage show when it arrives in the region.

The 35 children aged between seven and 13 were selected from 50 hopefuls and spent the day with the casting directors from the West End who put them through their paces in a gruelling four-hour audition.

Rebecca Darcy, principal and Stagecoach Felixstowe and Woodbridge, said: “I am ecstatic. I'd never put forward any students for a professional audition and I think everyone of them enjoyed it.

“It is an absolutely fantastic opportunity and they are even getting paid for it which they are all very excited about.”

The show opens at the Theatre Royal, in Norwich, on August 17th for a two-and-a half-week run. The students will play the part of the children who live in the sewers and will be on stage for most of the second act.

Sarah Corbett, principal of Stagecoach Ipswich said: “Students had to learn part of the song Teamwork from the stage show before the audition and then sang together and as soloists before learning part of a dance routine from the musical.

“The children now have eight weeks to learn the other songs from the show and will begin intensive rehearsals with the cast from the West End on August 13.”

Alex Lillywhite, 10, from Stagecoach Ipswich and Tyler Leigh-Laytham, 10 and William Law, 12, from Stagecoach Felixstowe and Woodbridge will be soloists in the show

Does your child go to Stagecoach? Which is your favourite musical? What do you think? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or send an e-mail to eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk