Jodie Prenger chosen as Nancy

Even though some were worried about her size, Jodie Prenger was voted to play Nancy in the upcoming Oliver production.  This was confirmed during the final show of I’d Do Anything on BBC.  When the show’s presenter, the grinning Graham Norton, announced that she was the winner Prenger was so aghast she was lost for words except for a polite ‘thank you’.  The part of Nancy was in great demand.  Prenger’s competition had come from the other finalist, Jessie Buckley.  When she heard that she was not going to win the part Buckley immediately ran to her family, in tears.

The three finalists up for the part of Nancy were:

Jodie Prenger a twenty eight year old singer from Blackpool.  Prenger had done the rounds of Blackpool’s bars and cabaret.  She had then moved on to become a cruise ship performer.  Her first claim to fame had been as the winner of Britain’s Biggest Loser.   She won the second series of the television show because she successfully shed her excess body fat.  Prenger was a size twenty six and is at present a size fourteen.  Even so, some believed she is still a bit on the large size for the role of Nancy.  It is believed that these concerns came from Cameron Mackintosh, the producer of the show Oliver.

Eighteen year old Jessie Buckley is a student.  She was the second runner-up and comes from Co Kerry, Ireland.  Buckley is the offspring of musical parents who encouraged their daughter to make the most of her talents.  She started acting at the age of seven when she was given a place in a school musical.  It was ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’.  Buckley did try to get into drama school and applied for a position at two in London but was declined.  She has been working as a waitress.

The youngest of the final three is seventeen year old Samantha Barks.  Until last year Barks lived on the Isle of Man.  She left the island to become a student in London.  In spite of her youth she already has some interesting experience under her belt.  This young talent has been a support act to Matt Willis and the Sugababes.  This happened while she lived on the Isle of Man.  She was also successful in becoming the winner of a ‘Maltese TV International Song Competition’.  Barks made it clear that her icon is Catherine Zeta Jones.  The young performer had no qualms about performing in thigh high boots and hotpants.

It must have been hard for Prenger to endure comments about her size especially after having lost an enormous amount of weight.  But she did so with grace and in the end it was the viewers who decided that she should play the role of Nancy in the musical Oliver.  Andrew Lloyd Webber did seem to be very impressed with Samantha but it was Jodie Prenger who got the all important vote.  This is a good indication that she will draw in the crowds when the musical opens in the West End.