Oliver! - Jodie is Nancy
Story by Lizzie Guilfoyle
IN SATURDAY evening’s final of I’d Do Anything, Jodie Prenger from Blackpool won the coveted role of Nancy in the forthcoming West End revival of Oliver!
Of the original 12 contestants, three made it to the final – 28 year-old Jodie, 18 year-old Jessie (Buckley) and 17 year-old Samantha (Barks) and Samantha was the first to go, leaving Jodie and Jessie to battle it out for first place.
After presenting their own interpretations of As Long As He Needs Me, the girls chose their favourite performances of the series – for Jodie, I Have Nothing; for Jessie, The Man That Got Away.
Although the final result was down to viewers alone, the panel – John Barrowman, Denise Van Outen, Barry Humphries and Cameron Mackintosh (the show’s producer) – were evenly divided in their personal choices. While Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber favoured Jessie.
However, after the result was announced and perhaps not surprisingly as she had never come in the bottom two, he conceded that Jodie “was always going to be the people’s choice.”
Jodie will now join Rowan Atkinson (as Fagin) and Gwion, Harry and Laurence who will alternate in the title role when the production opens at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on January 14, 2009 (previews from December 12, 2008).