Last updated 16:05, Wednesday, 24 September 2008

WEST End actress and singer Marti Webb has taken on the prestigious lead role of Mrs Johnstone in the national tour of Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers.

She will be performing when the show calls in at Carlisle’s Sands Centre from Monday, November 3 to Saturday, November 8.

Webb originally found fame with the role of Evita in 1980, before taking a lead role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats. She then received critical acclaim for her performance of Tell Me On A Sunday, written especially for her by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black as a television special and is also the distinctive voice behind the show’s number one album. Together, these television and stage performances led to many accolades being bestowed on Marti including a nomination for the Laurence Olivier award for Best Leading Lady in a Musical, receipt of the Manchester Evening News’ Best Performance award and being voted Best Female Singer on Television by readers of the TV Times.

In the 1990s she also co-devised and starred in The Magic of the Musicals, which produced a gold-selling album and was screened by the BBC, making Marti a highly distinguished star of British entertainment.

Set in Willy Russell’s native Liverpool, Blood Brothers tells the captivating tale of twin boys, separated at birth only to be re-united by a twist of fate and a mother’s haunting secret.

Tickets for the show are from £20.50-£28.50, telephone 01228 625222.