Nina Söderquist
|
The votes are in and Nina Söderquist will be the new Lady of the Lake for the West End’s
Spamalot. Söderquist won the Swedish reality TV contest called
West End Star, beating out Linda Holmgren in the live finale with 59% of the votes from the viewing public. Her first performance as The Lady of the Lake will take place at London’s Palace Theatre on 11 February.
A 35-year-old singing waitress from Hälsingland, Sweden and a lieutenant in the Swedish Army, Söderquist has worked alongside many bands including Toto and The Bee Gees as well as collaborating with U.S. singer Robin Beck. She performed at the Victory Concert for Sweden’s Olympic gold-winning hockey team, the Swedish Soccer League at the World Championships in Berlin and has performed in Afghanistan for the American troops.
“I am so happy to have won West End Star, for a second I thought I was actually going to die on live TV!” Söderquist exclaimed.” It’s a dream come true—I can’t quite believe I will be Spamalot’s new Lady of the Lake! Before I entered West End Star, I had never sung a song from a musical. I had only ever seen one musical my life, Cats as a teenager on a school trip to London.” For her West End Star audition, Söderquist performed “Georgia on My Mind” by Ray Charles and “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor. Her winning performances of “With One Look” from Sunset Boulevard, “Tonight” from West Side Story and Spamalot’s “Diva’s Lament” secured her chance to join show.
West End Star held open auditions during September and October last year in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo where a panel of experts saw over a thousand girls. The five finalists, voted for by the viewing public, have been rehearsing at the Palace Theatre with the cast and crew of Spamalot. Over this period, the finalists have returned to Sweden once each week to face the judges and the viewing public in a live TV sing-off.
The London production of Spamalot currently stars Peter Davison as King Arthur, Marin Mazzie as The Lady of The Lake, Robert Hands as Sir Robin, Steven Kynman as Prince Herbert, Graham MacDuff as Sir Dennis Galahad, Andrew Spillett as Patsy, Tony Timberlake as Sir Bedevere and Jake Nightingale as Sir Lancelot. Alan Dale will take over the role of King Arthur from 3 March.