WHERE is David Leonard, former hip-swivelling pantomime villain of this parish, strutting his slinky stuff this festive season?

The erstwhile York Theatre Royal regular rogue has acquired a pencil-slim moustache to play suave hot-shot lawyer Billy Flynn in Paul Kerryson’s makeover of Kander and Ebb’s sardonic musical Chicago at the Leicester Curve.

Lyn Gardner describes him as “the excellent David Leonard” in her review of his “Barnum-style showman”, while Kieran Johnson in What’s On Stage writes: “Leonard captures the humour of the sleazy Billy Flynn in a terrifically comedic sense. His centrepiece is Razzle Dazzle, which is a visual treat from the moment the pink feathers enter from the wings.”

The Daily Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish, meanwhile, says “hats off to David Leonard’s seedily alluring lawyer” in praising Kerryson’s “spanking new revival” as “one of the stand-out shows of the year, against all expectations”. To top it all, Lizz Brain, in the Leicester Mercury, reckons Leonard’s performance is “so slick one wonders that he doesn’t leave a trail of oil across the stage”.

Dame Berwick Kaler admits to a fall-out with the honey-voiced North Easterner he unequivocally calls “the best villain in the business” during the 2011-2012 run of The York Family Robinson.

For “fall-out”, read pantomime’s equivalent of the standard “musical differences” explanation when a band splits. Berwick subsequently has said that “times move on”, with Jonathan Race now into his second season as the bearded baddie with the “Ding Dong!” and “Nobody likes me” catchphrases.

David took up a year’s contract to play the terrifying Miss Trunchbull in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda at the Cambridge Theatre, Covent Garden, from July last year. That run as the wicked, jealous headmistress of Crunchem Hall ruled him out of a Theatre Royal pantomime for the first time since 1995, but Race’s renewal of contract earlier this year forestalled any chance of a Leonard return to York this winter.

Instead, along with the bones of Richard III, he is in Leicester, a city where he graced the Haymarket stage on numerous occasions, including in Guys And Dolls, JB Priestley’s When We Are Married and, as chance would have it, Shakespeare’s Richard III.

David is relishing his renewal of acquaintances with artistic director Paul Kerryson, as he told the Leicester Mercury.

“I’ve not done a musical with Paul for such a long time and he is a brilliant director,” he said.

“As for Chicago, it’s so exciting to go back to the original book; I think the show lost some its bite and darkness over the years. It’s really an incredibly cynical story about celebrity, corruption, voyeurism, yet it’s all in collusion with the audience and all the vaudeville characters make it gloriously corny.”

David last appeared on the Curve stage in The Long Road and, like that other “villain” Richard III, it could be an even longer road back to York, but just as “times moves on”, so time can heal.

In the meantime, should you fancy a trip down the M1 to see David starring alongside Emmerdale graduate Verity Rushworth as Velma Kelly and Gemma Sutton as Roxie Hart, Chicago sizzles at Curve until January 18 in a run newly extended by four days. Box office, 0116 242 3595 or curveonline.co.uk