AFTER chorus roles in three Stage Experience summer school productions at the Grand Opera House, Lizzie Nunn has graduated to the female lead in the York premiere of Our House, the London love story with the Madness songbook.

From tonight until Saturday, the Tadcaster teenager will play Sarah, the love interest of Joe Casey, who tries to impress the girl of his dreams with his bravado on their first date by breaking into the building site that overlooks his Casey Street home.

The police arrive, whereupon Joe’s life splits into two in the tradition of the film Sliding Doors. Good Joe stays and takes his punishment; Bad Joe flees; Lizzie’s Sarah has to deal with both.

“This musical is so different to any other musical I’ve done, because the story is so different, with the consequences of the two paths Joe goes down,” says the York College musical theatre diploma student. “It’s fun, it’s energetic, and there’s the whole Madness thing going on, and Louise [Denison], our director knows every trick in the book to make it to click.

“I love working with Louise because she goes straight to the point and she works very efficiently because she knows every single dance style so well.”

Stage Experience is not her only experience of performing for Louise. “I’ve done the professional pantomime at the Theatre Royal in Wakefield as a senior dancer, and Louise choreographs that panto,” says Lizzie, who appeared in Jack And The Beanstalk last Christmas and will be performing in Beauty And The Beast this winter. “I also go to classes at Scala [School of Performing Arts] in Leeds, where Louise teaches.”

Lizzie has loved rehearsing such a vibrant show, in which her character ages from 16 to her early 20s, as she grows more sophisticated and takes a serious job. “It’s mad, it’s Madness, but it has darkness too,” she says. “You can have fun with the songs, or at least with most of them; some of them are sad and the show puts them into whichever situation they suit in Joe and Sarah’s story.”

Stage Experience presents the York premiere of Our House, Grand Opera House, York, tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york