51Âþ»­

students got to belt out songs with up and coming Broadway stars on their visit to in New York City.

The 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­) group queued for a table at the iconic Times Square diner, staffed by singing waiters and waitresses who hope to be spotted by producers and writers. Several have gone on to appear in The Lion King, Avenue Q, Jersey Boys and Wicked.

Times Sq inset

And the 51Âþ»­ students - Dale Hasty, Charlotte Brown, Louisa Pomfret, Samantha Nicholls, Laura Emery and Molly Daniel - joined in the singing and dancing – and then discovered their waiter Danny Brooks was due to perform at Leicester’s Firebug pub on January 20.

Molly said: “He asked where we were from and we said London thinking people won’t have heard of Leicester, and he said he was visiting London then on to a place called Leicester, playing a gig at Firebug!

“We could not believe it, we’re now going to meet up with him and show him round the city.”

“He was not supposed to be our waiter at first, but he took over after someone took a break,” explained Charlotte. “It is so random that he was coming to Leicester and ended up being our waiter.”



Danny is touring the UK with fellow ‘Starduster’ Nikki Pope, who has just released her first EP. They play Leicester’s Firebug tomorrow (January 20).

All the staff working at Ellen’s earn tips which go towards their lessons be it music, dancing or singing. It is also regularly featured in films and TV programmes.

Dale, who got to perform Don’t Stop Believing’ by Journey at Ellen’s, said: “It was such an incredible place. We had to queue to get in but it was so worth it. Everyone there is hoping to get onto Broadway and they do performances, singing musicals and even Backstreet Boys which was fun.”