Jersey actor lands lead role in West End show

A Jersey actor has been announced as the leading role in a West End musical.

Morgan Gregory will be playing Percy Jackson in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical at The Other Palace in London from March.

The 24-year-old said his love of the arts was inspired from a young age and that his career would not have been possible "without the Jersey" performing arts scene.

Gregory, who moved from playing ensemble to the main role after auditioning and acting up as the lead for a week, said he was "over the moon" to officially land the role.

He said: "I love the show, I love the people, we have such a fun time... it's a real fun piece of theatre, so I think taking that step of of being of now playing the role full time will be will be interesting."

Gregory added he was nervous: "Percy kind of sits in this high energy place the whole time, so bringing that eight times a week is tough, but I'm really looking forward to it."

Gregory's past stage credits include performing in 42 Balloons, Elf, Newsies and Back to the Future.

Before heading to London to attend a performing arts course at Bird College, Gregory had appeared in a plethora of shows in Jersey.

He said: "The dream back in Jersey was to just kind of get to London and hopefully be on the West End one day, that was always the pipeline dream.

"To be in a position where I'm taking on parts is kind of more than I ever could have hoped for and I'm just so grateful to be doing that, but it's still down to those years in Jersey, of doing Jersey Academy of Dancing and Drama Lab and all that stuff."

Gregory said there was "never another option" when it came to his career.

"My mum went to a drama school in the UK when she was younger and she was so brilliant in what she did with the amateur dramatic community, it was always my life anyway," he said.

When asked what people could expect from his performance as Percy Jackson, Gregory said they would "love every single minute of it".

He said: "Most of the time the people and the kids coming to watch this, it's their first time sitting in a theatre, so to be up there and and being their first time watching this magic on stage is a wonderful thing.

"My aim right now is to just is to deliver that and bring that magic to life."

Gregory's first performance as the official lead role will take place on Wednesday 5 March.

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