LAST time Nik Briggs was at York Grand Opera House, he was watching a production of Jerry Springer The Opera. This time he'll be on stage himself, making his debut with York Stage Musicals (YSM) in the Queen show We Will Rock You.

The performing arts student from Newcastle plays Killer Queen's henchman Commander Khashoggi in the musical hit written by comedian and author Ben Elton in collaboration with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor.

The show is still running in London's West End, where the production is now in its sixth year.

It is set in the future in a place that once was Earth, where a rebel calling himself Galileo Figaro and his love interest, Scaramouche, must save Planet Mall from the extinction of rock music, free will and Queen forever.

The YSM production follows last year's sell-out staging of West Side Story at the Opera House.

Briggs became involved through Bretton Hall graduate Alicia Roberts. The pair met through the college, now the University of Leeds' school of performance and cultural industries.

"She's just graduated and I'm going into my third year. We've done two or three shows before with the university," explains Briggs.

Those included the musical The Witches Of Eastwick in which he played the devil and she was one of the witches.

"We Will Rock You has always been a show I've wanted to do," he says. "I've not seen the show, but I'm a fan of Queen and obviously knew quite a lot about the show. Unless I've seen a show before, I tend not to go and see it before I appear in it."

Khashoggi is a bad guy, there's no doubt about that. He's bordering on pantomime villain, Briggs thinks. He likens him to Dr Evil in the Austen Powers comedy films.

"It's been one of my favourite roles to play. He's very well-spoken, always wears his sunglasses and Armani suits. He's very well groomed."

Once he's completed his course in Leeds, Briggs hopes to move to London to start an MA in musical theatre. He originally went to study at Bretton Hall with the aim of directing, getting sidetracked into acting.

"The course was versatile because in your first year you get to test everything, and specialise in the second year," he says.

"I've only been doing musicals for the past two-and-a-half years and I've done something like 12 of them now. I still do a lot of straight acting but prefer getting out those jazz hands.

"I do have a passion for musical theatre and it's something that seems to be growing, especially with the Joseph and Maria programmes on the BBC."

The YSM cast features Northern Ballet-trained James Fackrell, lead singer in York band The Summits as social misfit Galileo. Another YSM newcomer, Vicki Lightfoot, plays Scaramouche, fresh from playing the Witch in Stagecoach Youth Theatre's production of Into The Woods. Sarah Barker is the power-hungry dominatrix known as Killer Queen.

There's also a 40-strong chorus to play the plastic pop Ga Ga Kids, underground rebels known as Bohemians and Yes Things, the Killer Queen's robotic guards.

Steve Pratt

* We Will Rock You is at York Grand Opera House from September 10 - 15. Tickets 0870-6063595.