Joanna Forest will be joining her good friend and Gloucester local Mary-Jess Leaverland at Lydney Town Hall next month for the finale of their ‘Christmas at the Musicals’ tour.

The show is set to feature the two sopranos performing much loved songs from musicals including Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera, as well as plenty of Christmas classics.

For Joanna, the tour can’t come soon enough.

She said: “I’m so looking forward to it, I love Christmas time and I really love performing with Mary-Jess!

“We sang together at a concert in London and also performed a duet on Songs of Praise earlier this year. She’s so genuine and supportive, which is something you don’t always get in this industry.”

Singing has always been Joanna’s passion, and something that she says she always wanted to do since she was a young girl.

She continued: “My parents agreed when I was 11 years old that if I could get into stage school, I could attend it.

“I got in and loved it – I always enjoyed the singing lessons and it was there I really found my passion for singing.”

From here, Joanna starred in West End productions – where she made her debut at age 13 and worked with Michael Palin – and pantomimes, performing alongside the likes of Aston Merrygold and Shane Richie.

Then, aged just 21, Joanna was hit with life changing news.

“I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Joanna, who was starring in the ‘Best of Broadway’ West End show at the time, “it was obviously a massive shock.

“I tried to see it as just a temporary setback, but my confidence did take a hit and it took me a while to get back on stage.

“I work with the charity ‘CoppaFeel’ to raise awareness that this could happen to anyone, any age. I also want to use my story to prove that cancer isn’t something that can hold you back from your dreams.”

After beating the disease Joanna turned her focus to classical singing in 2014, making her first public performance singing classical music in a duet with Paul Potts.

Since then, it’s been a story of success after success for Joanna, who released her first album ‘Stars Are Rising’ in 2017.

She said: “I was the first independent artist to have their debut album go straight to number one in the charts.

“I was also chosen to record a song for the Queen and Prince Philip’s 70th wedding anniversary, which went to number one in the iTunes Classical singles charts. The song was composed by Olga Thomas and that was all so exciting!”

Joanna has already been busy recording her second album, which is set for release next March. In the meantime, she is looking forward to getting back on stage with her good friend for their ‘Christmas at the Musicals’ tour.

She added: “It’s going to be such a lovely, festive, Christmassy show!

“I know Mary-Jess and I are going to have so much fun doing it and I think it’s going to be great fun for the audiences too.”

‘Christmas at the Musicals’ finishes at Lydney Town Hall on Wednesday 19th December.

For tickets and more information visit www.joannaforest.com