ACTOR Stephen Matthews is looking forward to performing in front of a home audience in Anything Goes next week.

In fact just thinking about stepping out on stage at The Mayflower Theatre makes the 49-year-old actor feel ‘very emotional’.

The Southampton theatre is where the actor who plays the buffoon Englishman Lord Evelyn Oakleigh ..., got his first taste of live performance.

“I was born in Newport on the Isle of Wight and lived in Southampton up to the age of 18. My first ever experience of acting was here at The Mayflower, then called the Gaumont, in a production of Mame by Southampton Musical Society in 1977,” explains Stephen.

But he was last here in 2002 playing Lumiere, the walking, talking French candelabra, in Beauty and the Beast.

His role as an animated life-sized candelabra, with the ability to shoot flames from his ‘hands’, made him one of the most popular and loveable characters in the Disney show.

But the Mayflower is a particularly special venue for Stephen for other reasons. Quite apart from being the place where he made his debut performance, aged just 11, his mum and dad use to work there.

“My mum, Brenda, was the head dresser and my dad, Ray, worked on the stage door,” explains Stephen.

“When I think of the Mayflower I get quite emotional. You can kind of smell the building. It’s a wonderful theatre to watch in and to play in.

"Most theatres in London aren’t as good. I still know a couple of people working there on stage door, as dressers and in the box office which is great because it has that family feel.”

And Stephen feels he has a lot to thank The Daily Echo for: “As an 11-year-old boy I did my first performance of Mame with Southampton Musical Society after seeing an advert in the Daily Echo.

"Prior to that I’d only done the gang show Roverang at the Nuffield: had it not been for Mame and the Echo I don’t think I would be where I am today!"

Stephen has many magical memories associated with The Mayflower.

“I saw a lot of shows here when I was a child. I loved it. It was just that buzz of sitting in a big theatre in a plush velvet seat.

“I remember meeting the Two Ronnies. They were here with a fantastic stage show.”

With a childhood like that, Stephen was probably fated to become an actor. He's certainly convinced his exposure to theatre from such a young age was an important part of his education.

He studied drama to A-level and when he made it to drama school – the prestigious Arts Educational at The Barbican, he left after four days.

“I just didn’t feel it was for me. Then I did an audition for something and spent two or three years in rep doing all sorts of plays – and that was my training. I know so many people who have done it that way and all had a better career.

“I don’t think you learn anything at drama school. Most people, in whatever careers they have chosen to do, might enjoy themselves while they're training, but they get the biggest buzz by being out there doing it.”

Stephen’s stage experience is exhaustive but he says this production of Anything Goes is genuinely one of the happiest shows he has ever been with – for the audience and cast.

“It’s a fun show – a farce on a ship. It’s got those wall to wall classic songs that people know and it’s completely family-friendly. Children like it because it’s such fun and it’s really fast-paced, and so do 80-year-olds.

“It’s a great production with a fantastic company. I’ve never worked with a company that is more talented and lovely. It can put a lot of strain on you when you are away from home week after week. I’ve done it before with a company that is not so great and that’s really hard, but our company is a joy.

“We are hoping there will be a season in London’s West End too but it’s too early to tell; it depends on how well the tour goes.’ He isn’t worried about the long run.

“I did four years in Lion King as Zazu the bird, ‘babysitter’ to Simba and assistant to Mufasa, Simba’s father, which was great but there was a lot of puppetry. It was a long time but some people have been with that show eight or ten years!

"Like anything, you do something for a certain amount of time and then you need a new challenge. To do good work and enjoy what you are doing is all you can ask for.”

Cole Porter’s classic musical comedy Anything Goes opened in December to four and five star reviews across the board.

It tours until October. Southampton audiences can catch it at Mayflower Theatre from Tuesday March 31 to Saturday April 4.

When Billy Crocker discovers that his heart’s desire, debutante heiress Hope Harcourt is engaged to an English aristocrat, he stows away aboard the S.S. American to win her back.

Aided by a string of eccentric passengers on board the luxurious transatlantic liner, can this web of love be untangled before they reach Southampton?

Cole Porter’s uplifting masterpiece of music and dance includes the magnificent songs I Get A Kick Out of You, You’re the Top, It’s De-Lovely and Anything Goes.

Hop aboard for sassy heroines, mischievous mob bosses, comedy capers and tap dancing sailors in this hilarious tale of romance and hi-jinks on the high seas.

Tickets for Anything Goes are on sale from Mayflower Theatre Box Office tel: 02380 711811 or online at mayflower.org.uk.