Actress and Singer Kate Marlais

Kate Marlais may need to revise her fairytales before hitting Pantomime season.

‘I’m playing Alice, the mayor’s daughter in Dick Whittington,’ she explains. ‘I’m a little upset I don’t get to be Puss in Boots.’ There is a pause. ‘Wait, is Puss in Boots in Dick Whittington?’ We both look confused for a while. He definitely has a cat, I venture. ‘I should probably read the story before rehearsals start,’ concedes Kate.

Pantomime season is the latest chapter in the life of an actress who has gone from strength to strength this year. When I meet her for an afternoon coffee, she’s just finished a hugely successful run at the Young Vic with The Human Comedy, a musical set in 1940s California which has just been nominated for an Evening Standard Theatre Award.

Critics raved about the cast’s moving performances, but it must have been a pretty exhausting experience for everyone concerned – Kate’s character, Bess, was in tears ‘probably for about 80 percent of the show’.

Kate’s tears aside, the show was notable for it’s 90-strong south-east London community chorus, which performed every night along with the professional cast. ‘The oldest person was about 72, she was brilliant’.

The Young Vic features high on Kate’s list of her favourite London theatres. ‘It’s just a great place to be, they put on so many interesting, different things.’ She also rates Islington’s Almeida, but admits that the Royal Court is always the ‘number one place to work’.

So how is she finding the capital’s famously intimidating world of theatre? ‘It’s a tough industry,’ she shrugs, ‘of course it is. But slowly, surely, I’m creeping up the ladder.’ Dream role? ‘In a musical?  I like a lot of modern shows like Avenue Q – there’s actually a Kate monster in that. There are also so many great off-Broadway shows in America that I love, but they never come over here – come on guys!’

‘Outside of musical theatre, my absolute dream role is Lady Macbeth. Perhaps not yet though, I’m far too young and innocent! Maybe in a few years when I’ve killed a few kings…’

When she’s not treading the boards, Kate sings with her group, Three Little Maids who currently hold a regular spot at the Old Vic’s Pit Bar.

The group, named after a song from The Mikado, originally formed at Kings College London and now perform a variety of public and private gigs around the capital.

‘Our catch-line is “cheeky, charming, close-harmony cabaret”, sort of 1940s-esq,’ Kate explains. ‘We also do modern pop songs, some ’60s, ’70s, a few show tunes…we try to make everything a bit different and we always arrange all our own music.’

It’s clearly a winning combination. Audiences seem to love the group’s off-the-cuff charm and witty performances, and they are building a strong group of regulars at the Old Vic. Kate remains her self-deprecating self when I bring this up. ‘We mess up quite a lot on stage. Well, I of course never mess up. It’s just the other two. They’re rubbish and they need to learn their words! It’s quite a running joke that they always forget the words.’

‘We’re all a little bit silly and disorganised. Our pianist Leo is an integral part of our act, and we do bully him quite a lot on stage. We just all have a great time really, and it’s great if people enjoy listening to us.’

Favourite audience? ‘Well,’ she leans in conspiratorially. ‘We seem to go down very well with the older woman. There’s this amazing group called the Red Hatters – a group of women that get together and, well, have a jolly good time really. We’ve played for them a few times and they love us! Sadly you have to be over 50 to join, or I’d be in there.’

So the next step is not playing Puss in Boots at the Wilde Theatre in Bracknell. (‘That’s Wilde with an ‘e’, after Mr Oscar’). ‘Panto is actually really hard work, it’s two shows a day, and of course it’s flu season so everyone gets ill…. But it’s amazing fun. I love Christmas.’

Beyond that, who knows. But with her irrepressible charm and determination, this might just be the one actress who can pull off Lady Macbeth and Puss in Boots. Now there’s a show I’d pay good money to see.

www.threelittlemaids.net