Most of the young cast of the U.K.’s School of Rock — The Musical weren’t alive when the Spice Girls released their smash hit, “Wannabe,” in 1996. But that didn’t stop them from jamming out to the hit when former Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm a.k.a. Mel C joined them on stage Thursday night at the West End’s New London Theatre for a surprise curtain-call performance.
The visit came just weeks after her former bandmate Mel B unexpectedly burst into a snippet from the hit song during her final performance as Roxie Hart in Broadway’s Chicago.
At School of Rock — The Musical, Mel C, 43, traded off verses with star David Fynn — who plays Dewey Finn, the character made famous by Jack Black in the 2003 film of the same name.
She was backed by the show’s pint-sized stars, all of whom play their own instruments in the musical — about a wannabe rock star who poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school and turns a class of straight-A students into a guitar-shredding, bass-slapping, mind-blowing rock band.
The children’s band are so good, they were recently nominated for the Olivier Award (the U.K.’s highest honor in theater) for outstanding achievement in music. The show also picked up nominations for Fynn’s performance and for best new musical.
School of Rock — The Musical features music from the movie as well as an original score by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Glenn Slater. Its book comes from Downton Abbey scribe Julian Fellowes.
The show, directed by Laurence Connor, originally opened on Broadway in December 2015 at the Winter Garden Theatre, where it’s still playing. The London production open in November 2016.
Meanwhile, Mel C has been focusing her time on supporting her newest album, Version of Me. And while she’s not afraid to perform some Spice Girls classics from time to time, she has no plans for reuniting with her former bandmates Melanie “Scary Spice” Brown, Geri “Ginger Spice” Halliwell Horner and Emma “Baby Spice” Bunton — who have reunited as a new spinoff group GEM (a name made from the initials of their first names).
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“Truth be told, earlier this year after several face-to-face meetings with the girls I made the difficult decision not to be part of a proposed reunion with Emma, Geri and Melanie,” Chisholm wrote in a personal essay for the September issue of U.K.’s Love Magazine.
“ had already bowed out understandably with the demands of her fashion label and her rather large family,” she revealed — noting, for her, the “pinnacle” of her Spice existence was performing at the 2012 London Olympics for millions of people around the world.
As for what’s to come for GEM, plans still haven’t been announced since the ladies first announced the grouping in July — built as a celebration for their 20th anniversary. Whether they choose to head out on a tour, put out an album, or just a few new songs, the ladies have promised to give fans “what they want, what they really really want.”
from PEOPLE.com
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