YOUNG Ashley Margolis is taking a starring role in Walt Disney's lavish stage production of Beauty and the Beast.

The nine-year-old schoolboy is following in the footsteps of his father, Robert, a founder member of Bolton theatre company NoHow Productions.

Ashley is one of four youngsters chosen to appear on alternate nights as Chip in the touring production of Beauty which is at Manchester's Palace Theatre until February.

Another is Charles Butcher, aged eight, a pupil at Miss Dawn Dawson's Bolton Academy of Dance and Stage.

Both boys are experienced hands on stage despite their tender years. Charles says: "I have appeared in lots of different productions from the age of three, most recently at the Blackpool Winter Gardens."

And despite his age, Charles will already be familiar to Bolton Evening News' readers. The youngster scooped top prize in the newspaper's talent show two years ago, singing Little People, a song from Les Miserables.

Mum, Steffany Duerden, said: "We are all really pleased for Charles and proud of him for doing so well. Who knows, it may lead on to bigger and better things.

"Charles says he wants to be a musical director and choreographer when he is older."

Ashley's first appearance came when he was just two. He appeared as the baby Jesus in a NoHow Christmas show.

Nora Howcroft, from NoHow, said: "We are all very proud of Ashley. He just wants to go on the stage. That is all he has ever wanted to do."

NoHow Productions was formed 12 years ago and stages an annual charity show in Bolton, last year for the Coronary Care Unit appeal. This year's show, A Magical Musical Christmas, is on December 5 and 6 at the Walmsley Church's Parish Hall, Egerton -- all proceeds to the church's organ fund.