Michelle Collins, 59, patched up smile with CHEWING GUM after her front tooth was knocked out during panto performance in freak accident
Michelle Collins was left horrified after her front tooth fell out during a pantomime performance.
The actress, 59, is starring as the wicked queen Nightshade in Beauty and the Beast in Poole, Dorset, she was left scrambling for her missing gnasher while on-stage recently.
Former EastEnders star Michelle’s co-stars came to her rescue and fashioned a makeshift denticle out of chewing gum so the audience wouldn’t notice.
Blunder: Michelle Collins, 59, was left horrified after her front tooth fell out during a performance of Beauty and the Beast in Poole, Dorset
According to the Daily Star, she said: ‘[Fellow actor] Chris [Jarvis] and Sam our company manager we’re running around trying to help while I am panicking.
‘Anyway chewing gum saved the night. I just stuck it over the hole and I went on for the second act, thank god I had finished singing.
‘I sounded like Janet Street Porter with a lisp. Oh what a night.’
Unexpected! The actress, who is starring as the wicked queen Nightshade this season, was left needing emergency treatment from a local dentist (pictured 2020)
The one-time Coronation Street cast member had emergency surgery to fix her tooth at a local dentist in time for her next performance.
Her comments come after Michelle urged the public to support pantomimes during the coronavirus pandemic.
She told the Bournemouth Echo: ‘I think it’s really tough trying to do a panto in Covid because it’s completely different from olden times, we’re all having to wear masks, we take Covid tests every day, we only have two understudies and we’re all in bubbles, we know how important it is that we’re safe as well as protecting the audience.
Search party: Michelle’s co-stars, including actor Christ Jarvis, who plays Dame Batty Bonbon in the show helped find Michelle’s tooth on-stage
‘We really are putting a lot of effort into the safety precautions to the point where it was kind of stressful in the beginning, having to get up early and having to test but after a while you kind of get used to it because I think this is going to be the way of the world.
‘The hardest thing is having to try and act and sing with masks on, I think we’re all kind of terrified that if one person gets it then we don’t want to have to close, it will be every disappointing for us but mostly for the audience because I think people are desperate to see shows again.’
Michelle insisted families should feel safe going to the theatre, adding that it could provide a sense of normality for people during these difficult times.
Jester: Michelle said after the incident: ‘I sounded like Janet Street Porter with a lisp. Oh what a night’