HENRY Bird, the guitarist and singer in York heavy rock band Coma, is to play Jesus Christ in his debut performance for the York Light Opera Company.

Instead of Hendrix and Aerosmith covers and Coma's own metallic compositions, he will be singing Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's rock opera songs in Jesus Christ Superstar at York Theatre Royal from February 24 to March 6.

He already had the long hair and the Robert Powell-blue eyes; now he has the beard too.

"The long hair can be a pain but it's part of me now," says the 19-year-old student from Haxby, York. "I've had to grow the beard for the role and it's taken three months, and it's still got bald patches. But I've had to trim it, otherwise it would be like one of those old Egyptian beards."

Henry may be performing for York Light Opera for the first time but he has not emerged from nowhere to land the role.

"Theatre has kind of run in the family; my mum and dad both played at Joseph Rowntree Theatre a few times in the 1970s before they married," he recalls. "I started performing at Ralph Butterfield Primary School, and I played Joseph for the first time when I was 11. I'd been to see the show, wide eyed as you are as a kid, and I'd really liked the musical, and I fancied doing it myself."

He was hooked. "They all encouraged me, my teachers and my mum and dad, and they gave me the confidence to do it. That carried on into the Joseph Rowntree School, where my English teacher in Year 7, Barbara Carlson, gave me the lead role in Tom Sawyer. I was still 11 when that happened."

Henry was talent spotted by Stephen Outhwaite, director of Flying Ducks Youth Theatre, who invited him to "come down and do a production" for the Haxby group at the Methodist Church.

"I was with them for six years, doing a show every year, and Steve really helped me to become a lot better as an actor, and practice makes perfect. Well, not perfect...!"

He played Joseph again, then the traditionally black role of Tyrone in Fame - "that was a challenge" - and Tony in West Side Story.

"I got to play my guitar when I was Cookie in Return To The Forbidden Planet, which was brilliant, and in The Music Man I had to sing the very, very high bits in a barbershop quartet.

"They were just great days because the Methodist Church put up with kids running around and being naughty every week. It was all about having fun," says Henry, who backed up that fun with the serious business of studying A-level drama.

Since leaving 'Jo Ro', he has pursued another of his passions, illustration, first on a foundation course at York College and now at the Hull campus of the University of Lincoln.

"With me it's always been either music or acting or art. Ideally, money permitting, I'd like to get this illustration degree done and maybe then do more theatre work, and get paid for it, but there is such competition in this profession," Henry says.

In the meantime he is rising to the task of singing the likes of I Only Want To Say (Gethsemane). "There are similarities between singing heavy rock with Coma and singing in this show. Judas is much more of the rock part than Jesus, but with Jesus you get to sing falsetto, and I did that at Christmas when Coma did a cover of The Darkness's Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)," he says. "I'm not going to deny that it's challenging doing this show but that's what it's about. There's no point doing it otherwise. I get such a buzz out of it, and I wouldn't do it if I didn't."

Henry is taking everything in his stride, even the prospect of playing Jesus in a city steeped in the history of the York Cycle of Mystery Plays. "Religion doesn't play a big part in my life but when we first rehearsed the Crucifixion scene, where Jesus says 'My God, why have you forsaken me?', I felt humbled and I knew I had to do it right. There was an eerie silence afterwards," he says. "I feel truly privileged."

York Light Opera Company presents Jesus Christ Superstar at York Theatre Royal, February 24 to March 6. Box office: 01904 623568.

Five men in the role of Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar

1. Ian Gillan, Deep Purple singer, on the original 1970 double album

2. Jeff Fenolt, first Broadway production, October 1971

3. Paul Nicholas, first West End production, August 1972

4. Ted Neeley, 1973 film version

5. Tony Hadley, Spandau Ballet crooner, BBC Radio 2 production in 1996 - when Julian Clary played Herod.

Updated: 16:09 Thursday, February 19, 2004