Leon to open new branch and only employ performers.

Like a West End version of Ellen's Stardust Diner?

I'm here for it. I'm a performer, currently auditionding but also a bar manager at a theatre. Times are hard, people don't take you seriously, at least this place will.

And also, wouldn't it be fun to go there?! Bringing over your salad whilst doing jazz ha ds and kick lines?! Fabulous!

Walked past this branch last night, it's the old Costa opposite Les Mis, just a few doors from The TheatreCafe. I'm not keen on this concept, it feels like exploitation.

I see the altruistic reason to do this and help our resting actors, but wouldn't just hiring actors be unlawful as it is discrimination against people from other careers?

Will it be the usual Leon menu? - I find the food is terrible and I avoid like the plague

I was two finger typing last night when I posted, so I'll clarify on my earlier post of feeling this is exploitation.

Couple of years ago a bar in Canary Wharf advertised for singing waiters. I showed this to my son's friend who was living in my spare room at the time, having fallen out with parents. He got the job and worked like a bloody dog, no singing, just hard work as a waiter.

Unless you get paid extra for "acting" the part of a waiter, you're just a waiter employed under false pretences, surely?

Goodbye Mr Chips?

I hope songs from Fat Club are sung over the cake counter

Ooh, I LOVED Ellen's Stardust diner! Although when I was there, in 2007, I put in a request for a song from Miss Saigon and they looked at me blankly and sang Popular instead because they didn't know any. But it was really fun!

And:

CHIPPIN!!! (Pippin). Starring Sam Chips, obviously.

If only the food at Ellen's was better - and the queues shorter...

Has anyone been?

I had time to kill before my matinee so spent 3 hours there chatting to the staff and filling up on tea.

Love the concept, and it was quiet enough when I was there, but in busy periods I'm not sure how well it'll cope. I wish it well.

I'll certainly return for a drink and bite whenever I'm in London as I love themes like this.

As long as in the job description it stipulates a singing ability, and they don't turn down people who can sing but aren't necessarily trained performers I'd have thought they'd be fine.

On another note, I walked past here the other day and was hugely underwhelmed. Think it's a case of trying to add a quirk to an already established brand. The two things just don't feel like they go together. So rather than it feeling like a unified experience, it comes across more like a busker wandering around a Greggs.