Getting the role felt like a full-circle moment, she said, having visited Birmingham Hippodrome – where she is performing a leg of the show – as a child.
She has also loved theatre since she was young.
“Worcester was a wonderful place to grow up in the arts, I was part of so many shows, amateur companies, I did classical music and musical theatre,” she said.
“[The Barnum show] is extravagant, it’s spectacular, it’s trying to be what Barnum was presenting which was just humbugging the audience, bedazzling them with nonstop sights.”
Ashmore’s ability to perform at all could be considered a miracle – as a teenager she had four cardiac arrests during one night, and her dad saved her life by performing CPR.
She now has an advanced pacemaker.
“I was definitely afraid that performing would be too intense a lifestyle after such a big surprise and health issues, but I think it goes to show I had a lot of support – I worked really hard to make theatre accessible to me,” she said.
“It really shows that from the absolute depths of fear, you can totally come back and follow your dreams.”