TALENTED young performers across the area are anxiously waiting to see if they have set a new world record.

Students of the performing arts school Stagecoach took part in a huge attempt yesterday afternoon to stage the largest number of simultaneous performances of one show.

Around 200 different Stagecoach schools across the world were due to perform “Glad Rags” at the same time – 4.15pm GMT.

If all the shows went ahead as planned, then this would smash the previous Guinness world record held by Stagecoach since 1999 when it staged 100 simultaneous performances of “The Rainbow Juggler”.

In High Wycombe, about 70 youngsters, aged from six to 16, took part in Saturday’s show at Wycombe High School – and are now waiting to see if they have broken the record.

Clare Davies, Stagecoach Principal in High Wycombe, said: “We had a successful show so feel we have broken it, but it needs to be verified by Guinness.” It may take until the New Year before this happens.

The record attempt was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Stagecoach, and High Wycombe students celebrated with a birthday cake after their show.

Ms Davies said, in all, around 650 schools across the globe took part in the weekend celebrations, although only a couple of hundred were due to join in the simultaneous performances. These included Beaconsfield and Amersham schools, she said.

Glad Rags is described as “a modern myth”. It was specially written by Veronica Bennetts, Stagecoach’s Director of Education.

In 1999, the successful record attempt raised £60,000 for Unicef.

This time around, the High Wycombe school is fundraising for two charities - Interact and the Ian Rennie Hospice at Home.