Melanie C gets the Posh look in a sleek Victoria Beckham dress for theatre awards

She was once known as Sporty Spice on account of her love of tracksuits and is currently playing a dowdy Liverpudlian mother in West End show Blood Brothers.

But last night Melanie Chisholm took a step into unfamiliar territory and who better to guide her than former Spice Girl turned high fashion priestess Victoria Beckham.

For her red carpet debut at the prestigious Olivier Awards, Melanie stepped out in one of Victoria's highly sought after gowns, the Perrault from her Autumn Winter 2009 collection.

Turning heads: Melanie Chisholm looked stunning in a glamorous floor-length black dress complete with flowing train at the Laurence Olivier Awards last night

The singer-turned-actress looked chic and glamorous, and incredibly slim in the dramatic full length gown, complete with a flowing train, and sequin shoulders, as she took her place among theatreland's great and good.

With her hair swept back into a stylish plait, the 36-year-old was certainly one of the fashion highlights of the night.

And she looked just as good as the dress's designer, who wore the same unforgiving dress to a post-Oscars party in 2009.

Style guru: Victoria wore the black gown to Elton John's AIDS Foundation Oscar party last year

Mother of one Melanie was pictured on the red carpet at the Lawrence Olivier Awards last night at London's plush Grosvenor House Hotel.

She was nominated in the musical category for her role as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers, in which she she is due to end her six-month run at the Phoenix next month.

But despite receiving critical acclaim for her West End debut, she missed out on the gong.

Instead Samantha Spiro took the award for her turn in the musical comedy Hello Dolly at the Open Air Theatre.

New territory: The former Spice Girl looked almost unrecognisable from her usually dressed-down self at the London awards do

Last February Mel became the last of the Spice Girls to become a mother after giving birth to daughter Scarlet with her property developer boyfriend Thomas Starr.

In October she made her West End debut as Mrs Johnstone in the Willy Russell play, in which she plays the mother of twins who were separated at birth.

Her only other brush with the West End came back in the mid 1990s when she auditioned for Cats and earned a recall. But at the same time was picked to be in the Spice Girls.

All her bandmates have been to see her in Blood Brothers and a Spice Girls musical is also on its way.

'We're involved,' she says, 'giving the writers anecdotes and stuff.'

Dowdy: Melanie was nominated for her role as Mrs Johnstone in the West End show Blood Brothers, but failed to win an Olivier award