After Just Good Friends ended, he returned to musical theatre and various other entertainment roles, including producing and directing.

His father was an entertainment lawyer, Oscar Beuselinck, whose clients included Sean Connery, the Beatles, Private Eye and MGM.

After his parents divorced when he was 12, his father's family home was at Letchmore Heath, Hertfordshire, opposite the Bhaktivedanta Manor.

In 1966, Nicholas signed with Stigwood's Reaction Records label and his first single under his new name, "Club of Lights",[6] scraped into the lower reaches of the Radio London Fab Forty chart.

The part of Danny to Elaine Paige's Sandy made them the first British couple to play the leads in Grease.

Nicholas joined The Young Vic under Frank Dunlop and played Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing and appeared in Crete and Sgt.

While touring with O'Brien in Hair in 1970 he first heard and recorded two songs with Richard O’Brien from the yet to be produced Rocky Horror Show.

In 1986, Nicholas continued to star in musicals including Jekyll and Hyde, Fiddler On The Roof’' and 42nd Street’' which was directed by the shows author Mark Bramble.

He starred in Barnum in the first national tour and followed this with a highly successful season at The Dominion Theatre in the West End.

[11] In June 1996, Nicholas played the role of King Arthur in the Covent Garden Festival's production of Camelot.

He hosted two series of BBC Radio 2's Mad About Musical', as well as his own hour-long TV special, Paul and Friends, for Thames Television.

[12] In 1997, Nicholas starred as the anti-hero of Karoline Leach's The Mysterious Mr. Love at the Comedy Theatre in London's West End.

He continued to appear as the lead in numerous straight roles thereafter: Simon Gray's Stagestruck, a national tour of Michael Cooney's The Dark Side, Catch Me if You Can, and two plays by Eric Chappell: Mixed Feelings, in which he played a transsexual, and Snakes and Ladders.

In 1998, he co-produced, with Bill Kenwright, a new musical based on Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities, starring as Sidney Carton.

[13] In 2000, Nicholas appeared in the BBC television comedy drama Sunburn, playing David Janus, owner of the self-titled holiday company around which the series was created.

In the summer of 2006, he was a celebrity showjumper in the BBC's Sport Relief event Only Fools on Horses, as well as appearing in Doctors, Heartbeat and Holby City.

In 2009, Nicholas played Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard for the Carl Rosa Opera Company at the Tower of London Festival.

[citation needed] In 2023, Nicholas resumed a UK tour of 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' prior to a West End run.

[citation needed] In 2024/25 Nicholas appeared as the Major at the Apollo Theatre in London in John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers: The Play.

[citation needed] In 1990, while starring with David Ian in The Pirates of Penzance at the London Palladium, Nicholas offered Ian a partnership in co-producing and starring in a touring production of the New York Shakespeare Festival version of the popular Gilbert and Sullivan opera.

Paul Nicholas & David Ian Associates Ltd was formed to produce the 20th anniversary production of Jesus Christ Superstar on a UK-wide tour, which sold out.