& Additional Music
for THE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS
Elliot Davis
Book, Music & Lyrics
Elliot has written the script, music and lyrics for Loserville, collaborating with James Bourne, with whom he has also written Out There (Youth Music Theatre UK, Riverside Studios 2012).
Recently, Elliot co-wrote the book of Soho Cinders with Anthony Drewe (music by George Stiles), which premiered in concert form in the West End in 2011 and recently played a six-week run at the Soho Theatre.
Elliot has just received a major commission from BBC Films to write his first feature film.
He wrote the book for a new musical in Malaysia called The Secret Life of Nora, which won Best Original Book in the Best Original Book and Audience Choice Award for Best Musical in the BOH Cameronian Arts Awards.
In 2011, Elliot composed the music for The Silver Tassie, produced by Druid Theatre and directed by Garry Hynes. This production played at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York, summer 2011.
Other new musicals written by Elliot include: Best Friends and Butterflies (Ticketmaster Composer Award and Award for Best Musical for Young People) and Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi (TMA Theatrical Management Association Award for Outstanding Musical).
Elliot also has a prolific career writing for radio and has written and produced many documentary profiles of the world's leading musicians for the BBC. These include: Neil Diamond, Freddie Mercury's 60th commemoration for the BBC, Barry Manilow, Liza Minnelli, the Bee Gees, Paul Anka, Jerry Herman, James Last and Lionel Bart.
Most recently, he wrote 21 original short stories for the BBC in Sugar Plum Story Time, which won the New York Festival International Radio Award.
As a musical arranger, Elliot has worked with Stephen Schwartz on re-orchestrating Pippin, commercial tracks for Betty Blue Eyes, and also with George Stiles on a new musical Soap Dish, The Pros, the Cons and a Screw (Derby Playhouse), Fings Ain't Wot They Used t'Be (Union Theatre 2011) and many other productions.
Awards: Ticketmaster Composer Award for Best Friends and Butterflies, Best Musical for Young People for Best Friends and Butterflies, New York Festival Award for Sugar Plum Story Time (21 original short stories for the BBC), TMA Award for Best Musical for Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi, Best Original Book and Audience Choice Award for Best Musical in the BOH Cameronian Arts Awards for The Secret Life of Nora.
James Bourne
Book, Music & Lyrics
James Bourne is one of the UK's most successful recording artists/songwriters, having sold in excess of 7 million records. As a songwriter he has worked with some of the world's biggest music producers and pop acts performing today.
He is a founder member of Busted and majority songwriter for the group. McFly, Pixie Lott, Gabriela Cilmi and the Backstreet Boys are amongst the artists who have recorded songs written by James.
He is getting ready to release Space Travellers, the second Future Boy album (his solo recording project) which will be uniquely released as a video game on Facebook.
Together with Elliot Davis, James has written Loserville and Out There (Youth Music Theatre UK, Riverside Studios, 2012). Their third musical together will premiere in 2013.
Steven Dexter
Director
Steven is an award-winning director who directs both in the UK and internationally.
Theatre includes: recently, The Secret Life of Nora (Malaysia, Best Musical Award), Out There, a new Elliot Davis/James Bourne musical, and The Salsa Sisters for Youth Music Theatre UK, the world premiere of The Pros, the Cons and a Screw (Derby), The Canterbury Tales (BADA) and Fried Rice Paradise (Singapore). West End: La Cava, Romance Romance, Peter Pan, and The Pirates of Penzance (Savoy). Other prominent UK productions include the world premiere of Honk! (Watermill), the European premiere of Lucky Stiff and, for Mercury Musical Developments, The Challenge and The Ten Commandments. In Singapore, he directed Forbidden City, A Twist of Fate, Sing to the Dawn, Little Shop of Horrors, and They're Playing Our Song (with Lea Salonga). In Germany: Moby Dick for Cameron Mackintosh. In Israel: Honk! (Best Director Award), The Full Monty, Shirley Valentine, Mary Lou (Best Director Award) and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance.
As a book writer, Steven has co-written A Twist of Fate (Straits Times Award for Best Musical), Maddie (Lyric) and Mary Lou, which ran for four years at the Israel National Theatre.
Nick Winston
Choreographer
Theatre includes: for West Yorkshire Playhouse: Loserville, Annie, A Christmas Carol, Crash and Death of a Salesman. Also, I Dreamed a Dream (UK tour), Merrily We Roll Along (Clywd Theatr Cymru), The Band Wagon (Sadler's Wells), The Wizard of Oz (Royal Festival Hall), Horrid Henry: Live and Horrid! (West End and tour), Elaine Paige in concert (Royal Festival Hall and tour), Sugar (Pimlico Opera), Follies (Northampton Royal, Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award and Theatrical Management Association Award nomination for Best Musical), A Christmas Carol, The Cherry Orchard, Dancing at Lughnasa and Cling to Me Like Ivy (Birmingham Rep), Fings Ain't Wot They Used t'Be (Union Theatre, Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award nomination for Best Musical Revival), You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Tabard), Alfie (Watford Palace), Stepping Out and The Mountaintop (Derby Playhouse), Much Ado About Nothing and The Tempest (Guildford Shakespeare Company), Putting It Together, The Fantasticks, Bouncers and Side by Side by Sondheim (Harrogate) and By Jeeves, Tell Me on a Sunday, Gotta Sing Gotta Dance, Eden End, Hormonal Housewives and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (UK tours).
Opera includes: The Adventures of Pinocchio (Opera North/Sadler's Wells/Chemnitz Opera/Minnesota Opera/Moscow, RPS nomination for Best Opera), Il Turco in Italia (Garsington Opera), Benzin (Chemnitz Opera) and The Cunning Little Vixen (Ryedale Festival).
Film and television include: Sondheim at 80 starring Dame Judi Dench (BBC Proms), High School Dance (E4), The Adventures of Pinocchio (Opus Arte) and music videos for Bob the Builder (Universal).
As director and choreographer: Ain't Misbehavin' (Harrogate), Tomorrow Morning (New End), Can You Keep a Secret? (Trafalgar Studios), Grease – The Musical (Kenwood House), Dirty Dancing in Concert (international tour), Another Kind of Magic (arena tour, Scandinavia), Aladdin starring Bobby Davro (Derngate, Northampton) and Cinderella starring Jimmy Osmond (Hastings).
Francis O’Connor
Set & Costume Designer
Training: Wimbledon School of Art.
Theatre includes: recently, the Druid Murphy cycle of plays by Tom Murphy – Conversations on a Homecoming, A Whistle in the Dark and Famine (Galway, London, New York and Dublin), Written on the Heart (RSC Stratford and Duchess), My Cousin Rachel (Gate, Dublin), Horse Piss for Blood (Drum, Plymouth), Testament (Dublin), Loyalty and No Naughty Bits (Hampstead), Macbeth (Liverpool), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Gate, Dublin), The Secret Garden (Edinburgh and Toronto), The Silver Tassie (Druid, Galway), Enlightenment (Hampstead), Fried Rice Paradise (Singapore) and Crash and Death of a Salesman (West Yorkshire Playhouse). Also, Everyone (Edinburgh Lyceum), Equivocation (Manhattan Theatre Club), Peter Pan (Edinburgh Lyceum), Afterplay (Gate, Dublin), Much Ado About Nothing (Singapore), Two Men of Florence (Boston, USA), The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Love’s Labour’s Lost (RSC), Life x 3 (Newbury), The Deep Blue Sea (tour and West End), Six Characters in Search of an Author (National Theatre of Scotland), Moonlight and Magnolias (Tricycle) and Translations (Princeton and New York). For Galway’s Druid Theatre: The Beauty Queen of Leenane (also London and Broadway), The Lonesome West (also Broadway) and My Beautiful Divorce (also London with Dawn French), the complete Synge plays (Galway, Dublin, Edinburgh and Lincoln Center, New York) and Long Day’s Journey Into Night. More recently, The Gigli Concert and The Cripple of Inishmaan (also Atlantic, New York) and, in 2011, The Cripple of Inishmaan (Boston) and The Silver Tassie (Lincoln Center, New York).
Opera includes: recently, Perichole (Garsington), Silent Night (Minnesota), The Flying Dutchman (Bern), Maria di Rohan (Buxton Festival), Il Turco in Italia (Garsington Opera), Benzin (Chemnitz, Germany), Wut (Bern), Luisa Miller (Buxton), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Garsington), Capriccio (Grange Park) and La traviata (English National Opera).
Stephen Snell
Costume Dseigner
Stephen is the head of the wardrobe department at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, and has been with the theatre since 1999. Costume designs for West Yorkshire Playhouse include: Loserville, The Wizard of Oz, Blithe Spirit, The Nutcracker and Visiting Grandad. For West Yorkshire Playhouse Schools Company: The Hanging Man (an award-winning co-production with Improbable Theatre), The Wind in the Willows and The Blonde Bombshells of 1943. Also, for West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Alice in Wonderland as co-designer with Ruari Murchison (Leeds and Birmingham Rep) and Northern Broadsides’ Othello with Lenny Henry in the title role (West Yorkshire Playhouse and Trafalgar Studios). Other designs include: Cinderella: the Panto with Soul, Educating Rita and The Cherry Orchard (Clwyd Theatr Cymru), Macbeth (Sturdy Beggars, Bridewell), Pygmalion (English Speaking Theatre, Stockholm), Gourmet, Ultramarine, Death Defies the Eye and Dressing for Success (touring productions for Claire Russ Ensemble Dance Company) and an extensive involvement with designing and assembling youth theatre and dance productions to perform at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, as well as a tour of north Wales, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Anglo-American youth project, NYU/Central Park, New York and Wales).
Howard Harrison
Lighting Designer
Current and recent work includes: Mary Poppins (Broadway/Australia/ Holland), MAMMA MIA! (London/Broadway and worldwide), Abigail’s Party (Menier Chocolate Factory and West End), The Way of the World (Chichester Festival Theatre), Lady Windermere’s Fan (Royal Exchange), The Bomb (Tricycle), Anna Christie (Donmar Warehouse), The Playboy of the Western World (Old Vic), Die Fledermaus (Welsh National Opera), Romeo and Juliet (RSC), Strictly Gershwin and Swan Lake (English National Ballet, Royal Albert Hall), Earthquakes in London (NT), Me and My Girl (Crucible, Sheffield), Macbeth (West End/Broadway), Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’n’ Roll (Royal Court/West End/Broadway), Creditors (Donmar Warehouse and New York), King Lear (Liverpool and Young Vic), Inherit the Wind and Complicit (Old Vic), Butley, Backbeat, Love Story, Glengarry Glen Ross, Love Song, Guys and Dolls, Ragtime, Donkeys’ Years and Heroes (West End), Love Story, The Music Man, Hay Fever and The Circle (Chichester Festival Theatre), In a Dark, Dark House and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Almeida) and Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! and Edward Scissorhands (Sadler’s Wells and UK and USA tours).
Howard was nominated at the 2012 Olivier Awards for his work on Anna Christie at the Donmar Warehouse. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Lighting Designer in 2008. He has been twice nominated for Broadway’s Tony Awards, for Mary Poppins and Macbeth.
Simon Baker
Sound Designer
Theatre includes: recently, Matilda – The Musical (RSC and Cambridge Theatre, 2012 Olivier Award for Best Sound Design), Wah! Wah! Girls (Sadler’s Wells), Angus, Thongs and Even More Snogging (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Batman Live (world arena tour), Me and My Girl (Sheffield), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Lyric), The Real Thing (Old Vic), The Norman Conquests (Old Vic and Broadway), The Late Middle Classes (Donmar Warehouse), La Bête (Comedy and Broadway), The Lord of the Rings (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and Toronto, 2007 Olivier Award nomination for Best Sound), Deathtrap (Noël Coward), Boeing-Boeing (Comedy and Broadway, 2007 Tony Award nomination for Best Sound), Di and Viv and Rose (Hampstead Downstairs), the Bridge Project (BAM/Old Vic Theatre 2009), The Birds (Dublin) and Closer to Heaven (Arts). For Kneehigh Theatre: Brief Encounter (London, WYP, UK and USA tours, Broadway and St Ann’s Warehouse, NY, 2011 Tony Award nomination for Best Sound), Don John (RSC and international tour), The Red Shoes (international tour), Wild Bride (international tour), Midnight’s Pumpkin, Steptoe and Son (Kneehigh/WYP) and two years of Kneehigh’s Asylum season.
Martin Lowe
Musical Supervision, Orchestrations & Additional Music
Theatre includes: Once (New York Theater Workshop and Broadway – Tony, Lortel, Drama League, Outer Critics’ Circle and NY Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Musical), War Horse (NT), An Appointment with the Wicker Man (NTS), Caroline, or Change (NT, Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier Awards for Best New Musical), The Wolves in the Walls (National Theatre of Scotland/Improbable – TMA Award), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (NT), Jerry Springer – The Opera (Sydney Opera House, NT, Cambridge Theatre, BAC and Edinburgh Assembly Rooms – Laurence Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle and Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards for Best Musical), MAMMA MIA! (Prince Edward, Tokyo, Seoul, international tour and Stockholm), The Full Monty (Prince of Wales, Evening Standard Best New Musical Award), Once on This Island (Royalty – Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical), Cats (New London and UK tour) and workshop productions of Taboo, We Will Rock You, Swallows and Amazons, The Light Princess (by Tori Amos) and 57 Hours (by Bryony Lavery).
Composition includes: The Misanthrope and The Secret Rapture (Chichester Minerva), The Blue Room (Minerva and Haymarket), Lettice and Lovage (Bath Theatre Royal and UK tour), Hysteria (Minerva) and Into Exile and Dear Exile (BBC Radio 4).
Recordings include: Once – The Musical (Tony Award), MAMMA MIA! –The Movie (original soundtrack), Jerry Springer – The Opera and MAMMA MIA! (London cast).
Martin was musical director for the movie version of MAMMA MIA! (Universal Pictures) and is musical supervisor and orchestrator for Once – The Musical, currently running on Broadway, for which he has won Obie, Drama Desk and Tony Awards for his work.
Jim Henson
Musical Director/ Keyboards
Jim completed his degree in music and sound recording at the University of Surrey in 2005. At that time he was also the musical director for ATA Productions, arranging and conducting a number of showcase performances at the London Palladium, Her Majesty’s and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
Jim was MD for Twelfth Night – The Musical (Qdos, Edinburgh Fringe), before joining the UK tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Other tours include MD for This is Elvis, MD for Blood Brothers (also associate MD at the Phoenix), assistant MD for Scrooge and Doctor Dolittle and, most recently, MD for the UK tour of We Will Rock You. He has also been responsible for arrangements and orchestrations for Doctor Dolittle (UK tour), The Concert They Never Gave and the keyboard programming for Half a Sixpence (UK tour).
When not touring, Jim runs the One-Off Theatre Company, with whom he has produced and musically directed productions of The Last 5 Years and Little by Little. He also works as a freelance tutor and musical director for Mountview Theatre School (recent shows include Parade, Spring Awakening, Steel Pier and the musical theatre graduate showcase 2010).
Steve Holness
Assistant Musical Director
Training: Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Since graduating, Steve has performed and toured with many world-class artists and bands. Highlights include: the 19 album world tour with Adele, Paul Weller, Amy Winehouse, Keri Hilson, The Saturdays, Katherine Jenkins, Andrea Bocelli, Ozzy Osbourne, Bootyluv, Elaine Paige and the Dr Who Live arena tour.
He also composes for television and radio, and regularly plays piano and keyboards for TV shows, adverts and West End theatre.
He regularly plays on and conducts We Will Rock You and is the assistant musical director of Rock of Ages.
He is delighted to be involved in the London production of Loserville.
Anne Vosser
Casting Director
Theatre includes: What the Butler Saw (Vaudeville), See How They Run in rep with Twelfth Night (UK tour 2011), Dancing at Lughnasa (UK tour 2011), The Madness of George III (UK tour), Proud (Wimbledon Theatre Studios), Marlon Brando’s Corset (UK tour), the Laurence Olivier and Tony Award-winning Stones in His Pockets (West End), Mum’s the Word (UK tour), Murder by Misadventure (West End), Hidden Laughter (UK tour), Don’t Rock the Boat (Farnham Redgrave and UK tour) and Double Edge (UK tour). Most recent musical theatre: Thrill Me (London Fringe), 20th Century Boy (New Wolsey, Ipswich), The Prodigals (Edinburgh Fringe), Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show, Daydream Believer, Never Forget, The Wedding Singer, Love Shack, Kiss Me, Kate!, South Pacific, Pickwick, Oklahoma!, Singin’ in the Rain, Footloose (UK tour), By Jeeves and Tomorrow Morning (Landor), Shaun the Sheep (UK tour 2011), Frank’s Closet (Hoxton Hall), A Christmas Carol (West End), Peter Pan – a Musical (Curve, Leicester), Zorro, Eurobeat, Fame (West End and UK tour), Rue Magique and Betwixt (King’s Head), Certified Male (Edinburgh Fringe 2008), Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens, The Genius of Ray Charles, the Laurence Olivier Award-winning Taboo, The Beautiful and Damned, Calamity Jane, Romeo and Juliet and Peggy Sue Got Married (West End), Starlight Express (Germany) and Saturday Night Fever, Doctor Dolittle, Oh! What a Night, Summer Holiday, Scrooge, Copacabana, Fiddler on the Roof, Barnum and Aspects of Love (UK tour and West End).
Film and television include: I Dream (BBC 1/19 Entertainment), casting team on How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, Any Dream Will Do, I’d Do Anything, Over the Rainbow (BBC) and Superstar (ITV).
Sarah Stephenson
Resident Director
Training: voice at Central School of Speech and Drama.
Theatre includes: recently, Sunset Baby (Gate), This Land (Interplay, Edinburgh Fringe), Loserville (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Macbeth and Out There (Youth Music Theatre UK), The Crucible (Rose), OFFIE Award-winning The Hired Man (Landor), Olivier Award-nominated Ivan and the Dogs (Soho), Romeo and Juliet (Creation Theatre Company), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, The Tempest, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Romeo and Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company), True West and My Dad’s a Birdman (Sheffield Crucible), The Furies, Helter Skelter and Land of the Dead (Bush Theatre and UK tour), Macbeth, Loserville and Out There (Youth Music Theatre UK), Outlying Islands (Ustinov Studio, Bath) and Vernon God Little, This Happy Breed, The Kitchen and Parade (Guildford School of Acting).
As a book writer Sarah has just voiced her own talking book Improve Your Speech, Women in Business, published by Creative Content, due for release soon.
Ewan Jones
Associate Choreographer
Ewan was assistant director/choreographer on the original West Yorkshire Playhouse production of Loserville and is delighted to have been asked to take on the role as associate choreographer to Nick Winston for the London production. Other productions with Nick Winston: Out There (Youth Music Theatre UK, Riverside Studios, Hammersmith), The Adventures of Pinocchio (Teatr Sats, Moscow), You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Tabard), Joseph (Beau Sejour, Guernsey), Out There (South Hill Park, Bracknell) and Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be (Union). As a choreographer: The Dreaming (Rose, Kingston), PPA Showcase ‘i’ (Ben Travers), The Three Little Pigs (DBS, Singapore), Cabaret (Swansea Grand), Jack and the Beanstalk (Mansfield Palace), Moroccan Oil Hair Show (Joy Ltd), Fame! (Grimsby Auditorium), Mexican Hayride (Sadler’s Wells), Don Pasquale (Opera Holland Park), HMS Pinafore – Revisited! (King’s Head), Defect (director/choreographer, ArtsEd/Perfect Pitch), HMS Pinafore (Battersea Barge), Sleeping Beauty (Malvern Festival), Carousel (Broadway, Catford) and The Devil’s Advocate (Upstairs at the Gatehouse).
Alex Doidge-Green
Associate Set Designer
Training: Alex has recently received 1st class honours in Theatre Design at Nottingham Trent University. He also completed a Foundation Degree in Design for Performance at Wimbledon College of Art, which he passed with Distinction. Now he has finished his degree he is based back in Surrey.
Alex was designer for Out There, James and Elliot’s second musical for Youth Music Theatre UK, both in Basingstoke and also when it made its move to a London theatre this summer. Previously he has worked as assistant designer on the Beauty and the Beast pantomime at the Harrogate Theatre, and designed The Rivals for NTU drama at Nottingham Arts Theatre.
James Smith
Associate Lighting Designer
James has assisted Howard Harrison for the past eight years on many projects, most recently on Flashdance (Shaftesbury) Loserville (WYP) The Music Man (CFT) and The Circle (CFT).
Recent lighting designs include: Coronation Street – Street of Dreams (Arena tour) Snow White (Qdos, Orchard Theatre), FAME The Musical (UK tour), Off-Broadway transfer of Lingua Franca (59E59), Free Run (Underbelly, London/Edinburgh), Much Ado About Nothing (UK tour), Ordinary Days (Trafalgar Studios) Dinnerladies – Second Helpings (UK tour) and lighting two signature shows aboard Cunard’s newest ocean liner, The Queen Elizabeth, Hotel Royale and The Piccadilly Line.
Other highlights include: Keeping Up Appearances (UK tour), Motherhood The Musical (King’s Theatre, Glasgow), Alf Ramsey Knew My Grandfather (Theatre Royal, Newcastle), Cinderella (Hackney Empire), Cinderella (Derby Assembly Rooms), Extra Factor – The Musical (UK tour), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (BAC) and Bed Time Solos (Bolton Octagon).
James also collaborates with lighting designer Mark Jonathan, which has seen him associate on many regional and West End productions. Projects, to name a few, include: Maurice’s Jubilee (Pleasance, London/Edinburgh), A British Subject (Arts), Jayne Eyre (LCB) Taking Sides/Collaboration (CFT, Duchess) Babes in Arms (CFT), Office Suite (UK tour) and Nicholas Nickleby (CFT, UK tour, London and Toronto) and The Wizard of Oz (Birmingham Rep).
Corporate clients, for whom James designs include: The Volkswagen Group, BT, Santander, Barclays, Lush, BBC, Liverpool Victoria and GlaxoSmithKline.
Andy Graham
Associate Sound Designer
Training: Andy graduated from Mountview Theatre School in 2001 with a BA (Hons) in Technical Theatre.
As a sound operator, West End shows include The King & I, The Full Monty, Contact, Jerry Springer The Opera (Olivier Award for Best Sound), Guys and Dolls (Olivier nomination) and The Lord of the Rings (Olivier nomination). Also, Our House (UK tour) and Loserville (West Yorkshire Playhouse). For Kneehigh Theatre Company, Andy has worked as an operator and associate sound designer on Brief Encounter (UK tour, USA tour and Broadway – Tony nomination for Best Sound), The Red Shoes (UK, USA and Australia), and The Wild Bride (UK, USA and New Zealand).
Recent solo design work and collaborations include Oedipussy for Spymonkey, Mary Rose for Dog Orange, and Allegro for LSMT. Andy was also a sound operator for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Estelle Butler
Costume Supervisor
Training: Wimbledon School of Art.
Theatre includes: Star Quality (Theatre Royal, Nottingham and tour), Simply Cinderella (Curve, Leicester), Carmen Jones and The Wizard of Oz (RFH), The Deep Blue Sea (Theatre Royal, Bath and tour), Swimming with Sharks (Vaudeville), Moonlight and Magnolias (Tricycle), Lysistrata (Arcola) and Postcards from America and The Taming of the Shrew (RSC).
Opera includes: for Garsington Opera: Don Giovanni, La Perichole (2012 season at Wormsley). Previous seasons have featured The Magic Flute, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mirandolina, Fidelio, Cosi fan Tutti, The Rake’s Progress, Ariadne auf Naxos, Il Re Pastore and Le Nozze di Figaro.
Other opera: Yeoman of the Guard and Patience (BBC Proms), Carousel and Cautionary Tales (Opera North), Peter Grimes (Teatro Pérez Galdós, Gran Canaria), Kommiltonen! and Cosi fan Tutti (RAM), Die Zauberflote, Die Fledermaus, Tristan und Isolde and Carmen (Glyndebourne), Pelleas & Melisande and The Sofa/Departure (Independent Opera), Semele (ENO) and Simon Boccanegra (Opera UK).
Phij Adams
Music Technology Programmer
Theatre includes: recently, Ghost the Musical (Manchester, London and Broadway), Matilda (RSC, Stratford and London), Wah! Wah! Girls, Sweeney Todd, Singin’ in the Rain and Top Hat (West End) and MAMMA MIA! (South Korea). He also manages the music technology for the West End productions of Shrek, Wicked, Jersey Boys and Sister Act. Previous productions include: The Lord of the Rings, Closer to Heaven, The Full Monty, Bombay Dreams and Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray, The Car Man and Edward Scissorhands for Adventures in Motion Pictures.
Richard Bullimore
Production Manager
Training: LAMDA.
Richard’s career in theatre started with Stage Sixty at Theatre Royal, Stratford East, followed by a period touring with a wide variety of shows. He was asked to join the production department of the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic, under the artistic directorship of Laurence Olivier. Whilst there he worked on upwards of 50 productions in seven years. Following the move into the new building on the Southbank, Richard worked as production manager for the Olivier Theatre. He left the National to set up The Production Office, offering production management and technical services to commercial producers. During this time, he worked on some of London’s leading musicals: Cats, Starlight Express, They’re Playing Our Song, Mutiny and many others. He again returned to the National as technical director under the artistic directorship of Richard Eyre. Subsequently, he has returned to the West End working on shows such as Crazy for You, Jesus Christ Superstar, Whistle Down the Wind, Saturday Night Fever, The King and I, Fosse, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Bombay Dreams, Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker, Absolutely! {perhaps}, The Producers, Sinatra, the recent revival of Evita, Wicked, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, Imagine This, The Misanthrope, Peter Pan (Kensington Gardens), The Railway Children (Waterloo Station), Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella, Shrek, Lend Me a Tenor, South Pacific (tour) and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Kensington Gardens).
James Henshaw
Associate Production Manager
Originally from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, James trained at the University of Huddersfield before working extensively throughout the UK and on freelance projects across Europe, the USA, Morocco, Senegal, and makes regular appearances on projects in Cyprus.
In January 2008 James launched Snap to Black, a company offering production, project, and event management, and other services to the theatre and creative industries, working with clients throughout the UK, as well as working on global projects.
Recent credits include: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show Live, Bette and Joan, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Vagina Monologues, Slava’s Snowshow, The Merry Widow, Ruddigore, Noise Ensemble, The Likely Lads, Gold!, The Man and the Donkey, Aladdin, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, Dirty Dusting, Talking Tom, The Machine Gunners, Good to Firm, Raising the Stakes, Photo Finish, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, La Bohème and Tosca.
International credits include: The Wizard of Oz, Oliver!, Cats, The Sound of Music and Games of the Small States of Europe – Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
Joanne Benjamin & Clive Chenery
for THE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS
General Managers
The Entertainment Business is London’s bespoke independent production company delivering production solutions to the entertainment industry worldwide.
Previous productions: Gershwin centennial events in Europe, Who Could Ask for Anything More!, the Ira Gershwin celebration (Royal Albert Hall), and ’S Wonderful, the George Gershwin celebration (London Palladium). The company founded and ran the Cardiff International Festival of Musical Theatre, between 2001 and 2006 producing over 100 productions including Ragtime (European premiere, St David’s Hall), Babes in Arms (New Theatre) and Gypsy (Wales Millennium Centre) and managed the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra for two seasons in Switzerland and on tour in America, Asia and Europe between 2006 and 2009. Also, Crazy for You (Prince Edward), She Loves Me (Savoy), Black Goes with Everything (Churchill), The Boys in the Band (Aldwych), Lend Me a Tenor the Musical (Gielgud), An Actor’s Life for Me with Chris Biggins and Nichola McAuliffe (tour) and Dearest Nancy, Darling Evelyn with Fenella Fielding and Nigel Anthony (tour).
Productions in 2012 include: Loserville the Musical by James Bourne and Elliot Davis (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Live by Douglas Adams (UK tour, with the original radio cast), Ready Steady Cook Live! (tour), It Happened in Nixon Falls by Tony McHale (tour) and The Gold Room by Michael Feinstein and Warner Brown.
The Partners Joanne Benjamin and Clive Chenery are The Business of Entertainment.
Kevin Wallace
Producer
As in-house producer with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group (RUG), Kevin Wallace produced Celebration, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 50th birthday concert at the Royal Albert Hall starring Glenn Close, Antonio Banderas, Sarah Brightman and Elaine Paige, Whistle Down the Wind (Aldwych), The Beautiful Game (Cambridge Theatre, Best Musical in the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards) and Closer to Heaven with music and lyrics by Pet Shop Boys and starring Frances Barber (Arts). He also established productions of The Phantom of the Opera in Switzerland, Belgium, Mexico and Denmark, a USA tour of Cats, the original production of Sunset Boulevard directed by Trevor Nunn in Germany, and produced the new production of Sunset Boulevard directed by Robert Carsen and starring Faith Brown. Kevin produced the UK tour of Jesus Christ Superstar and won an International Emmy Award as executive producer of the film based on that production.
For Kevin Wallace Ltd, he produced The Emperor Jones (Offstage Downstairs), Our Town starring Alan Alda and Robert Sean Leonard with Jonny Lee Miller in his first West End role (Shaftesbury), Tim Luscombe’s Eurovision starring Anita Dobson and James Dreyfus, the multi-award winning Traverse Theatre/NT production of Gregory Burke’s Gagarin Way directed by John Tiffany (Arts) and the Abbey Theatre Dublin production of Eden by Eugene O’Brien directed by Conor McPherson (also Arts). Eden won the Irish Times/ESB Award and the Stewart Parker Award for Best New Play.
Kevin Wallace and Saul Zaentz produced the stage adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. Directed by Matthew Warchus, with music by A R Rahman, Värttinä and Christopher Nightingale, and Book and Lyrics by Shaun McKenna with Matthew Warchus, The Lord of the Rings opened in 2006 in Toronto (Princess of Wales), where the show was nominated for 15 Dora Awards, winning seven, including Outstanding New Musical and awards for direction (Matthew Warchus), costume design (Rob Howell) and choreography (Peter Darling). In London, The Lord of the Rings (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), was nominated for seven Whatsonstage Theatregoers’ Choice Awards in 2007 and five Olivier Awards in 2008.
The National Geographic Channel produced a 50-minute television programme as part of their Inside series that followed The Lord of the Rings London production from the first day of rehearsals to the first performance. Since July 2007 the programme has aired on international National Geographic channels in over 30 countries, and on PBS in the USA.
In 2011 KWL incorporated Tempo Entertainment in Rio de Janeiro to commission and produce new musicals. Tempo’s first production, a musical based on Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado will premiere in Brazil in 2013. Gabriela has been adapted for the stage by Adriana and João Falcão, and will be directed by João Falcão.
Kevin Wallace also worked as a stage and television actor in his native Ireland and in Britain, with the Abbey Theatre, the RSC, Bristol Old Vic, Liverpool Everyman, Oxford Playhouse, Yorkshire Television and the BBC.
In September 2011, Kevin Wallace was made a Fellow of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance.
Kevin Wallace Ltd’s UK productions outside London’s West End are produced and presented by First Act! Live Entertainment Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kevin Wallace Ltd.
Teresa Beech & Craig Beech
Producer
A real-life ‘Michael Dork’, Craig Beech is an avid sci-fi fan and has been a computing enthusiast from a very young age. Writing his first computer program at just eight years old, Craig excelled at computing and went on to earn a degree (BSc) in Computing for Real-Time Systems from the University of the West of England, Bristol. In addition to theatre producing, Craig is currently owner and CEO of online games company PopPlay, which develops games for social networking websites.
A complete contrast to Craig Beech’s science and computing background, Teresa Beech comes from a background in the arts. Teresa Beech began her involvement in the theatre in her early teens. A member of the International Thespian Society, she had a theatre-intensive four years of high school participating in 13 full productions, including two musicals, after which Teresa studied drama in college before pursuing a film and television acting career in San Francisco and Los Angeles. She has appeared in dozens of television shows, commercials, and films and has been a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild (now SAG-AFTRA) since 2000. In addition to theatre producing, Teresa is creative director for the online games company PopPlay.
West Yorkshire Playhouse
Co-Producer
West Yorkshire Playhouse, in Leeds, enjoys a national and international reputation as a producing theatre providing both a thriving focal point for communities and theatre of the highest standard for audiences of the region and beyond.
To produce the most exciting work, offer artists a creative and resourced production environment and give more opportunity for audiences to experience our productions, West Yorkshire Playhouse regularly joins forces with producing theatres and companies to create and tour new productions. In 2012 we created Angus, Thongs and Even More Snogging with Louise Rennison and Micklelou Productions, Waiting for Godot with Talawa Theatre Company, Mary Shelley with Shared Experience and Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing with English Touring Theatre. We are currently co-producing a new stage adaptation of Steptoe & Son with the renowned Kneehigh Theatre, which will tour nationally into 2013 after opening in Leeds.
Championing new British musical theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse recently commissioned and produced Richard Taylor and David Wood’s musical The Go-Between, based on the novel by L P Hartley, with Northampton Theatre Royal, Derby Live and supported by Perfect Pitch, which has been nominated for the UK Theatre Awards 2012 Best Musical Production. Loserville was originally staged by West Yorkshire Playhouse in the Quarry Theatre in June 2012 and produced with Kevin Wallace Ltd for First Act, Youth Music Theatre and TC Beech Ltd.
We have co-produced many large-scale musical works as well as classic plays with Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, Bristol Old Vic, Nottingham Playhouse, Hampstead Theatre, Polka Theatre and Theatre Royal Bath Productions, as well as the most distinctive theatre companies working in the UK today: Told by an Idiot, Peepolykus, Improbable Theatre and Northern Broadsides, and partners from the commercial sector: Fiery Angel, All Banged Up, David Pugh, CMP and Sonia Friedman Productions. As part of Transform and Furnace, developing emerging artists and exploring new theatre practice, we have commissioned and developed work with Chris Goode, Look Left Look Right, Belarus Free Theatre, Rash Dash, Unlimited Theatre, curious directive and Slung Low.
Many of our productions transfer to London’s West End including: Ying Tong (2004) to the New Ambassadors Theatre; The Postman Always Rings Twice (2005) to the Playhouse Theatre; with Peepolykus, The Hound of the Baskervilles (2007) to the Duchess Theatre; with All Banged Up, Bad Girls – the Musical, to the Garrick Theatre (2007); with Kneehigh Theatre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company, Brief Encounter (2007) to the Cinema, Haymarket; and with Northern Broadsides, Othello (2009), featuring Lenny Henry, to the Trafalgar Studios. The Tony and Olivier award-winning The 39 Steps, which was co-produced by West Yorkshire Playhouse with Fiery Angel in 2005, continues to play at the Criterion Theatre.
Youth Music Theatre UK (YMT)
Co-Producer
At YMT, creativity lies at the heart of everything we do. A bold approach to programming is at the core of our work and we believe that to attract the most talented young people and the best creative teams to work with them, we need to offer exciting new work. We also feel that we have a part to play in developing the art form of music theatre, keeping it moving forward and revitalising itself. For this reason we’re delighted that Loserville, which was originally commissioned by YMT as part of our summer 2009 season, has made it in to the West End as a professional production.
As a National Youth Music Organisation, funded by Arts Council England and Youth Music, we think it right that a company such as YMT should push the boundaries of music theatre, avoid formula, experiment with new form and be willing to tackle difficult subject matter. We want to always stretch our talented young people and their understanding of the creative process, exploring new ways of working, introducing new techniques and encouraging creative curiosity and ambition. We define ‘music theatre’ widely, and work has ranged from chamber opera, through jazz and pop to Scottish traditional, from Greek myth to contemporary politics, from physical theatre to the exploration of actor/musicianship. We see this diversity as an essential strand of ensuring a challenging programme.
Our core programme consists of six new music theatre productions a year for which young people audition in January/February. Auditions for 11-21 year-olds take place in 21 UK cities from Aberdeen to London and Plymouth. The productions are created in residential workshops, rehearsing for two or three weeks then performing in a professional theatre. This intensive atmosphere is the creative engine which drives the work. It is often as much focused on process as production and offers space for artists to experiment with form while young people learn about the making of theatre as well as performing. We also offer open access Skills Courses, a Creative Trainee Scheme which provides hands-on experience and mentoring for emerging artists, a highly regarded Young Writers and Composers course and Voiceworks, high-level vocal coaching for teachers. Each year around 1,000 young people participate in a range of outreach, training and production activities. Many of these go on to become actors, singers (such as our alumnus Ed Sheeran), dancers or musicians or take other career options within the creative industries.
In recent years the company has produced at least 30 new musical productions licensed for further public performance, including Goblin Market, The Dummy Tree, Frankenstein, Macbeth, The Salsa Sisters, Song of Eurydice, A Winter’s Tale, Great Expectations, Loserville, Out There, Korczak and many others with lesser- known titles. The company performs variously at London’s Riverside Studios; the Rose Theatre, Kingston; South Hill Park, Bracknell; Barbican Theatre, Plymouth; the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Aberdeen International Youth Festival.
We are grateful for the support of our principal sponsor, the teacher’s union NASUWT, and other regular funders including the PRS for Music Foundation, Creative Scotland, the Sackler Foundation, the Monument Trust and the Cameron Mackintosh Foundation, our corporate members and sponsors, friends and our patrons Ed Sheeran, Jean Diamond, Peter Duncan and Zoë Wanamaker. YMT is committed to ensuring that the company is accessible to young people from as wide a range of backgrounds as possible and thanks those who contribute to bursary funds.
Loserville was commissioned by YMT and co-produced in a workshop production with South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell in 2009. Victoria Spearing, resident designer, was original set and costume designer and Alan Valentine was original lighting designer. Special thanks go to the YMT cast, band and crew of the original workshop production.
Our next UK auditions for young people aged 11-21 take place in January/February 2013 and full details about these and the company can be found at: www.youthmusictheatreuk.org