Cast & Creative

Lionel Bart

(1 August 1930 – 3 April 1999) Book, Music and Lyrics

Born in London on 1 August 1930, Lionel Bart was educated in his native East End before gaining a scholarship to St Martin’s School of Art. In 1956, he joined some friends in a skiffle group called The Caveman featuring Tommy Steele. With the Bart song ‘Rock With The Caveman’, Steele launched his career with a UK Top 20 Hit in October of that year.

Tommy Steele’s early screen career featured many of Lionel’s songs specially written for him including The Tommy Steele Story (1957), The Duke Wore Jeans (1958), Light Up The Sky (1959) and Tommy The Toreador (1960) which featured the Top Ten single ‘Little White Bull’.

Lionel became a ‘disciple’ of Joan Littlewood at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, and fell in love with musical theatre. This led to two early successful stage shows, Lock Up Your Daughters and Fing’s Ain’t Wot They Used To Be, both in 1959, the same year as his classic ‘Living Doll’ for Cliff Richard was a Number One single.

1960 opened with ‘Do You Mind’ – another chart topping single, this time for Anthony Newley, but the best was yet to come. Packed with wonderful songs, Oliver! opened at the New Theatre, London, in June 1960 and ran for over 2500 performances. An instant success, it opened in New York in 1962 to great acclaim, winning the coveted Tony Award for its creator. The classic ballad ‘As Long As He Needs Me’ provided a huge hit for Shirley Bassey.

With Oliver! still running, Bart launched three further shows: Blitz! (1962), Maggie May (1964) and Twang! (1965). During this time he continued to write for the cinema, notably From Russia With Love from the second Bond movie and a chart success for Matt Munro.

In 1968, Oliver! was transformed into a lavish feature film. Perhaps the last of the classic screen musicals, the film received universal acclaim, collecting six Oscars and the soundtrack album going Gold.

For some years Lionel remained relatively inactive, his music kept alive by a steady flow of stage revivals, the enduring power of Oliver! and an unexpected hit single in the form of Cliff Richard with the Young Ones’ 1986 rendition of ‘Living Doll’.

His real renaissance started in 1989 when he wrote and starred in the Abbey National Building Society TV advert with the accompanying single ‘Happy Endings’. In 1992, the National Youth Theatre brought Blitz! back to the West End and in the following year Maggie May. In 1994 Big Audio Dynamite revived ‘Rock With The Caveman’ featuring in The Flintstones’ movie soundtrack.

In 1994 his masterwork, Oliver!, was given a new, acclaimed revival at the London Palladium, produced by Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Sam Mendes.

In 2008, the spectacular Palladium production was expanded and reinvented for the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, making full use of the vast stage. Directed by Rupert Goold and choreographed by Matthew Bourne, it starred Rowan Atkinson as Fagin, and the winner of the hit TV talent search I’d Do Anything, Jodie Prenger as Nancy. The production ran for over two years, including a special performance on 14 June 2010 to celebrate the show’s 50th Anniversary with Ron Moody, the original Fagin, joining the cast for the finale.

Lionel Bart’s international reputation as a composer, lyricist and playwright spanned more than four decades and included no less than nine Ivor Novello songwriting awards and the many Oscars for Oliver! He was the first British composer to receive a Broadway Tony Award. In December 1997 Lionel was honoured with a Variety Club Silver Heart for Contribution to the World’s Musical Theatre.

Cameron Mackintosh

Producer, Revisions and New Material

Cameron Mackintosh has been working in the theatre for almost 60 years and is the producer of several of the most legendary musicals of all time: Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera and Cats, three of the world’s longest running, alongside the perennial Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins (co-produced with Disney), Little Shop of Horrors, and Hamilton in the UK, which he co-produces with Jeffrey Seller. With Stephen Sondheim, Cameron has created three musical revues: Side by Side by Sondheim, Putting it Together and most recently the hugely acclaimed Old Friends, starring Broadway legends Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, currently playing on Broadway.

Cameron has been the guardian and producer of Lionel Bart’s masterpiece, Oliver!  for nearly 50 years and has collaborated with Matthew Bourne on its staging for over 30 years.

Celebrating Les Misérables’ world record breaking 40 years, the Arena Spectacular Concert version of Les Misérables has been a triumphant success and continues its extensive World Tour (a first for any musical on this scale) with a stellar cast of Les Mis alumni and is currently booking through to 2026. Previous filmed concerts – the 10th Anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall, the 25th Anniversary at The O2 Arena and, more recently, the theatrical staged concert at the Gielgud and Sondheim Theatres (which sold out over 200 performances) – are still continually screened on television and in cinemas throughout the world, alongside Cameron’s spectacular 25th Anniversary Concert of The Phantom of the Opera, also at the Royal Albert Hall.

In 2012, alongside Working Title Films and Universal, Cameron produced the hugely successful Oscar®, Golden Globe and BAFTA award-winning film adaptation of Les Misérables, which is one of the most successful movies ever of an original stage musical. To celebrate over 10 years since its release, the movie has been remixed and recently re-released in full Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision in selected cinemas around the world, as well as a new home vision 4K Blu-ray disc and iTunes download version of the film.

Cameron owns and operates eight historic London theatres, which have all been spectacularly rebuilt and refurbished for the 21st century. They house many of London’s most successful hits. The Sondheim, formerly known as the Queen’s, now has a glorious auditorium and backstage and has been renamed in honour of Cameron’s great friend, theatrical legend Stephen Sondheim. Music Theatre International, one of the world’s oldest and largest libraries of secondary rights of many of the greatest musicals ever written, has been one of Cameron’s companies for over 30 years.  MTI represents and champions both exciting new contemporary writers as well as the great classics, and proudly represents the second-class rights for Disney Theatrical.

In 1990, Cameron inaugurated the Chair of Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine’s College in Oxford University, with Stephen Sondheim as his first visiting professor. The Professorship is now in its 35th year.

Cameron was knighted in the 1996 New Year’s Honours for his services to British theatre and in June 2023, was awarded the Freedom of the City of London. In 2014, he was the first British producer ever to be elected to Broadway’s Theater Hall of Fame

Matthew Bourne

Director and Choreographer

Matthew Bourne is firmly established as the UK’s most popular and successful choreographer and director. He is the creator of the world’s longest running ballet production, a record-breaking nine time Olivier Award winner, and the only British director to have won the Tony Award for both Best Choreographer and Best Director of a Musical.

Matthew started his dance training at the comparatively late age of 22 and danced professionally for 14 years. As Artistic Director of his first company, Adventures in Motion Pictures, from 1987 until 2002, Matthew created many signature works (including Spitfire, Nutcracker!, Highland Fling, Swan Lake, Cinderella and The Car Man). Further hit productions were created when New Adventures was launched in 2002 (including Play Without Words, Edward Scissorhands, Dorian Gray, Sleeping

Beauty, The Red Shoes and Romeo and Juliet). New Adventures quickly became the UK’s busiest and most successful dance company and the major exporter of British dance across the world.

Matthew is also an award-winning West End and Broadway choreographer; a 30-year relationship with producer Cameron Mackintosh has resulted in the globally successful musicals Mary Poppins (which is about to embark on a major UK Tour), My Fair Lady and Oliver! He has seven honorary doctorates and in 2018 received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from University of Oxford. He is also an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London and Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.

He has been recognised by over 50 international awards, including The Hamburg Shakespeare Prize for the Arts, The Evening Standard Award, South Bank Show Award, Time Out Special Award, Drama Desk Award, six Los Angles Drama Critic Awards, The Critics Circle Special Award, the Gene Kelly Legacy Award and the Astaire Award for Dance on Broadway. In 2007 he received a Special Theatre Managers Association Award for services to dance touring and audience development. Following the OBE in 2001 he was knighted in the Queen’s New Year honours in 2016; in the same year he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award in recognition of his outstanding services to dance.

Recent work includes directing Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends in the West End, Los Angeles and on Broadway and his latest work for New Adventures The Midnight Bell, which premiered in 2021 and went on to win the National Dance Award for Best Modern Choreography in 2022. He recently directed the new hit production of  Lionel Bart’s Oliver! for Chichester Festival Theatre followed by its transfer to the West End for Christmas 2024.

Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy

Co-Director

Theatre as Director includes Porgy and Bess, Oliver! (Grange Park Opera); Les Misérables in Concert (Gielgud & Sondheim Theatres); The Dreamers (Abbey Road Studios); Miss Saigon (Sydney Opera House & international tour); Barnum (national tour).

As Associate Director, Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre, Japan); Miss Saigon (Prince Edward Theatre, Japan, Vienna); The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre & Royal Albert Hall 25th Anniversary Celebration); Half a Sixpence (Festival Theatre & Noël Coward Theatre) and Barnum (Theatre in the Park).

Jean-Pierre recently received a Green Room Award for Best Director on Miss Saigon in Australia.

Trained at the Guildford School of Acting.

Lez Brotherston

Designer

Lez Brotherston is an award-winning set and costume designer working internationally in theatre, dance and opera.

As an Associate Artist of New Adventures his long collaboration with Matthew Bourne includes The Midnight Bell; Romeo and Juliet; The Red Shoes; Sleeping Beauty; Swan Lake; Edward Scissorhands; Dorian Gray; Highland Fling; Cinderella; The Car Man and Play Without Words; Seven Deadly Sins (Royal Ballet); The Soldier’s Tale, Into the Woods (ROH2); The Nutcracker (Scottish Ballet). He designed, co-wrote and co-directed Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Adam Cooper (Japan and Sadler’s Wells); Romeo and Juliet; Swan Lake; A Christmas Carol; Carmen; Hunchback of Notre Dame; The Brontës; Dracula (Northern Ballet).

Theatre/Musicals/Opera includes Woman in Mind, Me and My Girl, Flowers for Mrs Harris, Fiddler on the Roof, Forty Years On, My One and Only, The Schoolmistress (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Rover, The Empress, Much Ado About Nothing (RSC); Baghdad Café, Hedda Gabler, Design for Living, Dancing at Lughnasa (Old Vic); Malory Towers (Wise Children); Flowers for Mrs Harris, Show Boat, Pride and Prejudice (Sheffield Crucible); Romantics Anonymous, Twelfth Night, 946 (Kneehigh/Shakespeare’s Globe); Oh! What a Lovely War (Stratford East/West End); The Divine Mrs S, Seminar, Hysteria (Hampstead Theatre); Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Under the Blue Sky (West End); Sister Act (West End, worldwide); Women Beware Women, Really Old Like 45, Playing With Fire (National Theatre); Duet for One (Almeida/West End); My City, Measure for Measure (Almeida); L’Elisir d’Amore (Glyndebourne).

Awards include Tony Award 1999 for Swan Lake (New Adventures); 12 Olivier nominations, winning in 1998 for Cinderella (New Adventures); UK Theatre Best Design Award 2016 for Show Boat and Flowers for Mrs Harris (Sheffield Crucible); Critics’ Circle 2018 Ninette de Valois Award for Outstanding Contribution to Dance; 2018 Outer Critics’ Circle Award for The Red Shoes. He was awarded the OBE in The Queen’s New Year Honours 2022 for services to Dance and Theatre.

Graham Hurman

Musical Supervisor and Conductor

Graham is a Musical Supervisor for Cameron Mackintosh Ltd.

He is currently the Musical Supervisor for Starlight Express – 30th Anniversary Production in Bochum, Germany & CATS South East Asia tour.

Previous Musical Supervisor credits include: Oliver! – Chichester Festival Theatre (also conductor); Mary Poppins – London (also conductor) & Tokyo, Japan; Les Misérables – South Korea, Holland & Belgian Tour, UK Tour & Mexico; Oliver!, Tokyo, Japan; Half A Sixpence, (Chichester Festival & Noel Coward Theatre, London -also conductor), Stephen Ward (Sydmonton Festival & Aldwych Theatre, London, also conductor), The Wizard Of Oz (also vocal & dance arrangements) – Toronto & North American Tour; Cats, South Korea, UK & International Tour, Vienna, London Palladium (also conductor), Paris (also conductor) and UK Tour. Graham is also the orchestral arranger for all aforementioned Cats productions, the recent Broadway revival, Japanese & Australian productions & the North American touring production.

Musical Director & Conductor credits include: Les Misérables (UK Tour); The Wizard Of Oz (London Palladium); Oliver!, (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane); Les Misérables (Queens Theatre, London); Starlight Express – Germany & 1st National UK Tour; Cats, 25^th Anniversary UK Tour & Hamburg, Germany (Assistant Musical Director)

Other theatre credits include: Starlight Express, North American Tour (Music Associate); Saturday Night Fever, North American Tour & Las Vegas (Music Associate); Wayward Women, Honor Blackman’s one-woman show (Musical Director & Pianist); Starlight Express, 2nd National UK Tour and the 2002 & 2008 German productions (Music Associate).

Recordings: I Am Me (from Starlight Express), Original 2023 Recording (Musical Supervisor); Cats, Original 2021 Vienna Cast Recording (Musical Supervisor & Orchestral Arranger); Mary Poppins, Original 2020 London Cast Recording (Musical Supervisor & Conductor). Memory (from Cats) – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack performed by Jennifer Hudson (Conductor); Cats, Original 2019 Japanese Cast Recording (Orchestral Arranger); Half A Sixpence, Original 2016 London Cast Recording (Musical Supervisor & Conductor); Memory (from Cats), performed by Nicole Scherzinger (Musical Supervisor & Conductor); Stephen Ward, Original 2013 London Cast Recording (Musical Supervisor & Conductor); The Wizard Of Oz, original 2011 London Cast Recording (Musical Director & Conductor); Oliver!, Original 2009 London Cast Recording (Musical Director & Conductor); Starlight Express, 2002 German Cast Recording (Musical Director & Conductor); Love Never Dies – DVD additional orchestral sessions (Conductor).

TV and Radio: Cameron Mackintosh: The First 50 Years (Sky Arts), Ant & Dec Saturday Night Takeaway (ITV), Kipps (Sky Arts), The Royal Variety Show (BBC & ITV), The Olivier Awards (BBC & ITV), Children In Need (BBC), The One Show (BBC), I Dreamed A Dream: The Susan Boyle Story (ITV), This Morning (ITV), The Alan Titchmarsh Show (ITV) and The Passions of Girls Aloud (ITV); The Graham Norton Show; Elaine Paige On Sunday and Wogan (BBC Radio 2).

Awards: BritishTheatre.com Best Musical Director (2014)

Paule Constable

Lighting Designer

THEATRE includes: recently in the West End The Glass Menagerie, Cock, and Les Misérables (25^th Anniversary production, Broadway/international). At the National Theatre, where she is an Associate, her recent work includes Nye, Til the Stars Come Down, The Confessions, Dixon and Daughters, Master Harold and the Boys, The Visit, The Normal Heart, The Ocean at the End of the Lane (& West End, Olivier Award), Nine Night (& West End), Follies, Angels In America (& Broadway), This House, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Olivier & Tony Awards), War Horse (Tony Award), Waves and His Dark Materials (Olivier Award).

Other work in theatre includes Othello & Wolf Hall (RSC) Guys & Dolls (Bridge); Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead (Complicite); Best Of Enemies, Happy Days, Feast (Young Vic); Cold War, …And Breathe (Almeida); Tenebrae: Lessons Learnt In Darkness (Brighton Festival); The Nico Project (Manchester International Festival); The Cherry Orchard (ITA Amsterdam); ear for eye (Royal Court); The Chalk Garden (Olivier Award, Donmar Warehouse); Don Carlos (Sheffield, Olivier Award).

OPERA She has designed operas throughout the world, including The Handmaid’s Tale, Satyagraha (ENO), The Return of Ulysses, Carmen, Faust, Rigoletto, The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Macbeth (ROH); Nothing, Die Entführung Aus Dem Serail, Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg, Billy Budd, Giulio Cesare (Glyndebourne); and productions for the Metropolitan Opera, Salzburg Festival, and throughout Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.

DANCE includes The Midnight Bell, Swan Lake (since 2018), Romeo and Juliet, The Red Shoes, Sleeping Beauty, Highland Fling, Play Without Words (also NT) and Dorian Gray for Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, for which she is an Associate Artist.

AWARDS She is the recipient of five Olivier Awards, two Tony Awards, three LA Critics Circle Awards, a Helpmann Award, two New York Critics Circle Awards, three Knights of Illumination awards, plus the London Critics Circle Special Award for Services to Theatre.

Paule is a Royal Designer for Industry.

Ben Jacobs

Lighting Designer

Credits include: Oliver! (Chichester Festival Theatre), Dawn French is a Huge Twat (UK Tour & West End), Miss Julie, King Hamlin (Park Theatre), Evita (Parque Villa-Lobos, Sau Paulo), Singing in the Rain (Teatro Sergio Cardoso, Sao Paulo), 1984 (Hackney Town Hall), Salome, Seussical, Bring it On (Southwark Playhouse), Brenda’s Got a Baby (New Diorama Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Wilton’s Music Hall), Caterpillar (Stephen Joseph Theatre), The Sorrows of Satan (Brocket Hall), The Retreat, Dolphins & Sharks, Melting Pot, Maggie & Pierre (Finborough Theatre), NoMad, Lord of the Flies, Edward II (Greenwich Theatre), Nora: A Doll’s House, H.R.Aitch, Heartbreak House, Carmen, Twang, Privates on Parade, Imagine This (The Union Theatre), Midlife Cowboy, Freefall (Pleasance Theatre), Sister (Ovalhouse), People We Didn’t Quite Meet, Red, Are We Stronger Than Winston (The Place), Proud, Southern Belles, Stripped, The Stones (King’s Head Theatre), One Giant Leap, Gentleman Jack, Taro, Precious Little, The White Rose, Kes, Golden F**king Years, Three Sisters, Dracula, Cinderella, Macbeth, The State of Things, Frankenstein, Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Side by Side by Sondheim, Jack Studio Theatre. Caterpillar, In Event of Moone Disaster, The State We’re In, Elexion, Red Like Embers (Theatre 503), Adam & Eve, Foul Pages (The Hope Theatre), The Lower Depths, Hamlet, Burial at Thebes, Love & Information, Secret Circus (RCSSD), Cuncrete, Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave (UK Tour), Jamaica Inn, I Love my Love, The Lost Happy Endings, Fanny & Faggot (Tabard Theatre), Macbeth (Bussey Building), Lunatic, The League of Youth (Theatre N16).

Associate Lighting Designer credits include: Les Misérables (UK Tour/West End/International), Fiddler on the Roof (Regent’s Park), Dear England (National Theatre & West End), The Motive and the Cue (Noel Coward Theatre), Anna (National Theatre, Dorfman), Le Nozze di Figaro (Glyndebourne), Sondheim’s Old Friends (Sondheim Theatre & Gielgud Theatre), Ostalgie (National Theatre Studio), Project O (Southbank Centre), Crave (Prague Quadrennial).

Ben has been nominated for the Off West End Award for Best Lighting Design four times, winning the award in 2018 & 2022.

Trained in Lighting Design at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

Adam Fisher

Sound Designer

Sound design credits include: Sunset Boulevard (Savoy & Broadway); Here & Now (Birmingham Alex); My Fair Lady (Curve Leicester); Now That’s What I Call A Musical! (UK Tour); Oliver! (Chichester & Gielgud); Your Lie In April (Harold Pinter); Kiss Me Kate (Barbican); Bhangra Nation (TheREP); Evita (Curve Leicester); The Wizard of Oz (London Palladium, Curve Leicester & UK Tour); Billy Elliot (Curve Leicester); Lizzie The Musical (Hope Mill & UK Tour); The Last Five Years (Garrick & Southwark Playhouse); The Phantom of the Opera (International); The Lord of the Rings, Our Man in Havana (Watermill Theatre); Into the Woods (Theatre Royal Bath); Cinderella (Hope Mill); The View Upstairs (Soho Theatre); Soho Cinders (Soho Theatre).

As associate sound designer: West End, Broadway and international productions of Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Sunset Boulevard and School of Rock. Other credits include, Light in the Piazza (Royal Festival Hall); Man of La Mancha, Chess, Carousel (West End); Cats (Broadway/US Tour); Wizard of Oz (Toronto/US Tour); Ich War Niemals in New York (Stuttgart); The Phantom of the Opera (US Tour/West End); Barnum (Chichester/UK Tour).

Adam produced and mixed the cast recordings of Alex Parker and Katie Lam’s musicals After You & Henrietta the Musical and Sunset Blvd: The Album

Adam was recipient of the 2024 Olivier Award and WhatsOnStage Award for Best Sound Design for Sunset Boulevard.

George Reeve

Projection Designer

George is a London-based video and projection designer whose work can been seen across the UK and internationally.

Video design credits include Maybe Happy Ending (Broadway); Hercules (Neue Flora, Hamburg); The Lord of the Rings (Watermill and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Tarzan (Stuttgart); Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (Gielgud & Sondheim Theatres); Sunset Boulevard (Princess Theatre, Melbourne); Hairspray (UK Tour); In Dreams (Leeds Playhouse/Toronto); Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show (Royal Festival Hall & UK tour); My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?) (Garrick Theatre, Turbine Theatre & Edinburgh Fringe); The Great British Bake Off Musical (Noël Coward Theatre); Notes From a Small Island (Watermill Theatre); Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, RENT, The WIZ and Hushabye Mountain (Hope Mill Theatre); Dawn French Is A Huge Tw*t! (UK & Australia tour); Sandi Toksvig – Next Slide Please (UK tour); SIX (London & Broadway); The Sound of Music (UK tour); Gypsy (Alexandra Palace); A Christmas Carol (Dominion Theatre); But I’m A Cheerleader (Turbine Theatre); The Pleasure Garden, The Convert (Above The Stag); Avalanche (Bloom Theatre); The Wind in the Willows (UK and UAE tour); NoiseBoys and VIVA (Norwegian Cruise Line); Cinderella in Concert (Cadogan Hall); Welcome Aboard (Viking Cruises); Musicals In Concert (Palladium, Stuttgart).

George won the Best Video Design award in the 2023 BroadwayWorld UK/West End Awards for his work on The Lord of the Rings at the Watermill Theatre. He was also an Offie 2022 Finalist for Best Video Design for his work on The Pleasure Garden at Above the Stag.

georgereeve.co.uk

William David Brohn

Original Orchestrations

William David Brohn (1933 – 2017) was an award-winning orchestrator and arranger, whose many musicals included Barnum and Crazy for You (also West End & Broadway) at Chichester; in the West End Betty Blue Eyes, Wicked, Mary Poppins, Miss Saigon, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Show Boat, Oliver! and Carousel.

On Broadway, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Ragtime, Mary Poppins, Curtains, Wicked The Secret Garden, Dessa Rose (Off-Broadway), Oklahoma!, Sweet Smell of Success, Minnelli on Minnelli, High Society, Show Boat, Carousel, The Red Shoes, Miss Saigon, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, The Boys in Autumn, The Wind in the Willows, The Three Musketeers, Marilyn, Brigadoon, King of Hearts, Timbuktu!, Rockabye Hamlet and Rodgers & Hart.

In the ballet, concert and symphonic realms he enjoyed collaborations with singers Placido Domingo and Marilyn Horne; choreographers Agnes de Mille, Kenneth Macmillan, Susan Stroman and Matthew Bourne, the violinist Joshua Bell and conductors André Previn and John Williams.

Stephen Metcalfe

New Orchestrations

Stephen Metcalfe is a composer, orchestrator, and record producer for film and theatre. He is a two-time Grammy Award nominee.

As record producer: Oliver! (2008 London cast album); Les Misérables (2010 cast album, 25th Anniversary Concert film, 2019 Concert cast album and film); Betty Blue Eyes (original cast album); Half a Sixpence (original cast album); Miss Saigon (2014 London cast album, 25th Anniversary film); Mary Poppins (2010 Australian cast album, 2020 London cast album); Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (original cast album).

Other productions include: Les Misérables (London, New York, UK and US tours); Miss Saigon (London, New York, UK and US tours); The Witches of Eastwick (London and UK tour); My Fair Lady (London, UK and US tours); Avenue Q (London); Mary Poppins (London, New York, UK and US tours); Oliver! (London, UK tour); Betty Blue Eyes (London); Barnum (Chichester and tour); Half a Sixpence (Chichester and London); Hamilton (London); Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (London).

Stephen orchestrated and produced the double-platinum award-winning soundtrack albums for the Universal Pictures film of Les Misérables.

Sam Archer

Choreographic Associate

As a Creative: Co-choreographer on The Happy Prince (Wilde Theatre Productions), Movement Director on Houdini’s Greatest Escape, Crimes on Centre Court, A Christmas Getaway and Crimes, Camera, Action (all for New Old Friends theatre company); Movement Associate on Wuthering Heights (Wise Children) and A Christmas Carol (Old Vic); Choreographic Assistant on Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes (New Adventures); co choreographer/director on Civil Blood, a project for young people in partnership with New Adventures, Dance United Yorkshire and Studio 3 Arts.

Performance credits include Wuthering Heights, Wise Children, Earthquakes in London, Chariots of Fire, An Ideal Husband, Wonderland, The Happy Prince, Mary Poppins, We Will Rock You, Oklahoma! and Oliver!

Sam has performed as a principal dancer with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Company, including Romeo and Juliet, The Red Shoes, Lord of the Flies, Swan Lake, Cinderella, The Car Man, Nutcracker, Play Without Words, as well as creating the title role in the original production of Edward Scissorhands. Other Dance credits include The Soldier’s Tale (Tokyo); Metamorphosis (NY); The Wind in the Willows (Linbury Theatre ROH).

Opera includes La Bohème (Royal Albert Hall); Gloriana (Royal Opera House).

Television includes Humans, Mr Selfridge.

Films include La Traviata, Allied, Muppets Most Wanted, Life is a Buffet.

Trained at Bird College (1^st Class BA Hons).

Etta Murfitt

Choreographic Associate

Etta is Associate Artistic Director for New Adventures where credits include The Midnight Bell, Romeo and Juliet, The Red Shoes, Swan Lake, Early Adventures, Cinderella, Dorian Gray, Edward Scissorhands, Highland Fling, Nutcracker!, The Car Man, The Infernal Galop, The Percys of Fitzrovia, Deadly Serious, Town and Country.

Other credits include The Buddha of Suburbia (Wise Children/RSC); Bluebeard (Wise Children/UK tour); Would You Bet Against Us (Told by an Idiot); Bagdad Café (Old Vic); Wuthering Heights (NT, Bristol Old Vic, York Theatre Royal); Wise Children (Wise Children/Old Vic & UK tour); Romantics Anonymous (Wise Children); Orpheus and the Underworld (ENO); Clockwork Orange (Everyman Theatre); Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Globe); Tin Drum, Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, 946, Wild Bride, Midnight’s Pumpkin, Steptoe and Son, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Dead Dog in a Suitcase (Kneehigh); A Chorus of Disapproval (Harold Pinter Theatre); Rufus Norris’ Sleeping Beauty (Birmingham Rep); Le Nozze di Figaro (Holland Park Opera); The Way of the World (Wilton’s Music Hall); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Albery Theatre); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (West Yorkshire Playhouse).

Television and film includes Matthew Bourne’s Christmas, Storm, Swan Lake, Late Flowering Lust, Roald Dahl’s Red Riding Hood, Mrs Hartley and the Growth Centre, Nutcracker!, The Car Man.

Etta was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 2022.

Verity Naughton CDG

Children’s Casting Director

Most recent work for screen includes Co-Casting Director on The Agency (101 Studios) and King & Conqueror (CBS).

Most recent work for stage includes The Elmer Adventure (Tall Stories) and Young Persons casting on The Hills of California (Sam Mendes & Jez Butterworth).

Other work includes: UK Casting on The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. As an Associate Casting Director credits include The Beautiful Game (Netflix), The Book of Clarence (Legendary), HALO (Paramount +), All the Old Knives (Amazon), The First Lady (Showtime,Lionsgate), Stephen (Hat Trick, ITV), Riviera (Archery Pictures), Berlin Station (Anonymous Content) & Fate: The Winx Saga (Netflix).

In theatre Verity has cast projects for The Globe, the Royal Court, Southwark Playhouse, Chichester Festival Theatre, and the Almeida Theatre. Having originally specialised in young person casting, Verity has cast children in a wealth of West End shows and on screen including Enola Holmes (Netflix), The Pursuit of Love (BBC), Mrs Doubtfire The Musical (Shaftesbury Theatre), Frozen The Musical (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), The Sound of Music (Chichester Festival Theatre), Leopoldstadt (Wyndham’s Theatre), Medea (Soho Place), Small Island (National Theatre), The Ferryman (Royal Court and Gielgud Theatre), School of Rock (UK & international tour), and Beauty and The Beast (UK tour).

Sam Hiller

Resident Director

Sam trained at Guildford School of Acting, where he was also awarded the school’s singing cup. He has worked extensively as an actor, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chichester Festival Theatre), Another Country (Yvonne Arnaud, Guildford), Unexpected Host (York Theatre Royal), The Jungle Book (Nuffield, Southampton), Hiawatha (Newcastle Theatre Royal), Babes in the Wood (York Theatre Royal), Aladdin (Hawth, Crawley), An Ideal Husband (Redgrave, Farnham) and The Ten Commandments (Mercury workshop, The Place). West End: Les Misérables (Palace), Aspects of Love (Prince of Wales), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (London Palladium), Miss Saigon (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), My Fair Lady (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane) and The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s). UK tours: Les Misérables, Aspects of Love, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Best of Brian Conley.

Concerts include: Les Misérables (25th Anniversary, The O2), Les Misérables (Classic Brits, Royal Albert Hall), One Touch of Venus (Barbican), Masters of Swing (Royal Albert Hall) and Tribute to Jack Tinker (London Palladium).

Directing includes: Resident Director of Les Misérables in Concert (Gielgud Theatre), Deputy Associate of Les Misérables (UK tour), Resident director for The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s), resident director of Les Misérables (Palace), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (UK tour), White Christmas (Sunderland Empire), Les Misérables in Concert (Scandinavian arena tour) and On Eagle’s Wing (Belfast Opera House), associate director of Irish Wings (Dutch tour) and director of Les Misérables in concert (Powderham Castle and Broadlands), Celebration of Musical Theatre with Clive Anderson (Palace), The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber (RTE, Dublin Concert Hall), The Canadian Tenors (European tour) and Masters of the Musicals (UK tour).

Jaye Elster

Resident Choreographer & Children’s Director

Training: BA (Hons) Musical Theatre, Millennium Performing Arts

Direction: Director Cheek To Cheek: Irving Berlin in Hollywood (Institute of the Arts, Barcelona), Children’s Director Oliver! (Chichester Festival Theatre), Resident Director Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (UK Tour).

Choreography: The Wild Party (Institute of the Arts, Barcelona), High Society (The Mill Theatre, Sonning), Catch Me If You Can (Institute of the Arts, Barcelona), Big Fish (Rhoda McGaw Theatre), Singin’ in the Rain (Sadlers Well’s/Japan/UK Tour/International Tour/Australian Tour/Moscow/Russia), Dr Suess’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (UK Tour), Crimes of the Heart (Arts Ed), Peter Pan (Civic Theatre, Chelmsford), Mountview Showcase 2014 (Criterion Theatre), The Railway Ball – A Tribute to Musical Theatre (Grosvenor House).

Associate Choreography: Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Kilworth House), Oliver! (Curve, Leicester), The Producers (UK Tour).

Theatre credits: Dance Captain and Swing in Matilda (Cambridge Theatre), Dance Captain and Swing in Half a Sixpence (Chichester Festival Theatre & Noël Coward), Dance Captain in Oliver! (Curve Theatre), Swing in The Producers (UK Tour), Dance Captain and Swing in Ghost the Musical (UK Tour), Ensemble in Singin’ in the Rain (Chichester Festival Theatre and Palace Theatre), Winnie in 42nd Street (Curve Theatre), Dance Captain and featured Soloist in Shoes the Musical (Peacock Theatre), Dance Captain in Fame (Ireland tour).

In 2023, Jaye authored How To Swing In Musical Theatre: A Guide To Covering The Ensemble as part of her continued global petition to better swing education and implementation.

Huw Evans

Associate Musical Director

As Musical Director: Oklahoma! (Wyndham’s Theatre), The Ruling Class (Trafalgar Studios).

As Associate Musical Director: Sunset Boulevard (Savoy Theatre), Come From Away (Phoenix Theatre), Oklahoma! (Young Vic), Big Fish (The Other Palace), Funny Girl (UK tour), Assassins (Menier Chocolate Factory), Evita (Dominion Theatre & UK tour), Oliver! (Sheffield Crucible).

Keyboard / Cover Conductor credits: Chicago (Phoenix Theatre), Cats (UK tour), The Lion King (Musical Theater Basel).

Huw studied Music at King’s College, London and Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

Joseph Bisat Marshall

Associate Scenic Designer

Joseph Bisat Marshall has created work for film, theatre, opera, music and dance productions worldwide.

He is the designer of The Blue Man Group World Tour and the associate designer of Apollo 11 (US Tour). He has assisted on countless productions, including multiple West End and Broadway shows and he continues to design on-stage artwork for live shows including RuPaul’s Drag Race international tours.

He has worked extensively as a production designer in the music industry, designing music videos and live performances for artists including McFly and Muse.

josephbisatmarshall.com

Instagram @josephbisatmarshall

Ollie Durrant

Associate Sound Designer

Credits as an Associate Sound Designer: Oliver! (Chichester Festival Theatre); Kiss Me, Kate (Barbican); Lizzie (Hope Mill Theatre) Here & Now (Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham); Now That’s What I Call A Musical, Shawshank Redemption, Dreamboats and Petticoats (UK tours); Pippin, Your Lie in April, Wild About You, Love Never Dies, Evita In Concert(Drury Lane); Bhangra Nation (Birmingham Rep); Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (Gielgud Theatre); Billy Elliot (Leicester Curve); Evita (European tour).

As Sound Supervisor: Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre), Phantom of the Opera (His Majesty’s).

As Sound Designer: When Darkness Falls (UK tour); Catch Me If You Can, Sweeney Todd (Arts Ed); Dreamboats and Petticoats the Christmas Party (New Theatre, Peterborough); Magpies and Mischief (Jersey Arts Centre).

Ollie’s Mixing Credits: Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, Les Misérables The All Star Concert (Gielgud); Phantom of the Opera (His Majesty’s); Production Mixer for Phantom of the Opera (Sydney Opera House); Les Misérables, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends Gala, The Witches of Eastwick Concert (Sondheim); Cilla the Musical, The Sound of Music, Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Fame (UK tours); Evita (London & international tour); Jesus Christ Superstar (international tour); The War of the Worlds (Dominion); Dreamboats and Petticoats (Playhouse). Ollie is also the FOH engineer for Remember Monday.

Jo McShane

Assistant Children’s Director

Jo is originally from Liverpool and trained at Laine Theatre Arts.

Her choreography has been nominated four times for an Off-West End Award.

Resident Director work includes: Frank’s Closet, (Arts Theatre and Wilton’s Music Hall); Director of Choreography – Saudi Games, (Riyadh); Legally Blonde, Sister Act and Singin’ in the Rain, (Kilworth House Theatre).

Her work as a Choreographer includes: Frank’s Closet, (Arts Theatre, West End); Salad Days, (UK Tour); Top Hat, (Cunard); Bohemian Rhapsody, Promo video, (20th Century Fox); Soho Cinders & Bad Girls, (Union Theatre); Hamilton Lewis, (The Kings Head); The Scarecrow’s Wedding, (UK Tour); A Christmas Carol, (Blackpool Winter Gardens); Lend Me A Tenor and The Drowsy Chaperone (Bridewell Theatre).

Associate work includes: Life after Life, (BBC); The Dreamers, (Abbey Road Studios); The Smallest Show on Earth, (UK Tour); How to succeed in Business, (Wilton’s Music Hall).

Performing credits include: Blood Brothers, (Phoenix Theatre, West End); Cats, (UK and European Tours); Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, West End); Grease, (Dominion Theatre, West End).

jomcshane.com

Instagram @jomcmcshane