Ben Harrison is a British sound designer specialising in musical theatre and live events. [1]
Between 2002 and 2007 Harrison was head of sound at Leicester Haymarket Theatre where he designed sound for productions of West Side Story; The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe; Hot Stuff - the Christmas Edition; Macbeth; An Illustrious Corpse; Beautiful Thing; The Fortune Club; East; Divine;The Bogus Woman (which production later traveled to Adelaide & New York); The Good Woman of Schezuan; Steven Sondheim's Pacific Overtures; The Happy Prince; and The Wizard of Oz.
Harrison designed the Laurence Olivier Award-winning production of Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre in London in 2007. [2]
Harrison also designed with Will Young the sound for the Cabaret production at the Savoy Theatre in 2012 and at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh in 2013. [3] [4] Other West End projects he worked on include Dreamboats and Petticoats with Des O’Connor and Tony Christie, Scrooge at the London Palladium with Tommy Steele, The Country Girl at the Apollo Theatre with Jenny Seagrove and Martin Shaw, Soul Sister and Dancing in the Streets.
Harrison toured the United Kingdom and internationally with Olivier and the Tony Awards-nominated Blood Brothers, [5] Starlight Express, Tommy, Dr Dolittle, Laughter In The Rain, Jekyll & Hyde, Whistle Down The Wind (UK & American tours), Fame the Musical (Cyprus & Monte Carlo), Dancing in the Streets (International tour), Cabaret, Dreamboats & Petticoats, The Country Girl, Evita (International Tour) [6] and Soul Sister (Hackney Empire, West End and UK Tour).
Productions for Leicester Curve that he worked for include Oliver!, [7] Simply Cinderella, The Pillowman, Hot Stuff, [8] Gypsy, The King & I, Obama the Mamba, Piaf [9] and Hello Dolly.
Other productions he was involved in include The Prodigals at the Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Festival; Cendrillon (Monte Carlo); Mother Goose; Aladdin; Cinderella; Snow White and Dick Whittington at the Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent; Panto's On Strike at the Manchester Opera House; and Hedda Gabler at the Royal Theatre, Northampton. Harrison is a regular associate of ARTBUILDING PROJECTS, consulting on audio installations of theatres and art spaces across Europe.
In 2015, Harrison took charge of the sound for a production of Hairspray in Leicester. [10] In 2016, the production toured the UK to venues such as the Edinburgh Playhouse. [11]
In 2016, Harrison designed the sound for a production of Into the Woods, put on by Opera North at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. [12]
Michael Beckley is an Australian actor. He has worked with major theatre companies in both Australia and the United Kingdom, and appeared on London's West End in A Few Good Men and Cabaret. He is probably best known for playing Rhys Sutherland, the patriarch of a new family that arrived in the fictional town of Summer Bay in the internationally televised series Home and Away.
The Princess of Wales Theatre is a 2,000-seat live theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on King Street West, in Toronto's downtown Entertainment District. The theatre's name has a triple meaning: it honours Diana, Princess of Wales, with whose consent the theatre was named; it links the building to its sister theatre, the Royal Alexandra, one block to the east, also named – with Royal assent – for a former Princess of Wales; and it recalls the Princess Theatre, Toronto's first "first-class legitimate" playhouse, that stood three blocks to the east until 1931.
Brian Paul Conley is an English actor, comedian, singer and television presenter. Conley has been the host of The Brian Conley Show, as well as presenting the Royal Variety Performance on eight occasions. In his 40-year television career, he has starred in multiple award-winning television sitcoms including Time After Time and The Grimleys. In the West End, he has played the lead role in musicals such as Me and My Girl, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Hairspray, Oliver!, The Music Man, Barnum and Jolson for which he was nominated for a prestigious Laurence Olivier Award. As a musician, he has released five albums, including Brian Conley Sings, Let the Good Times Roll, and Stage to Stage. He has won numerous awards in his career including The National Television Award for Most Popular Comedy Performer, Best Live Performer in Manchester Evening News and a British Comedy Award.
Sally Ann Howes was an English actress and singer. Her career on screen, stage and television spanned six decades. She is best known for the role of Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In 1963, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for her performance in Brigadoon.
Mayflower Theatre is a Grade II listed theatre in the city centre of Southampton, England, with a capacity of 2,300. It features West End theatre shows when they tour the United Kingdom. In addition to this, one-off comedy shows and music events often take place at the theatre too.
Lorna Want is an Olivier Award-winning British theatre actress. She most recently played Princess Anne in the workshop reading of Roman Holiday, a new musical based on the 1953 film starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.
Nick Winston is an internationally renowned English director and choreographer working in theatre, opera and film.
Western Australian Mark Howett is a director for theatre, dance, opera and film, having started his career initially as a lighting designer. He studied Theatre Design, specialising in Lighting Design at the School of Drama 1981, Yale University. Since 1979, Mark Howett has worked with many international theatre, film, dance, and opera companies. He was a senior creative on productions such as: Sweeney Todd, Royal Opera at Covent Garden, Cabaret at Savoy Theatre West End, Evita at Dominion Theatre West End, A Country Girl at Apollo Theatre West End, Rites Bangarra and Australian Ballet at Paris Opera House, Cloudstreet Co B Belvoir at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Secret River Sydney Theatre Co to name a few.
Verity Charlotte Rushworth is an English actress. She is known for portraying the role of Donna Windsor in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 1998 to 2009, with a guest appearance in 2014. She has played many theatre roles throughout the UK, including two leading roles in West End theatre productions. From 2020 to 2021, she appeared in the BBC medical soap opera Doctors as Lily Walker.
Elena Silvia Roger is an Argentine actress who won the 2009 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Édith Piaf in Piaf. She has also appeared in the West End in Evita, Boeing-Boeing, and Passion.
Janie Dee is an English actress and singer. She won the Olivier Award for Best Actress, Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Play, and in New York the Obie and Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer, for her performance as Jacie Triplethree in Alan Ayckbourn's Comic Potential.
Benjamin James Ellis is an English stage and script actor who starred in the role of Link Larkin in the West End production of the musical Hairspray from its opening in October 2007 until July 2009.
The Curve Theatre is a theatre in Leicester, England, based in the cultural quarter in Leicester City Centre. Before being named Curve, it was referred to as Leicester Performing Arts Centre. It is adjacent to the Leicester Athena conference and banqueting centre.
Samantha Dorrance is a British actress, singer and dancer from Willenhall in the West Midlands who reached fame on Disney Channel UK. She played the lead role of Laura in both the UK Tour and West End versions of Dreamboats and Petticoats.
Dreamboats and Petticoats is a jukebox musical based on popular songs from the fifties and early sixties. The musical, featuring those songs of the rock 'n' roll era, is set around the years 1957 to 1963 and was written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran.
Jamie Lloyd is a British director, best known for his work with his eponymous theatre company. He is known for his modern minimalism and expressionist directorial style. He is a proponent of affordable theatre for young and diverse audiences, and has been praised as "redefining West End theatre". The Daily Telegraph critic Dominic Cavendish wrote of Lloyd, "Few directors have Lloyd’s ability to transport us to the upper echelons of theatrical pleasure."
Daisy Wood-Davis is a British singer and actress. She has appeared in several stage productions, including Dreamboats and Petticoats as Laura and The Rocky Horror Show as Janet Weiss. From 2014 to 2018, she played the role of Kim Butterfield in Hollyoaks. In 2019, she recurred as Phoebe Palmer in Holby City.
Timothy Sheader is a British theatre director. Sheader read Law with French at the University of Birmingham before moving into a career in theatre. Since 2007, he has been Artistic Director at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.
David Ribi is an English actor best known for presenting the hit Kids TV show 'Milkshake!' on Channel 5. He is also known for his roles in West End Theatre and touring productions. He trained in musical theatre at the YEM Theatre School until 2006, and studied Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway until 2009.
Save The Last Dance For Me is a jukebox musical written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran. It primarily uses songs from the 1960s written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman such as A Teenager in Love, Sweets For My Sweet, Little Sister, Viva Las Vegas, Can't Get Used to Losing You and the title song Save The Last Dance For Me. It opened at the Churchill Theatre Bromley on 9 January 2012 before embarking on a nationwide tour. A spin-off production from Dreamboats and Petticoats, it reunited the writing team with producer Bill Kenwright and director Keith Strachan. The choreography was by Olivier Award winner, Bill Deamer. As was the case in Dreamboats and Petticoats, all of the music was played live by the actors on stage. A new production has been announced, due to open April 2016 at Windsor Theatre Royal, before touring the UK again.