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Tim Howar | |
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 Howar in 2019 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Timothy Howar |
| Born | 24 November 1969 Spirit River, Alberta, Canada |
| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | Rock, pop, musical theatre |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, actor |
| Website | timhowar |
Timothy Howar (born 24 November 1969) is a Canadian-born British singer with the pop-rock band Mike + The Mechanics who also acts in leading roles in West End and Broadway musicals.
Howar was born in Spirit River, Alberta, Canada. [1]
He has spent his career on both sides of the Atlantic, starring in both West End and Broadway productions. In his theatre career he has played an extensive variety of roles, ranging from rock musicals such as Rent and Rock of Ages , to classical musicals such as Les Misérables and On the Town . He is a co-lead-singer of the band Mike + The Mechanics.
His career in music started young, singing in the Alberta Youth Choir, the Centennial Singers, and Pro Coro Canada, before joining Edmonton Musical Theatre. His dance career began at 16, which led to him becoming an apprentice with Ballet North. He had been offered a full scholarship to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, [1] which he declined after deciding to pursue his love of theatre / musical theatre.
He began his career on stage at age 18 playing the Artful Dodger in Oliver! (Stage West's 100th production, Edmonton) just after winning the Grand Prize in the Youth Talent International Competition in Memphis, Tennessee – he is still the only Canadian to hold this award – and then went on to appear in the Canadian productions of Broadway shows Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (cover Joseph), and Miss Saigon in Toronto (cover Chris Scott). He played the title role in The Who's Tommy (Toronto and Canadian National tour) in 1996. [2]
Other Canadian productions include Anne of Green Gables (Charlottetown Festival, PEI), Guilliame /cover Arnaud in The House of Martin Guerre (Toronto), Screamin' John McGee in Rock and Roll (Theatre New Brunswick), Barnaby in Hello, Dolly! (Edmonton), Martin in Outrageous (Toronto), and Joel in Anything That Moves (Toronto).
He then went on to play Marius Pontmercy in Les Misérables (1998 US National tour and Toronto) with Colm Wilkinson for over 2 years, playing most every state in America (except Alaska!). [3]
He moved to the UK to play Michael in the new musical Peggy Sue Got Married at the Olivier Theatre in 2001, [4] and decided to stay in the UK after being asked to originate the role of Stuart Clutterbuck in the Rod Stewart musical Tonight's the Night (2003, Victoria Palace Theatre). [5] In between, he also did Ragtime at the Cardiff International Festival. Following this, he played the role of Ozzie in On the Town at the ENO (London Coliseum and Théâtre du Châtelet).
He returned to New York to play Roger Davis in the Broadway production of Rent for the 10th Anniversary production, from 30 January 2006 through 29 July. [6]
He stayed in New York for 3 more years, before returning to London after landing a record deal with his rock-band Van Tramp. UK credits include Latin Fever (West End and UK Tour), Shoes (Sadlers Wells and Peacock Theatre), and Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages (2013, Shaftesbury Theatre and Garrick Theatre). [7]
In 2018, he recreated the role of Freddie Trumper in the West End revival of Chess for the English National Opera at the London Coliseum. [8]
From 3 September – 8 December 2018 and 13 May – 7 September 2019, he played the role of The Phantom in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in London’s West End. [9] In February and March 2023, he reprised the role in the Greece production. [10]
He is also a regular guest soloist for concerts around the world, including Raymond Gubbay concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, Friday Night is Music Night for BBC Radio, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Abbey Road 80th Concert, the Halle Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium and France, the London Philharmonic, London Concert Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and BBC Concert Orchestra.
In 2009, he was asked to join rock band Mike + The Mechanics as co-frontman with Andrew Roachford, and has spent the past few years recording and touring around the world singing hits such as "All I Need is a Miracle" and "I Can't Dance" to sell-out audiences and arenas. Their latest album of new material Let Me Fly was released in 2017 and stayed in the top 10 for over 8 weeks on BBC Radio 2. They continue to tour and play at festivals and gigs around the world. He worked on another MATM album set for release in 2019 on BMG, as well as a solo album.
He is also a voiceover artist, having lent his voice to various projects, in particular gaming and corporate work.
Original Cast Recordings / rock recordings include:
TV/Film includes:
Howar was married to Ruthie Henshall from 2004 and divorced in 2009. They have two daughters, Lily and Dolly. [11]
In September 2016 he married Musical Director Jodie Oliver at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh. They have one son, Hamish, born in April 2018. Howar left midway through the opening performance of the musical Chess when his wife gave birth. [8]
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber, is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a sung-through musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the character of Joseph from the Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly; their first collaboration, The Likes of Us, written in 1965, was not performed until 2005. Its family-friendly retelling of Joseph, familiar themes, and catchy music have resulted in numerous stagings. According to the owner of the copyright, the Really Useful Group, by 2008 more than 20,000 schools and amateur theatre groups had staged productions.
Chess is a musical with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of the pop group ABBA, lyrics by Ulvaeus and Tim Rice, and book by Rice. The story involves a politically driven, Cold War-era chess tournament between two grandmasters, one American and the other Soviet, and their fight over a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other. Although the protagonists were not intended to represent any real individuals, the character of the American grandmaster was loosely based on Bobby Fischer, while elements of the story may have been inspired by the chess careers of Russian grandmasters Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov.
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe. Based on the 1910 French novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux, it tells the tragic story of a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, masked musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opéra House.
Colm Wilkinson, also known as C. T. Wilkinson, is an Irish singer and actor who is best known for originating the lead role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and for creating the title role in The Phantom of the Opera (1985) preview at the Sydmonton Festival and the original Canadian production.
The Really Useful Group Ltd. (RUG) is an international company set up in 1977 by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is involved in theatre, film, television, video and concert productions, merchandising, magazine publishing, records and music publishing. The name is inspired by a phrase from the children's book series The Railway Series in which Thomas the Tank Engine and the other locomotives are referred to as "Really Useful Engines".
Valentine Ruth Henshall, known professionally as Ruthie Henshall, is an English actress, singer and dancer, known for her work in musical theatre. She began her professional stage career in 1986, before making her West End debut in Cats in 1987. A five-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the 1995 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Amalia Balash in the London revival of She Loves Me (1994).
John Owen-Jones is a Welsh musical theatre actor and singer, best known for his portrayals of Jean Valjean in Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schönberg's Les Misérables and The Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.
Hugh Panaro is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his work in Broadway stage musicals, most well known for his role in The Phantom of the Opera being in over 2,000 performances in the Broadway production.
Enda Markey is an Irish-born, Sydney-based, theatrical producer and former singer and actor. He is the producer of the stage productions Side by Side by Sondheim and the international tour of Boublil and Schonberg's Do You Hear The People Sing?, and the Australian revival of Willy Russell's Blood Brothers.
Ramin Karimloo is a Canadian actor, singer and songwriter recognized for his work in London's West End and New York's Broadway theatre.
Gavin Lee is an English actor who has appeared on the stage in musical theatre, notably as Bert in the musical Mary Poppins, in both the West End and on Broadway, and as Squidward Tentacles in the original Broadway cast of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical.
Jon Robyns is a British stage actor, who is best known for playing Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and is currently playing the title role in The Phantom of the Opera in London's West End.
Essential Musicals is an album by Elaine Paige, released in 2006. The album was produced by Mike Moran, vocals were recorded at Air-Edel Studios in London, and the orchestra backing recorded at The Hungarian State Radio Studios, Budapest. The album peaked at #46 in the UK Albums Chart.
David Thaxton is a Welsh singer, actor and musical theatre and opera performer. He starred in the Donmar Warehouse's Passion, for which he won the 2011 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.
Anna-Jane Casey is an English singer, dancer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre.
Louise Dearman is a British actress and singer, perhaps best known for playing Glinda and Elphaba in the West End production of the musical Wicked. Notably, she is the only actress to have played both witches in any production of Wicked full-time. She has a number of other professional stage and television credits, such as Eva Perón in Evita, Sarah Brown and Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, and Daisy Hilton in Side Show. She released her solo albums, You and I, Here Comes the Sun and It's Time, in 2005, 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Earl Carpenter is an English musical theatre actor and singer, recognized chiefly for his work in London’s West End. He is known for his performances as Inspector Javert in the stage musical Les Misérables and as the title character in The Phantom of the Opera, both roles he has played on and off for two decades. He is widely known for his rich, deep baritone singing voice.
Michael McCarthy, is an Irish musical theatre performer who is best known for his many appearances as Javert in the musical Les Misérables.
Christine Marie Allado is a Filipina-British actress and singer. She is best known for her performance in the role of Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds in the multi Tony and Olivier award-winning West End Production of Hamilton: An American Musical and for starring as Vanessa in the multi Olivier award-winning West End production of In The Heights, both by Lin Manuel Miranda. Her television credits include starring in the BBC's 60th anniversary production of West Side Story as the lead role of Maria and Jasmine in Hallmark Channel's TV film Royal Hearts, as Agent Beverly Walker for The Accidental Spy. She is currently starring in “The Prince of Egypt” musical at the Dominion Theatre in the West End.
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