Oliver! Digital Programme | CFT Festival 2024

Chichester Festival Theatre in association with Cameron Mackintosh presents

Book, Music and Lyrics by Lionel Bart Freely adapted from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist Revised by Cameron Mackintosh

Welcome

Welcome

It’s an absolute joy to welcome you to this performance of Oliver!.

What would a Festival season be without a magnificent musical as its centrepiece? We’re delighted that once again we are collaborating with producer extraordinaire Cameron Mackintosh, with whom we last worked on Half a Sixpence.

Do read Cameron’s remarkable account of his six decade-long love of this iconic musical, and longstanding friendships and collaborations with both Lionel Bart and director and choreographer Matthew Bourne.

We’re thrilled that Matthew, who is internationally renowned for his ground-breaking reinventions of dance classics such as Swan Lake and Edward Scissorhands, as well as his Olivier Award-winning choreography for My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins, is making his Chichester debut.

Designer Lez Brotherston has created not only many memorable designs at Chichester over the years, including Me and My Girl, Fiddler on the Roof and Flowers for Mrs Harris, but has collaborated with Matthew on almost all the astonishing New Adventures productions. They reflect on their partnership in this programme.

As Matthew says, Oliver! is part of our DNA as a nation; Lionel Bart’s brilliance as composer and lyricist ensured that almost all of us will go into the theatre with the songs already in our memories. We are welcoming a wonderful company to re-establish those matchless, ear-worm melodies in our heads this summer, and hope they all have a very enjoyable run in West Sussex.

Following its premiere at the Festival Theatre, Oliver! will head to London’s Gielgud Theatre from December. But there’s plenty more to come this season in Chichester, too – including the world premiere of Redlands, Charlotte Jones’s riotous new play about the infamous Rolling Stones trial which will fill the Festival Theatre with a different kind of 1960s music.

We hope you enjoy this performance, and to see you again soon.

Justin Audibert Artistic Director

Kathy Bourne Executive Director

Kathy Bourne and Justin Audibert Photograph by Peter Flude

These kids – they’re taking over the world – they’re the new aristocracy, man and the old guard don’t like it.

Redlands Festival Theatre 20 September – 18 October Sending the season out with ‘a bigger bang’ in the Festival Theatre, Charlotte Jones’s new play Redlands catapults us back to the Chichester of the 1960s and a moment of local history: the trial of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

CFT Artistic Director Justin Audibert is at the helm, and tells us: ‘This is a local story with national resonance. It tells the dramatic story of the drugs bust at Keith Richard’s house in the Witterings, and explores how Michael Havers QC manages to get the Rolling Stones acquitted; and how for his young son, the esteemed actor Nigel Havers, the experience changes his life forever.

‘As a dedicated Rolling Stones fan myself, it gives me enormous ‘Satisfaction’ to be directing this colourful, vibrant piece of ensemble theatre which will be supported with a live band onstage and some absolutely brilliant R&B songs.’

One minute to midnight. It’s time. Ladies and gentlemen, take a seat and I shall begin...

The Cat and the Canary Minerva Theatre 27 September – 26 October The Cat and the Canary, adapted by Carl Grose from the play by John Willard, is a hilariously chilling mixture of Agatha Christie and gothic horror that will have you shrieking with laughter and fear in equal measure.

And there’s nobody better than the genius shape-shifting company Told by an Idiot, and director Paul Hunter, to tell it.

Justin Audibert says: ‘Who doesn’t love a brilliantly scary ghost story as the nights get darker and chillier? This will be a physically entertaining piece of storytelling which centres around a motley group of characters who gather in a remote house in Cornwall to hear the reading of a will.

‘It has the perfect mixture of spooks, belly laughs and thrills to end the season.’

One of the ‘This is a friendly, welcoming space and my son loves it. I have actually developed my own confidence too!’

Each year, thousands of families are welcomed to Chichester Festival Theatre – many of them to shows such as Oliver! or our Christmas shows. But there are also plenty of fun-filled events and creative activities.

Discover our wide range of pop-up one-day events for children and families, ranging from crafts with Creation Station, Lego with The BRICK People and origami with Fold Our City to musical moments for little ones with Baby Broadway, to name a few. Many are free or at minimal cost.

Parents and carers can relax in our family friendly space in the Festival Theatre foyer while little ones make full use of the

Photos Richard Gibbons, Tim Hills

toys, games, craft and dressing up.

Other free events this summer include Storytime Saturdays and live music Summer Sessions on Oaklands Park.

And check out The Big Hoot Art Trail, running until 1 September, when 30 owl sculptures will swoop into public green spaces in Chichester and Arundel, including our very own ‘Owliver’ at CFT! Knees-up on the Park on Sunday 11 August will be a day of pure excitement for all ages. Dance like no one is watching at the silent disco, unravel the secrets of our heritage treasure trail, and ignite your creativity in a workshop. With live local music, plus delicious food and drink, there’ll be free and paid-for events – check out our website for full details.

Last year, we introduced a brand new programme specially designed for underfives. ‘Mini Makers and Shakers’ includes regular weekly workshops such as Little Artists, Boogie with Baby and Mini Movers, and outreach sessions in local nurseries where children can explore their creativity through dance, singing,

he family playing instruments and art.

In 2023 we also launched Chichester’s first Family Arts Network, uniting six cultural organisations across the city who want to shout out about all the wonderful family friendly things there are to do here.

You can find out more at Facebook.com/ ChichesterKidsApproved familyarts.co.uk/chichester-network

We’ve recently partnered with HomeStart Chichester to enable vulnerable families to take part too. The sessions not only provide creative experiences for the children, but opportunities for parents and caregivers to connect socially with other adults, and develop new skills to support creative play at home.

So – we hope you’ll ‘be back soon!’ cft.org.uk/families

Provenance Community Sustainability Creating exceptional food to enhance your Festival experience

Our ethos Delicious dishes are only as good as their component parts and community is a key factor for Caper & Berry and CFT. We believe that working with fantastic local producers has huge benefits to local communities and creates better environments.

In our larder Fresh ingredients have been at the centre of Caper & Berry’s ethos since 2004: Ultra Sustainable Suppliers

Chef’s Farms

- Tempus Cured Meats - Charlie’s Smokehouse - Cadd Oxshott Pizza

- Slade Farm Asparagus - Secretts Farm Leaves - Surrey Watercress

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Chichester Festival Theatre in association with Cameron Mackintosh presents

Book, Music and Lyrics by Lionel Bart Freely adapted from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist Reconceived by Matthew Bourne and Cameron Mackintosh

Reviewing the situation Cameron Mackintosh celebrates Lionel Bart’s timeless masterpiece I was taken to see Oliver! for the first time as a 13-year-old schoolboy, by my aunt, shortly after it opened in June 1960. I sat mesmerised in the gallery in seats costing 1/6 (15p!) taking in the brilliance of Lionel Bart’s glorious songs and brilliant adaptation of Dickens’ classic story and marvelling at the sensationally innovative

moving scenery of design genius Sean Kenny. The show influenced my life evermore and changed the British musical for ever.

After a short stint sweeping the stage of Drury Lane, in October 1965, aged just 19, I managed to get myself hired on the first British national tour of Oliver!, both as

performer and Assistant Stage Manager.

On the opening night in Manchester, I met the show’s legendary creator Lionel Bart for the first time. Within two years I managed to move from being an ASM to producing my first show.

10 years later in early 1978, in an extraordinary turn of fate (the first of many), the show’s original producer, Donald Albery, sold the rights to a film company whom he introduced me to. It gave me the opportunity to put on a revival of the very production I had myself been in a few years earlier; and it had a very successful run back in the same theatre, the New (now renamed the Noël Coward) where it had originally opened – a theatre that I now serendipitously own.

Without me knowing, it was seeing this revival that inspired authors Boublil and Schönberg to write the phenomenon, Les Misérables, which I ended up producing.

From that day I was asked to be the stage show’s worldwide representative.

In 1994, with the original creative team no longer alive, I decided to reinvent a spectacular new production of Oliver! for the London Palladium stage where it was an enormous success, first starring Jonathan Pryce, directed by the very young up-and-coming director Sam Mendes and choreographer Matthew Bourne.

Long before this, Lionel Bart had rashly sold off his stage rights in Oliver! so on being offered a co-ownership of the rights, for the very first time, it allowed me to give Lionel a piece of his original royalty back, as well as become guardian of his artistic rights as author of the show’s book, music and lyrics, which Lionel had also given away. After many years of being financially and creatively in the doldrums, Lionel was again rightfully back on top thanks to the renewed success of his timeless masterpiece and able to enjoy his great achievements to the end of his far too short life.

This new production ran for several years and was revived even more spectacularly at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 2009, starring the incomparable Rowan Atkinson, leading a huge company of over 80 on that great stage. Plans

to bring back Oliver! to the West End a decade later were frustrated by the Covid shutdown but once theatres reopened again, Matthew Bourne and I started to “review the situation”.

The enforced wait got us thinking that having pulled off the biggest production of Oliver! in history, our instinct was that it could be exciting to return to the more intimate ensemble scale and roots of the brilliant original at the New Theatre, now the Noël Coward. We asked Matthew’s long time design collaborator Lez Brotherton to join us to create a contemporary new approach, inspired

by Sean’s original. The unique exciting challenge of Chichester’s stage has been a terrific catalyst for our reimagination and working with our brilliant young cast has brought a thrilling modern edge to Lionel’s joyful and timeless masterpiece.

Left: Cameron Mackintosh and Lionel Bart, 1994. Photo Mike Lawn.

Above right: Cameron Mackintosh and Lionel Bart in rehearsal for Oliver!, 1994. Photo Colin Willoughby/ArenaPAL. Below right: Cameron Mackintosh as a Pie Man, Oliver! UK tour 1965 – 1966.

Lionel Bart It’s a fine life If, as is often said, the music makes the man, then Lionel Bart is inseparable from the shows and songs he gave the world. Best known of course for the musical Oliver!, Bart quite simply is inseparable from the great British songbook of the second half of the 20th century.

That his durability isn’t in doubt is proven not merely by the resilience and robustness of Oliver! as a title, as the current CFT revival proves, but by the breadth and scope of the appeal of his music. You might expect JW3 – a bustling arts venue in north London devoted to Jewish cultural activity – to devote an evening to Bart, as they recently

Lionel Bart Photo Michael Le Poer Trench © Cameron Mackintosh Ltd.

did; but I was amused to receive news from the American west of the ecstatic use of the plaintive ‘Who Will Buy?’ from Oliver! in a concert by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir – not the first place you might expect to find the work of a Tony Award-winning East Ender who was one of Britain’s great Jewish creatives.

One cannot overestimate the importance of Oliver! in putting the British musical on the global map.

Nor can one overestimate the importance of Oliver! in putting the British musical on the global map – a feat only vaguely approximated prior to its arrival in 1960 by Sandy Wilson’s The Boyfriend in 1954, a featherweight confection that exists worlds apart from Bart’s take on Charles Dickens’ novel. Nowadays we’re used to

the British musical as a record-breaking behemoth, thanks to the 1980s rise in globetrotting titles defined by Cats, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon, all four the work of Oliver!’s ongoing keeper of the flame, the producer Cameron Mackintosh.

But none of those world-beating productions (apart from Les Misérables, which was itself inspired by Oliver!) spawned films that won the Oscar for Best Picture, as Oliver! did in 1969, winning six awards in all. (It would take 34 years before another musical, Chicago, nabbed that same honour.) Indeed, as a theatre-mad boy growing up in Manhattan in the 1960s and 70s, my cultural sense of Britain was largely defined by wearing out my parents’ cast album of Oliver! and yearning someday to see original Broadway cast members Clive Revill and Georgia Brown live on stage – as I managed in the case of Ms Brown if never, alas, her male co-star.

Lest Bart be thought a one-hit wonder, it’s worth recalling that here was a man at home with both music hall and rock and roll.

Such details may seem trivial, but it’s worth noting the exclamation mark inextricably appended to Oliver!, without which the show’s title seems somehow denuded. Sure, Broadway had seen the Gershwins’ Oh, Kay! and of course Oklahoma! in the pre-Oliver! era, but its punctuation seemed to embed excitement about the piece into its very existence, heralding a musical theatre era that would go on to give us Hello, Dolly! and Oh! Calcutta!.

Bart’s soaringly eclectic score shifts gear from the unbridled rumbustiousness of ‘Oom-Pah-Pah’ to the immortal yearning of ‘Where Is Love’.

And lest Bart be thought a one-hit wonder, it’s worth recalling that here was a man at home with both music hall and rock Above: sheet music for Fings Ain’t What They Used T’Be (1960); album cover for Blitz! (1962); programme for Maggie May (1964).

Right: Lionel Bart, Sean Kenny and original producer Donald Albery.

and roll, who wrote for Cliff Richard and Tommy Steele and included both the late Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret among his audience. That’s not bad for a man who grew up a tailor’s son (he was the youngest of 11 children) not far from the likes of working-class Jewish contemporaries, Arnold Wesker and Harold Pinter. Never at any point did Bart learn to read music: ideas would be sung into a dictaphone for others to write out.

The success of Oliver! on stage and screen brought Bart fame and fortune.

But this early success was never equalled again.

Having clocked St Bartholomew’s Hospital more or less at random during his travels around the capital, the composer decided to change his surname from Begleiter to the pronunciation-friendly

monosyllable Bart. At first he dabbled with being an artist, before finding early renown with songs like ‘Rock with the Caveman’ and ‘Living Doll’. The latter topped the charts twice, first in 1959 and again in 1986, recorded afresh in aid of Comic Relief.

Bart’s first London stage musical was as lyricist for the 1959 show Lock Up Your Daughters, based on an improbable source (Henry Fielding’s 1730 play Rape Upon Rape) and designed by a young Irish designer/architect, Sean Kenny, whose scenic wizardry would prove essential to Bart’s career.

The Cockney knees-up Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be, intended originally as a play, was reconceived by the legendary theatre director Joan Littlewood as a stage musical for which Bart could pen both music and lyrics. He did so to great success and the show transferred from Littlewood’s artistic home at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East to play 886 performances at the Garrick Theatre, with a cast including Barbara Windsor and Miriam Karlin – it was deliciously described by Littlewood as

‘Guys and Dolls with its flies undone’. The show was revived at Stratford East in 2014, at which point its adaptor, Elliot Davis, spoke of planning a film about Bart’s life to actor Geoffrey Rush (which hasn’t happened, yet).

The success of Oliver! speaks for itself.

The role of the profiteering Fagin – first brought to life by the completely unknown Ron Moody – has since been catnip for everyone from Jonathan Pryce to Rowan Atkinson, and countless other names

Lionel Bart and Noël Coward

in-between, and Bart’s soaringly eclectic score shifts gear from the unbridled rumbustiousness of ‘Oom-Pah-Pah’ – surely somewhere in Stephen Sondheim’s mind when he wrote the second act opener to Sweeney Todd, ‘God That’s Good’ – to the immortal yearning of ‘Where Is Love?’.

The success of Oliver! on stage (particularly when Cameron Mackintosh became co-owner and guardian of the artistic stage rights) and screen brought

Bart fame and fortune, not to mention money for a nose job, and he went on to compose the theme song for From Russia with Love, thereby ensuring a place in the James Bond pantheon. But this early success was never equalled again. Blitz! – note further use of the exclamation mark – had a respectable enough West End run, designed as Oliver! had been under the genius eye of Kenny. But it never reached Broadway, and its extravagantly realistic depiction of the bombing of London during World War II remains associated in some quarters with the appraisal of it by Noël Coward – Bart’s neighbour for a while in Jamaica – as ‘Twice as loud and twice as long as the real thing’.

Maggie May, based on a traditional ballad about a Liverpool sex worker, premiered in 1964 and saw its title song covered by no less a name than Judy Garland (there was talk along the way of Bart, who was gay, ‘dating’ Garland so as to conceal his sexuality.) But it was the 1966 Twang!!, directed at first by Littlewood who jumped ship prior to opening, that did Bart’s career in. Playing only 43 performances at the Shaftesbury Theatre, the Robin Hood rewrite was at the time the costliest West End flop in history and coincided with Bart’s gradual, yet ongoing, descent into drugs and drink that the much-laureled film of Albery (formerly New) Theatre, 1977.

Oliver! two years later couldn’t put right.

Various musical ventures, La Strada and Quasimodo among them (the former with Bernadette Peters in her first leading Broadway role), came and went, and Bart’s fluctuating fortunes – penury led to prosperity and back again – took an uptick with the 1994 Sam Mendes-directed and Matthew Bourne-choroegraphed revival of Oliver!, only for Bart to die of liver cancer five years later, aged 68.

The life is one thing, his work and public persona another. I, for my part, recall meeting Bart on several occasions at one Oliver!-related media gathering or another – his charisma (dare one even call it rakishness?) readily on display. And whatever demons he possessed certainly found creative exorcism of sorts across a career whose signature show to this day reigns supreme. It’s difficult to say whether Bart’s life, defined as it was in his latter years by excess of all kinds, is what he would have wished for, but I consider myself among those fortunate enough over time to have come to know and love the music, and how lucky are we all for that?

Matt Wolf last year marked 40 years as an American theatre critic living in London.

What was your first show together?

Matthew Our first show was Highland Fling in 1994, which was also the year of Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Oliver! at the London Palladium, which I choreographed. The reason I wasn’t dancing in Highland Fling – and at that time I would normally have been in the show – was because I was going to be doing Oliver!.

Etta Murfitt [Choreographic Associate] was one of the people I workshopped it with too, 30 years ago.

How did you meet?

MB Lez has a better memory than me!

Lez Your designer for Highland Fling had pulled out. Scott Ambler had seen a production of The Maids that I’d designed and he suggested me; and you also knew my work from Northern Ballet.

It’s clear we’re going to get along Director and choreographer Matthew Bourne and designer Lez Brotherston have worked together for 30 years on shows for New Adventures including Swan Lake, The Red Shoes and Edward Scissorhands, in one of the most successful and enduring professional partnerships in theatre.

In the first week of rehearsals, they sat down for a lively conversation looking back on their collaborations and reflecting on this new production.

MB Anthony Ward recommended you as well. He had designed Nutcracker! in 1992 and he was designing Oliver!.

LB When I was at Opera North, the costume supervisor had gone to see Deadly Serious and said to me: “You’d get on really well with this choreographer; there’s a Tippi Hedren bit with crows on wires that will really make you laugh”. I said “oh right” and before I even saw it, I stole the idea and used it somewhere else…

MB …and never looked back!

Lez, you’ve said Matt was the first director you’d worked with who was your own age.

LB I’d been taken on by people like Christopher Gable and Francis Matthews who were all at least a generation above me.

Well, I know Matt [tongue in cheek] you’re

very much older than me…

MB A tiny bit older…!

LB …and when we started talking, we had similar points of reference. It made the shorthand really easy.

MB When I went to Lez’s place the first time and saw his video collection, they were all the same films I had.

LB We grew up at that time when on Saturday afternoon if you didn’t like football, you watched the matinee on BBC2 with your mum. If we’re doing a project, Matt gives me a list of films and says “watch that one and that one”. I usually know them anyway but I watch them again and even if it’s not a direct reference, it’s great to get a flavour of something, isn’t it?

MB It’s a flavour, yes. Sometimes the images are there in your head and you’re not quite sure where they came from. There’s

Above: Lez Brotherston and Matthew Bourne. Photo Johan Persson.

Left: Simon Murphy, Andrew George in Highland Fling, 1994. Photo Hugo Glendinning.

such a wealth of imagery. But it is a shorthand between us.

LB Like for Cinderella, you said “Waterloo Road – that bit on the bridge, they could be the girls in the underground,” and I said “oh yes, I know what that means.”

How many shows have you created together now?

LB It’s all of the New Adventures rep apart from Nutcracker!

MB So that’s about 14.

LB But every year we revive at least one, if not two shows, and work on them again.

MB Lez always wants to do something new and probably enjoys the revivals less than I do.

LB Normally on a revival, Matt can look at his work with 20 dancers in a studio and change whatever he likes; it doesn’t cost any more. When I come in and say I want to change the costumes, it costs thousands of pounds. Very often, you don’t have that money, so I’m stuck with what I made 10 years ago. That’s why I like the new ones!

MB It’s always exciting to do anything new. But I like the revivals; thankfully, most of our shows have had the opportunity for reworking.

What is your starting point for new productions?

MB I come up with the initial idea, though I do ask Lez if he has any ideas and he has suggested things over the years. But basically once I’ve got an idea which I think has all the elements to make a good piece of dance theatre – it has to have a story that encompasses solos, duets, trios, large groups – then the first person I talk to is

Costume design sketches by Lez Brotherston.

Lez (unless there’s a composer involved, which is unusual). Lez will go away and think about it and present something to me.

Sometimes his design can be a complete surprise, which I think is a good thing; I do believe in people doing what they do.

LB You do it with the dancers as well – you encourage people to come up with ideas and solutions. What Matt is brilliant at is editing them into something else.

MB I feel that’s my job. Coming up with the idea, working with everyone else to shape it and then at the end, saying yes or no: those are the important things for me.

If a play or musical has a good script, you’re at least 50% of the way there; with our dance pieces, we start with nothing. Maybe there’s a brilliant score but it’s a very different animal. Oliver! is a godsend because we know it works – the songs are wonderful.

This is the first musical you’ve done together. Has that made a difference to your approach?

LB No, not at all. The process is the same. For Oliver! I came up with a playground, rather than solutions for all the scenes: this could be the docks, this could be a house, a pub. And then we work on it in detail.

MB Lez comes up with the concept, then you try and visualise how it can become all the things you need for the show. But I don’t dictate anything.

LB Matt takes the model away from me and sits and plays with it, then comes back and says “what about doing this or that?”

MB There are probably directors who are more upfront about what they want.

I like the surprise.

London Bridge. So having something to move people is helpful.

MB Yes, it really helps this piece, as did the original Sean Kenny set, which also took you to places. ‘Consider Yourself’ is a marching song; it’s hard to make it feel we’re going anywhere on a static strip of stage.

This feels like it’s on the move, which is great.

How much do you focus on historical accuracy?

MB Lez is strong on history; he’s always saying things like, “You’d never have had that broom!”.

LB Certainly with the costumes, it seems to me perverse not to. Oliver! is very much of its time, which is late Regency going into Victorian. It never occurred to me to change the period – did it you?

MB No, it never crossed my mind to do that.

You and Cameron Mackintosh have talked about returning to Oliver!’s roots and Sean Kenny’s original designs; what was the thinking behind that?

MB It feels very right for the piece and for Lionel Bart. I used to go to Theatre Royal Stratford East when I was a teenager and grew up watching a lot of those shows; Joan Littlewood was still there and I loved the way the productions were very communitybased and actor-led. And Lionel came from that aesthetic. Cameron’s production reached its zenith at Drury Lane in 2009.

LB It couldn’t have been bigger! We had lunch with Cameron and he was talking to us about doing it; and I said, surely the way forward is to go back to an ensemble feel and a poor theatre aesthetic.

MB This is different but equally valid and exciting in its own way.

Your set has complex revolving stages that spin between various locations – why are they important?

LB Because Chichester is a thrust stage, it’s very difficult to deliver anything downstage without trucking it on. In Oliver! there are lots of journeys – he’s running away or being chased, or going across Ashley Shaw in The Red Shoes.

Photo Johan Persson.

Did you look at any specific locations or references?

LB I looked at loads of pictures of old London and the docks. Weirdly I live in Wapping, in a place called Oliver’s Wharf.

It’s quite atmospheric on the riverbank; with the right camera angle you could almost think you were in 1830s London. So it was more about the costume of the period.

MB The interesting thing about Oliver!, thinking about choreography, is that you’ve got a sense of things like music hall but there is no film of entertainment in that era. You can reference the dance crazes of the 1950s or 1920s very easily but you can hardly find anything from the mid-19th century. But with Oliver!, the choreography is more to do with people moving in a characterful way, to create that world; it’s rougher edged than conventional dance moves. I think my credit in 1994 was ‘musical staging’ actually, and it’s certainly a very staged show. I’m enjoying moving the set around and getting connections between people.

What makes Oliver! such a beloved musical?

MB It’s more than a show to the British public in a strange way, it’s part of our DNA

as a nation. There’s actually an Oliver! film poster in the pub in EastEnders. When we first did it, the audience would applaud Lionel when he took his seat. People still know the songs; all the kids in our cast seem so aware of it. It’s indestructible.

LB The music is really accessible; it’s tunes that you can whistle and remember.

Our generation grew up watching the film; everyone you speak to seems to have played Fagin in their school show.

MB It’s extraordinary because Oliver! does have difficult subject matter; it’s not all pleasant by any means – there’s death, abuse, violence, young thieves. But everyone has such affection for it. The lyrics are very down to earth, they nail the idea – it’s cleverer than people think. To come up with that many good melodies in one show is quite unusual.

Returning to your own partnership, can you pick a favourite show?

LB Everyone always expects us to say Swan Lake.

MB It did change our lives.

LB I’m very fond of all of them. I’m really fond of Dorian Gray and Play Without Words; I love The Red Shoes.

MB The Red Shoes was a real love letter to theatre for us. Even though it’s based on a film, it’s about a dance company, and Lez did a really special design. I really love our Blitz-age Cinderella, too.

Will Bozier and ensemble in Swan Lake.

Photo Johan Persson.

LB They kind of come back on a seven-year cycle, so we go “This year it’s Swan Lake; OK I’m ready for it now, I can cope with the oboe at the beginning!”.

MB We’re very lucky that our shows do come around. We used to think, once upon a time, that they’d have their day and would finish and never come back. We thought that about Swan Lake.

LB It was billed as the last time ever at the Dominion Theatre in 2000 – and it’s still going!

Is there anything you’d still like to do together?

MB There’s not something we’re waiting to do, but I’d never say never.

LB You can’t persuade Matt to do something he doesn’t want to do. I can say, what about this? But it has to come from him.

MB I always call it ‘the big idea’ that just clicks in my head. It’s marrying Cinderella with the Blitz or something; it’s the beginning of lots of thoughts that will make that work. To want and need to do Oliver!, for me it had to be a reinvention and a fresh beginning; and I’ve tried, in the ideas we’ve been coming up with, to subvert some of the things people know of the piece without changing it so much that it doesn’t work anymore, and with all the elements people cherish.

Charles

Social

Among writers, there are very few who offer as complete and capacious a view of humankind, and the societal circumstances surrounding it, as Charles Dickens – Shakespeare comes to mind, obviously, as do various Russian masters. But whether bringing to the page people of means or influence, or those fretful lost souls for whom an easeful life seems impossible, Dickens extends a sweeping, comprehensive gaze to those occupying all points on the walkway of life. Where some stumble, others soar, and still others find it within themselves to effect change so that misfortune can shift in an instant to mirth.

The result has surely been catnip over time to those looking to take his breadth of understanding and run with it. Can there be a single more frequently adapted literary source than A Christmas Carol, which tells the redemption story of a mean-spirited businessman, Ebenezer Scrooge, who is awakened to a life of charity and compassion?

Dickens knew whereof he wrote. Oliver Twist was penned in response to the Newgate novels from the early part of the 19th century that glamourised the lives of criminals, much to Dickens’ disgust.

Dickens’ Dream by Robert William Buss, 1875.

Charles Dickens Museum.

Dickens

commentator and sage

Similarly, playgoers of a certain age will never forget the closing image of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s legendary production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, which ended with the title character, ostensibly settled and secure, moving downstage to cradle in his arms a poor young boy shivering in the cold before us, a reminder of the frail, muchabused Smike whom we had come to know across the preceding eight hours of this two-part saga.

It’s Dickens’ great achievement to seem rooted to a place and yet to transcend such confines.

Nickleby’s action serves as a potent reminder of the importance of compassion over complacency; satisfaction and deprivation co-exist, and we neglect that truism at our peril. Small wonder Dickens famously wrote at the start of A Tale of Two Cities of ‘the best of times, Above: Charles Dickens, 1837. Pictures Now/Alamy.

Left: The Adventures of Oliver Twist with illustrations

by George Cruikshank, 1846.

the worst of times’. The two tend to be conjoined, and Dickens’ wide-angle lens takes in both.

Some authors are agitators, but Dickens, I think, is best viewed as a reformer – someone who saw literature as a source of betterment, a call of sorts to moral arms that might prompt a reader to open his heart, just as we famously (and, in my theatrical experience anyway, tearfully) watch Ebenezer Scrooge do.

Oliver Twist followed The Pickwick Papers as the second of the 14½ novels Dickens wrote – the fraction accounted for

by The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which Dickens was halfway through in June 1870, before he suffered a stroke and died age 58.

The novel’s unfinished status didn’t limit its adaptability: in 1985 Drood became a Tony-winning Broadway musical and has had three separate New York runs.

And all manner of being, and behaving, is here. Published in 1838 and subtitled The Parish Boy’s Progress, Oliver Twist offers a characteristically broad array of personages, albeit in a work about half the length of this writer’s longest novel, Bleak House. That money can align with magnanimity is seen by the bookish Mr Brownlow, who takes in the orphaned Oliver and goes on to rescue the boy from the thieving reprobate, Fagin: Oliver’s

‘genteel’ face, we’re told, has made a difference to his fate. A subsequent version of Brownlow exists in Mr Jarndyce in Bleak House, who uses his wealth to beneficent ends.

Authority and influence can find other forms. Take, for instance, the pompous and self-regarding Mr Bumble, who presides with Mrs Corney over the poorhouse that has housed (among other waifs and strays) the hapless Oliver, and who exists to be excoriated – as often as not comically. But there’s genuine terror in the domestic abuse involving the thuggish, violent Bill Sikes and his girlfriend Nancy – a kindly woman with seriously poor taste in men.

Elsewhere, you don’t get much lower than Jo in Bleak House, the abject street sweeper whose very being confronts us directly with a life made dreadful by incivility and neglect.

The London that was his preferred stage could also be abstracted as a backdrop for stories of injustice and indifference that find all too stark equivalents to this day.

Dickens knew whereof he wrote. Oliver Twist was penned – in serialised form, as per Dickens’ usual output – in response to the Newgate novels from the early part of the 19th century that glamourised the lives of criminals, much to Dickens’ disgust. Only 12 when his father, John, was imprisoned for debt in 1824, Dickens was keen to deromanticise that particular netherworld and give some sense of the sordidness of a tawdry and sometimes terrifying existence that offered very little to boast about. The direct effect of the resulting familial disarray on young Charles’ own life saw him forced to get work wrapping labels on to bottles of boot blacking for 10 hours a day.

Aware of class inequity, Dickens coupled optimism with a clear-eyed perspective on life’s mixed fortunes. Oliver Twist, like A Christmas Carol, may allow catharsis and release but there’s a reason other novels delivered up life’s depredations in their very titles – Hard Times, for instance, or indeed Bleak House. London Tide, the recent National Theatre adaptation of Dickens’ final complete novel, Our Mutual Friend, established via song at its very start the grinding influence of money on characters who are greedy, gullible or generous-hearted as required.

It’s Dickens’ great achievement to seem rooted to a place and yet to transcend such Bleak House with illustrations by Hablot Knight (Phiz) Browne, 1852.

Jo the crossing sweeper from Bleak House, illustration by Harry Furniss 1910.

confines in much the same way that Victor Hugo, a Frenchman whose novels possess comparable scope and sweep, can be enjoyed without anyone having had to set foot in Paris. Dickens was an infant during the Napoleonic Wars – he was three when Napoleon was defeated – and so would have been acquainted with Portsmouth (where he was born and briefly lived, from 1812 to 1814), given its importance as a naval port and his father’s employment as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. Later in his childhood, Dickens and his elder sister Fanny reportedly went out on boats with their father to give sailors their pay.

But the London that was his preferred stage – and let’s not forget that Dickens also wrote plays – could also be abstracted as a backdrop for stories of injustice and indifference that find all too stark equivalents to this day. Rescuers exist in Dickens – Mr Brownlow is one, as are the Cheeryble Brothers in Nicholas Nickleby and Aunt Betsey in David Copperfield, the latter being the most autobiographical of Dickens’ works: the novelist himself described it as ‘a very complicated weaving of truth and invention’.

A Christmas Carol with Illustrations by John Leech, 1843.

Our Mutual Friend with illustrations by Marcus Stone, 1895.

Little Dorrit: ‘The Marshalsea becomes an orphan’ illustration by Hablot Knight (Phiz) Browne, 1857.

It’s no accident that ‘Dickensian’ has entered the lexicon to refer to a gift for anatomising Victorian England.

But fidelity to Dickens’ own life pales next to a broader capacity for social commentary that leaves no stratum of existence out of his enquiring, astute gaze.

It’s no accident that ‘Dickensian’ has entered the lexicon to refer to a gift for anatomising the Victorian England around him with a vivid and rich sense of detail that has reverberated down the centuries ever since. The breadth of responses to his work ranges from The Muppet Christmas Carol through to the singular hyperrealism of the 1987 film version of Little Dorrit, starring Derek Jacobi, in which the hemline of every costume seems authentically sourced.

But the common thread is Dickens’ genius in reflecting ourselves and our society back to us, whether satirical and exaggerated in some instances, startlingly real and visceral in others. Oliver! for its part may very aptly add song and dance to the thickening brew of human behaviour within a novel that stares daily vicissitudes of living directly in the face.

But I like to think of its call for ‘food, glorious food’ as just one way of heralding a writer who found nourishment in everything around him, his authorial bounty amounting to an all but unparalleled literary feast.

Matt Wolf

Oliver Twist ‘Oliver plucks up a spirit’ illustration by George Cruikshank, 1838.

David encounters Betsey Trotwood from David Copperfield, illustration by Harold Copping 1924.

Oliver!

Book, Music and Lyrics by Lionel Bart Freely adapted from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist Revisions and new material by Cameron Mackintosh

Cast Oliver Twist Cian Eagle-Service / Raphael Korniets / Jack Philpott Mr Bumble Oscar Conlon-Morrey Widow Corney Katy Secombe Mr Sowerberry / Dr Grimwig Stephen Matthews Mrs Sowerberry / Mrs Bedwin Jamie Birkett Charlotte Bethan Keens Noah Claypole Callum Hudson The Artful Dodger Billy Jenkins Alternate Artful Dodger Rudy Gibson / Charlie Hodson-Prior / William Skinner Dandy Harry Cross Charley Bates Lochlan White Fagin Simon Lipkin Bill Sikes Aaron Sidwell Nancy Shanay Holmes Bet Isabelle Methven Mr Brownlow Philip Franks Old Sally Wendy Somerville The Company Rachael Archer Tegan Bannister Adam Boardman Ebony Jonelle Peter Nash Josh Patel-Foster Sam Peggs Leah Vassell Matthew Whennell-Clark Fagin’s Gang Snatch Filch Spiv Kenpop Sid George Swindler

Team Bethnal Green / Wapping / Limehouse Ben Birch / Kylan Michael Denis / Finley Burrows George Hamblin / Hugo Pechey / Benjamin Dalton Stanley Guy / Jonny Niland / Liam Findlay Dylan Xavier / William Skinner / Preston Cropp Sebastian Elton / Aaron Zhao / Cooper McCrae Zoe Akinyosade / Grace King / Lily Hanna Rudy Gibson / Toba Agbelusi / Charlie Hodson-Prior

Swing / Dance Captain Swing Swing All other roles played by members of the Company.

Bethany Huckle Danny Lane Jasmine Sakyiama

Creative team Director and Choreographer Co-Director Designer Musical Supervisor and Conductor Lighting Designers Sound Designer Projection Designer Original Orchestrations Orchestral Adaptation Choreographic Associates

Matthew Bourne Jean-Pierre van der Spuy Lez Brotherston Graham Hurman Paule Constable Ben Jacobs Adam Fisher George Reeve William David Brohn Stephen Metcalfe

Children’s Casting Director

Etta Murfitt Sam Archer Claire Llewellyn of Rc-Annie Ltd Felicity French CDG Paul Wooller CDG Verity Naughton CDG

Resident Director Children's Director Associate Musical Director Associate Scenic Designer Associate Lighting Designer Associate Sound Designer

Tom O’Brien Jaye Elster Huw Evans Joseph Bisat Marshall Teresa Nagel Ollie Durrant

Fight Director Casting Directors

Production Manager Associate Production Manager Costume Supervisor Props Supervisor Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Supervisor Company Manager Stage Manager Deputy Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager (book cover) Assistant Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager (deputy)

Tom Lee Nicki Brown Irene Bohan Lily Mollgaard Matt George Mike Mansfield Simon ‘Snappy’ Wood Lou Bann Hope Marshall Jess Hardcastle Henry Reeder

Children’s Administrator Head House Parent House Parents Head Chaperone Chaperones

Tutors

Sarah De Souza Louis Ling Tamsin Ford, Lindsay Haynes, Josh Lewis, Belinda Newton-Mann, Susan Robbins Janette McAlpine Jenny Beadle, Megan Bewley, Ellie Bradbury,Boo Chapman, Sydney Craddock, Olivia Edwards-Cox, Amy Glenister, Debbie Hunt, Kimberley Kotin, Emily McAlpine, Lesley McGovern, Susan Mulkern, Ella O’Keeffe, Sue O’Keeffe, Lewis Rennison, Margaret Todd, Becky Stuckey, Amber Wadey, Laura Wadey Briony Beviss, Amanda Duckworth, Stuart Morris

A Chichester Festival Theatre and Cameron Mackintosh production.

First performance of this new production of Oliver! at Chichester Festival Theatre, 8 July 2024.

Orchestra Conductor Associate Musical Director / Keyboard 2 / Accordion Flute / Piccolo / Descant Recorder B♭ Clarinet / E♭ Clarinet B♭ Clarinet / Bass Clarinet / Tenor Recorder French Horn Tumpet / Flugel / Cornet Bass, Tenor & G Trombones / Euphonium Keyboard 1 Drums/Percussion Violin / Viola / Mandolin Cello Double Bass Orchestral Management Keyboard Programmer Music Preparation Rehearsal Pianist

Graham Hurman Huw Evans Holly Melia Harry Penny Hannah Lawrance Joseph Ryan Richard Blake Sion Jones Roger Davison Steve Fawbert Thomas Leate Sophie Gledhill Adam Higgs

Andy Barnwell & Rich Weeden for BW Musicians Ltd Stuart Andrews Niall Casserly Llŷr Simon

Production credits: Magic Consultant Harry De Cruz; Voice Work Kate Godfrey; Health & Safety Practitioner Chris Luscombe for Production Safety Ltd; Children’s Casting Associate Kat Edmonds; Children’s Casting Assistant Alicia Pears; Production Draughtsperson Tim Crowdy; Technical Co-ordinator Jenny Sherriff; Technical Production Assistant Liberty Hobbs; Stage Technician Joe Culpin; Set constructed by Rocket Scenery; Senior Production Carpenter Dan Cauldwell; Production Carpenters Matt Fitch, Paul Skeggs, Mike Hall; Senior Production LX Chris Mence; Senior Production Sound Andy Brown; Production Sound Sean Lawler; Senior Production Automation & Programmer Cam Balfour; Video Programmer Neil McDowell Smith; Video System Designer Mogzi; Production Video Engineers Mollie Tuttle, Richard Wells, Skylar Turnbull Hurd; Production Automation Andy Biles, Chris Harvard, Charlotte Lockyer; Assistant Production Manager Joe Jenner; Costumes made by Academy Costumes, Mark Costello, Kevin Mathias, Sasha Kier, Elizabeth Poole, Angelina Pieroni, Lorraine Richards, Sands Films Studios, Emily Kingston Lee, Davina Greening, Sahira Boora; Millinery by Dean Burke, Liz Crossman, Hannah Trickett, Jen Lewis; Dyeing and breaking down by Nicola Killeen Textiles, Vicki Hallam; Assistant Costume Supervisor Charlotte McGarry; Costume Assistants Isla Macleod, Florence McGlynn; Costume workshop Jacqui Hamer, Jane Rankine; WHAM Trainee (Theatre Artists Fund) Grace Paul; Furniture Makers Properly Made; Scenic Painter Belinda Clisham; Drapery/Upholstery Claire Sanderson, Bronia Topley; Bed makers and rehearsal support Heron & Driver, Paul Hennessy; Trick Props Aaron Merriman; Prop Buying Jamie Owens; Prop accounts Sharon Coventry; Paper Props and research Sian Willis; Lighting hires supplied by White Light; Sound Hires supplied by Autograph Sound; Automation supplied by Silicon Theatre Scenery; Projection & Video supplied by Blue-i Theatre Technology; Rigging supplied by Unusual Rigging; Additional Scenic Pieces constructed by Illusion Design and Construct, Andy Latham Scenery; Transport by EJS, Paul Mathew Transport; Cloths supplied by Chris Claydon Ltd; Rehearsal Rooms 3 Mills Studio; Rehearsal Set supplied by The Next Stage, RK Resource.

The story takes place around 1850, in the Midlands and London.

There will be one interval of 20 minutes.

Rehearsal and production photographs Johan Persson, Danny Kaan Programme consultants Emily Naughton, Fiona Richards Programme design Davina Chung Cover image Muse

Musical Numbers Act 1 Prologue Food Glorious Food Oliver!

Boy For Sale That’s Your Funeral Where Is Love?

I Shall Scream Oliver’s Escape Consider Yourself You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two My Name!

It’s A Fine Life I’d Do Anything Be Back Soon The Robbery

Orchestra & Company Oliver & Workhouse Children Mr Bumble, Widow Corney & Company Mr Bumble Mr Sowerberry, Mrs Sowerberry, Mr Bumble Oliver Mr Bumble & Widow Corney Orchestra Dodger, Oliver & Company Fagin & Gang Bill Sikes & Nancy Nancy, Bet, Fagin & Gang Nancy, Dodger, Oliver, Bet, Fagin & Gang Fagin & Gang Orchestra

Act 2 Oom-Pah-Pah My Name! (reprise) As Long As He Needs Me Where Is Love? (reprise) Who Will Buy? It’s A Fine Life (reprise) Reviewing the Situation Oliver! (reprise) As Long As He Needs Me (reprise) London Bridge Reviewing the Situation (reprise) Finale

Nancy & Company Bill Sikes Nancy Mrs Bedwin Oliver & Company Nancy, Fagin, Sikes & Dodger Fagin Mr Bumble, Widow Corney Nancy Orchestra Fagin The Company

Supported by the Oliver! Supporters and Patrons Circles: Ross and Carolyn Bates, Christina Breene, Patrick and Maggie Burgess, Caroline and Malcolm Butler, Veronica J Dukes, Val and Richard Evans, Gary Fairhall, Themy Hamilton, Robert and Suzetta Hayes, Richard and Rosie Hoare, Gay and Colin Kaye, Roger Keyworth, Lavinia Lewis, John and Chrissie Lieurance, Vaughan and Sally Lowe, Dr and Mrs Nick Lutte, Elizabeth Miles, Simon and Clare Parsonage, William and Penny Plant, David Shalit MBE and Sophie Shalit, Jackie and Alan Sherling, Katherine and Greg Slay, Christine and Dave Smithers, Howard M Thompson, Ian and Alison Warren, Ernest Yelf and all those who wish to remain anonymous.

Sponsored by

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Cast Biographies Rachael Archer Company Previously at Chichester, Barnum (Theatre in the Park).

Theatre includes Bea in Something Rotten, City of Angels (English Theatre Frankfurt); Mrs Turnbull/Mrs Tilbrook in Betty Blue Eyes (Novello Theatre); Sweet Charity (Menier Chocolate Factory & Theatre Royal Haymarket); Hello Dolly!, Gigi (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Aspects of Love, The Vagina Monologues (UK tours); Imagine This (New London Theatre); The Tempest (Theatre Royal Bath).

Film and television includes Les Misérables, Victoria Wood Christmas Special.

Trained at Arts Educational Schools.

Tegan Bannister Company Theatre includes I Should Be So Lucky, Eponine in Les Misérables (UK tours); Simon Lipkin Shanay Holmes

Ali in Mamma Mia! (Novello Theatre); Les Misérables (Queens Theatre, London); Young Nala in The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre, London).

Trained at Sylvia Young Theatre School and Urdang Academy.

Jamie Birkett Mrs Sowerberry / Mrs Bedwin Theatre includes Annie in Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Lyric Theatre West End & UK tour); Loretta/cover Kate/Debbie/Nina in Mamma Mia The Party! (O2); Lucinda in Into the Woods (Theatre Royal Bath); Chemise/Miss Murray in Groan Ups (UK tour); cover Madame Thenardier/Factory Girl in Les Misérables (UK & Ireland tour); alternate Sandra in The Play That Goes Wrong (Duchess Theatre); Handmaiden/cover Evleen in The Pirate Queen (ENO/London Coliseum); Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty (Swansea Grand); Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (European tour); Veronica in The

Garden, Miranda in The Ghost Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore (Tristan Bates Theatre); Dr Finache in A Flea in Her Ear (Tabard Theatre); Martha in Cross Purpose (Off West End Awards Best Actress nomination: King’s Head); Countess Charlotte Malcolm in A Little Night Music (Off West End Awards Best Supporting Actress nomination: Ye Olde Rose & Crown); Joanne in Rent (Greenwich Theatre); Serena Katz in Fame (European tour); Jubilee Climax in Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens (West End & 20th Anniversary production, Leicester Square Theatre); Queen Mouseyrinks in Nutcracker!

The Musical (Pleasance Theatre London); Principal Female on Musical Starnights (European tour); Wicked Witch in Little Red Riding Hood, Evil Stepmother in Cinderella (Customs House South Shields); Princess Jasmine in Aladdin (Sands Centre Carlisle); May Queen in Merrie England (Finborough); Ragtime, The Hired Man (Landor); Aladdin in Aladdin (Maltings Theatre); Babs in Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi (Union Theatre).

Television includes Sondheim’s 80th Aaron Sidwell Billy Jenkins

(BBC Prom/Royal Albert Hall), Wire in the Blood, Rocketman, I’d Do Anything.

Films include the shorts We Always Find Ourselves at the Seas, Flow.

Trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

Instagram @jkmbirkett Adam Boardman Company Theatre includes Brujon/cover Thenardier in Les Misérables (UK & Ireland and international tours); Casca in Julius Caesar (RSC); Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing (Berkeley Castle & Verona Open Air).

Television includes Odd Squad, Breeders, Not Going Out, The First Team.

Films include Bleachy Doomsday.

Trained at Guildford School of Acting.

Oscar Conlon-Morrey Mr Bumble Theatre includes Phil Newman in Rehab The Musical (194 Piccadilly: OFFIE nomination);

Harry Cross Dandy Theatre includes Patrick in Mame (Hope Mill Manchester/Royal & Derngate/Salisbury Playhouse); Tommy Stubbins in Doctor Dolittle, Toby in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Hedgehog/Fieldmouse in The Wind in the Willows (UK tours); Grisha in The Cherry Orchard (Royal Exchange/Bristol Old Vic).

Television includes Victoria series 2.

Films include Rocketman.

Trained at Stagebox.

Robert Cecil in Treason (London Palladium & UK tour); Jack in Mother Goose (West End & UK tour); Dating Agent/Danny Driscoll in Only Fools and Horses The Musical (Theatre Royal Haymarket: WhatsOnStage Award nomination); Vajayjay in Cinderella: A Socially Distanced Ball (Turbine Theatre); Friar Tuck in The Fall (Shakespeare’s Globe); Skelton in The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); Mr Rye/cover Mr Poppy in Nativity! The Musical (West End & UK tour); Simeon/ The Baker in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Kilworth House Theatre). White Dude in The Toxic Avenger The Musical (The Arts Theatre, Leicester Square).

Films include Oscar Wilde About America, A Killer Party, Cinderella: A Socially Distanced Ball, First Date.

Other credits include voiceovers to dub Netflix’s foreign children’s films and series into English.

Trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

X & Instagram @Oscar_C_M_ Philip Franks

Cian Eagle-Service Oliver Twist Theatre includes Bruno in The Witches (National Theatre); Gustave in Love Never Dies in Concert, Gavroche in Les Misérables, Michael Banks in Mary Poppins and Young Aaron in The Prince of Egypt, all in the West End. Television includes Britain’s Got Talent Live Final 2023 (with the cast of Les Misérables).

Film includes The Prince of Egypt (filmed live in the West End).

Trains with JJ Dance Studios and Kim Thursfield Vocal Coaching.

Philip Franks Mr Brownlow Previously at Chichester, Octavius Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra; as Director, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (co-directed with Jonathan Church), Christmas Concerts, Twelfth Night, The Cherry Orchard, Collaboration/Taking Sides, Separate Tables, The Master Builder, The Deep Blue Sea, Rattigan’s Nijinsky, A Marvellous Year for Plums.

Theatre as an actor includes The Rocky Horror Show, Witness for the Prosecution, Noises Off, Journey’s End, Art, The Importance of Being Earnest (West End); Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale, Henry IV, Everyman in His Humour, The Art of Success, The Storm (RSC); Marat/Sade (National Theatre).

Other theatre includes The History Boys, Murder in the Cathedral, 66 Books, The

Winslow Boy, Edward II, Breaking the Code.

Film and television includes Phantom Thread, Finding Neverland, Bleak House, Martin Chuzzlewit, The Darling Buds of May, Heartbeat, Absolutely Fabulous.

Philip is also an award-winning director, who has directed in the West End, at the National Theatre, in New York, Toronto and all over the UK, as well as plays online and for BBC Radio.

Shanay Holmes Nancy Theatre includes Ellen in Miss Saigon (Sheffield Theatres); Cindy Breakspeare in Get Up Stand Up! (Lyric Theatre); Laura in High Fidelity (Turbine Theatre); Marian in The Bridges of Madison County (Menier Chocolate Factory); Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Kilworth House Theatre); Glinda in The Wizard of Oz (Birmingham Rep); Joanne Jefferson in Rent (20th Anniversary production); Soul Girl in Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); understudy female leads in Close To You:

Oscar Conlon-Morrey Katy Secombe

Bacharach Reimagined (Criterion Theatre); Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard Musical (Adelphi Theatre); Lead Singer in Thriller Live (Lyric Theatre).

Awards: Black British Theatre Awards winner for Best Producer & Best Production for West End Musical Celebration (Palace Theatre); Stage Top 25 – Theatremakers to look out for in 2022 and beyond.

As Producer: Musical Con (Excel London); Bat Boy The Musical (London Palladium); For Black Boys… (Garrick Theatre); Jon Robyns in Concert (His Majesty’s Theatre); West End Musical Love Songs (Lyric Theatre & Apollo Theatre); West End Musical Halloween (Lyric Theatre); West End Musical Christmas (Lyric Theatre & Adelphi Theatre); West End Musical Celebration (Palace Theatre).

Instagram & TikTok @ShanayHolmes Bethany Huckle Swing / Dance Captain Previously at Chichester, Vivian in Oklahoma!, Flo in Half a Sixpence (& Noël Coward Theatre) (Festival Theatre).

Theatre includes My Favourite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert, 42nd Street (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Roman Holiday (Theatre Royal Bath); cover Eliza in My Fair Lady (London Coliseum & UK tour); The Boy Friend, cover Chairy/Jenny Lind in Barnum (Menier Chocolate Factory); Alice in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Cinderella (Theatre Royal Plymouth); Mrs Henderson Presents (workshop).

Television includes The One Show, Tonight at the Palladium, BBC Children in Need, The Olivier Awards, Strictly Come Dancing.

Films include Wonka, Cats.

Trained at the Urdang Academy.

Callum Hudson Noah Claypole Theatre includes Eric in Matilda The Musical (RSC); Gavroche in Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre); Young Harry Potter in Harry Potter and The Cursed Child (Palace Theatre).

Television includes Strictly Come Dancing.

Simon Lipkin and members of the company

Trained at Sylvia Young Theatre School, Bird College.

Billy Jenkins The Artful Dodger Theatre includes Gavroche in Les Misérables (West End).

Television includes Dodger Specials, Dodger, Peaky Blinders series 6, Cursed, Humans series 2 & 3, The Crown seasons 1 & 2. Billy was a Screen Actors Guild Award nominee for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for The Crown; a Young Artist Award 2021 nominee for Best Performance in a Streaming Series by a Young Actor for Cursed; a TV Times Awards 2022 nominee for Favourite Young Performer for Dodger; and a Young Artist Award 2023 nominee for Outstanding Ensemble Cast for Dodger.

Radio includes Michael Morpurgo’s Alone on the Wide Wide Sea, Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V. Films include Holmes and Watson, Four Kids and It, Chicken and Egg. Trained at British Theatre Academy 2017-2022.

Ebony Jonelle Company Theatre includes Ensemble/understudy Mercy Lewis in The Crucible (National Theatre/Gielgud); Sophie in Zombiegate (Theatre503); Factory Girl in Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre & international tour); Rosalind in As You Like It (National Theatre/ Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Waitress/ understudy Angie/Kit/Shona in Top Girls (National Theatre); Alice in Alice in Wonderland (Stephen Joseph Theatre).

Television includes Doctors, Intelligence.

Films include the short Ma’am.

Trained at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

Bethan Keens Charlotte This is Bethan’s professional stage debut.

Credits whilst training include Flag in Soma, Petra in A Little Night Music.

Trained at London School of Musical Theatre and British Theatre Academy.

Shanay Holmes and members of the company

Raphael Korniets Oliver Twist Theatre/Dance includes The Boy in The Snowman (Sadler’s Wells and Birmingham Rep, 2022 & 2023); he also regularly performs in local theatre productions.

Raphael has just finished working on an NDA Amazon TV series.

Trains with Foster’s School of Dance and has solo vocal tuition by Sarah Emanuel.

Danny Lane Swing Theatre includes Oliver! (Leeds Playhouse); Mr Twimble/Wolly Womper in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (Southwark Playhouse); Dating Agency Agent in Only Fools and Horses The Musical (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Comptroller Schub in Anyone Can Whistle (Southwark Playhouse); Jack and the Beanstalk (Wyvern Theatre); Soho Cinders (Charing Cross Theatre); Roger in Grease and Marvin Columbus in Columbus The Musical! (Royal Caribbean International); Sleeping Beauty (Courtyard Theatre, Hereford); Parade

(Frogmore Paper Mill); The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat (Belgrade Theatre Coventry); The Cat in the Hat (Pleasance Theatre); The Ladykillers and Pygmalion (Summer Rep Festival/Theatre Royal Windsor & Manor Pavilion Theatre Sidmouth); Miracle on 34th Street (UK tour); You Won’t Succeed on Broadway if You Don’t Have Any Jews (Museum of Art Tel Aviv & St James Theatre London).

Concerts include Kinky Boots in Concert (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Best of the West End 2020 (Royal Albert Hall/BBC Radio 2); Zorro The Musical (Cadogan Hall); Nick Barstow and Friends (The Pheasantry); The Night of 1000 Stars (Royal Albert Hall).

X @dannylane94 Instagram @dannyl94 Simon Lipkin Fagin Theatre includes Derren Brown’s Unbelievable, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Barlow in I Can’t Sing, Lonny in Rock Cian Eagle-Service Raphael Korniets Jack Philpott

of Ages, Nicky/Trekkie in Avenue Q, Buddy the Elf in Elf The Musical, Philip Goodman in Ghost Stories, Ratty in The Wind in the Willows, The Lorax in The Lorax, I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change, Pharoah in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol (all West End); Mr Poppy in Nativity!

The Musical (Eventim Apollo); Sheriff in Whisper House (The Other Palace); Brian in Brian & Rodger (Menier Chocolate Factory); Martin in All in a Row (Southwark Playhouse); Lou Lubowitz in Miss Atomic Bomb (St James Theatre); Bill Sikes in Oliver! (Grange Park Opera); The Proprietor in Assassins (Menier Chocolate Factory); Touchstone in As You Like It (Southwark Playhouse); Galahad in Spamalot (UK tour); Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland (Nuffield Theatre Southampton); Sammy and Robbie in The Wedding Singer (UK tour); Blake in Austentatious (Landor Theatre).

Television includes Casualty, Unforgotten, Silent Witness, The Beaker Girls series 1 & 2, Almost Never, Ricky

Zoom, The Amazing World of Gumball, Harry Hill’s Tea Time, Alien Fun Capsule, Doctor Who, The Bill, No Strings Attached.

Films include Christmas on Mistletoe Farm, I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change, Nativity Rocks, Show Dogs, First Date, Nativity III, The Muppets: Most Wanted.

Stephen Matthews Mr Sowerberry / Dr Grimwig Theatre credits include Noah Claypole in the original cast of Cameron Mackintosh’s 1994 revival of Oliver! (London Palladium); The Mousetrap (St Martin’s Theatre); Les Misérables – The Staged Concert (Gielgud Theatre); Strictly Ballroom (Piccadilly Theatre, Princess of Wales Theatre Toronto & Leeds Playhouse); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Leeds Playhouse); Monsieur Popular (Ustinov Studio Bath); Anything Goes (Crucible Theatre Sheffield & UK tour); The Boy Who Fell Into A Book (Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough); The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre); The Producers (Theatre

Royal Drury Lane); Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle & Dick (Harrogate Theatre); Round The Horne…Revisited (UK tour); Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (UK & international tour); Puss in Boots, A Christmas Carol (Hackney Empire); The Pirates of Penzance (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre & Leeds Playhouse); Inkle & Yarico (BAC); Snoopy The Musical (Watermill Newbury); Lady in the Dark and Crows (National Theatre); Thwarted! (King’s Head, Islington); On The Twentieth Century, Is There Life After High School? (Bridewell Theatre); Les Misérables (Palace Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors, Death of a Salesman, Grease (Derby Playhouse); Kiss Me, Kate!

(UK tour); Show Boat (RSC/Opera North/ London Palladium); Treasure Island (Mermaid Theatre); Prisoner Cell Block H (Dominion Theatre & tour); Sherlock Holmes The Musical (Cambridge Theatre); HMS Pinafore (Old Vic Theatre).

Other credits include Scam, At Home With Kit and the Widow and Half A Sixpence (BBC Radio 4); My Fair Lady (BBC Prom); Les Misérables 10th Anniversary Concert (Royal Albert Hall); Hey, Mr Producer!

(Lyceum Theatre).

Television and Film credits include The Sister Boniface Mysteries, Holby City, The Night Watch, David the True Believer, The Quest, The Bill, Les Misérables.

Isabelle Methven Bet Previously at Chichester. Anne in The Famous Five: a new musical (Theatr Clwyd/ Festival Theatre).

Theatre includes Alternate Annie/Swing/ July in Annie (Piccadilly Theatre); Summer Hathaway in the original UK cast of School of Rock (Gillian Lynne Theatre); Jane Banks in Mary Poppins (UK & international tour); Brigitta in The Sound of Music (UK & Ireland tour); Little Cosette in Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre); Gardener’s Daughter in La Traviata, lead acting child in Carmen, ensemble in Die Meistersinger von Nürnburg (Royal Opera House).

Television includes Children in Need: Annie the Musical, Royal Variety

Performance 2018: Annie, Olivier Awards 2017: School of Rock, Michael McIntyre’s Big Show: School of Rock, Royal Variety Performance 2015: Mary Poppins, Poirot: Dead Man’s Folly.

Films include Tell Me Why?, Bardo Bebop.

Other credits include Ella in Daisy Chains (R&D play with the production exchange).

Recordings for Sister Death, I’ll Find You. Trained at Sylvia Young Theatre School.

Tommy DeVito/cover Nick Massi in Jersey Boys (UK tour); Ensemble/1st cover Eddie/ cover Nick in Funny Girl (UK tour); Ensemble/ cover Mary Sunshine in Chicago (UK tour); Christian Elias/Nutcracker in Nutcracker The Musical! (Pleasance Theatre); The Addams Family, Catch Me If You Can (ArtsEd); Jack and the Beanstalk (UK Productions).

Concerts include West End Heroes and Follies.

Trained at Arts Educational Schools.

Peter Nash Company Theatre includes Tommy DeVito in Jersey Boys (Trafalgar Theatre & Norwegian Bliss Cruise Line); Rod/1st Cover Don Lockwood/ Roscoe Dexter in Singin’ in the Rain (Sadler’s Wells, UK and international tour); Diesel/cover Tony in West Side Story (Royal Exchange Manchester); Marcel/Dance Captain/cover Bobby in The Boy Friend (Menier Chocolate Factory); Ensemble/ Assistant Dance Captain in Evita, Suiter in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Swing/1st cover

Josh Patel-Foster Company Theatre includes Roman Holiday (Theatre Royal Bath); Aladdin (Princes Theatre Clacton-on-Sea); Magic at the Musicals (Royal Albert Hall).

Trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

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Sam Peggs Company Theatre credits include Ensemble/ understudy Thénardier in Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre); Hog-Eye in Sunset

Boulevard (UK tour & in concert at Leicester Curve); Ben Levitowitz in Rags (Hope Mill Theatre); Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days, Issac Tallentire in The Hired Man (Union Theatre); Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk and Dick in Dick Whittington (Kenton Theatre).

Trained at Arts Educational Schools.

X @peggs96 Jack Philpott Oliver Twist Theatre includes The Witches (National Theatre); Eric in Matilda The Musical (RSC/ West End).

Television includes Matilda The Musical – BBC Big Night of Musicals, House of the Dragon, Angela Black.

Films include Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Matilda The Movie.

Trains at GSA Junior Conservatoire.

Jasmine Sakyiama Swing Previously at Chichester, Amber in The Midnight Gang (Festival Theatre).

Theatre includes Tallulah in Bugsy Malone (UK tour); Sara Crewe in A Little Princess (Royal Festival Hall); Tomika in the original cast of School of Rock (Gillian Lynne Theatre); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Royal & Derngate Northampton); Jesus Christ Superstar (Milton Keynes Theatre).

Radio includes The Wilsons Save the World series 3.

Films include Louis Wain.

Trained at Arts1.

Katy Secombe Widow Corney Previously at Chichester, Mrs Paroo in The Music Man, Bird Seller in Pickwick (Festival Theatre); Antonia in Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay (Minerva Theatre).

Theatre includes Hot Box Charlie and General Cartwright in Guys And Dolls (Bridge Theatre); Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Stefano/Sebastian in The Tempest, Touchstone/Phoebe in As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe); Madame Thenardier in Les Misérables and Les Misérables The Staged Concert (West End);

Mrs Beaver/Mother in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Clara in Hay Fever (Rose Theatre Kingston); Brenda in I Can’t Sing (London Palladium); Rosie in Mamma Mia! (Prince Charles Theatre); Hannah in A Chorus of Disapproval (Wolsey Theatre Ipswich); Mrs Micawber/Peggotty in David Copperfield (County Hall); Mama Morton in Chicago (UK tour); Rosie in Mamma Mia! (Prince Edward Theatre); Mary Bolton in Mother Clap’s Molly House, Mopsa in The Winter’s Tale, Maria in Twelfth Night, Hot Box Girl/Agatha in Guys and Dolls (National Theatre); Kate in Bedroom Farce (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Cinderella (Salisbury Playhouse); Teechers (Redgrave Theatre Farnham); Macbeth (Harrogate Theatre).

Television includes Casualty, Megamaths, London’s Burning, The Matt Lucas Awards, Pompidou.

Radio and Audio includes Cunch, Twice Brightly, Twelfth Night, Kisses On A Postcard.

Films include Les Misérables and the short Satisfaction Guaranteed.

Trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Simon Lipkin Aaron Sidwell

Aaron Sidwell Bill Sikes Theatre includes Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings (Watermill Theatre); Jack Cade/ Hastings/The Son in Henry VI: Wars of The Roses, Jack Cade in Henry VI: Rebellion (Royal Shakespeare Company); Demetrius/ Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scoot Theatre Company); Alex More in Buyer & Cellar (Above the Stag); Macduff in Macbeth (Salomans Estate Tunbridge Wells); title role in Henry V (Barn Theatre Cirencester); Fiyero in Wicked (UK tour); Johnny in Green Day’s American Idiot (Arts Theatre); Joe Kennedy Jnr/Jerry in Grey Gardens (Southwark Playhouse); Carl Bruner in Ghost the Musical (English Theatre Frankfurt); Michael Dork in Loserville: The Musical (West Yorkshire Playhouse & Garrick Theatre); Michael Carrington in Cool Rider Live (London Palladium, Lyric & Duchess Theatre); Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Jack Sprat in Carnaby Street – The Musical (UK tours); Ham in Children of Eden (Prince of Wales Theatre); Kyle Gibson in The Prodigals (Gilded Balloon/ Edinburgh Festival).

Concerts include Cool Rider 10th Anniversary (London Palladium); The Music

of Leonard Bernstein (RTE Orchestra).

Television includes Casualty, Father Brown, EastEnders, Doctors.

Films include Fyre Rises, The Nephilim and the short Distanced.

Wendy Somerville Old Sally Previously at Chichester, Sweeney Todd (Festival Theatre, also Adelphi Theatre).

Theatre includes Ilsa in The Book Thief (Belgrade Theatre & Curve Theatre Leicester); Pam in Saving Grace (Riverside Studios); The Magician’s Elephant (RSC); Girl from the North Country (Gielgud Theatre & Royal Alexandra Theatre Toronto); Local Hero (Royal Lyceum Theatre); School of Rock (Gillian Lynne Theatre); The 306: Day (National Theatre of Scotland, Perth Theatre & Stellar Quines); The Threepenny Opera (National Theatre); Billy Elliot (Victoria Palace Theatre); Hairspray (Shaftesbury Theatre, UK & Ireland tour); Les Misérables (Queen’s Theatre); Cinderella (London Palladium).

Television includes Billy Elliot The Musical Live, Royal Variety Performance

Shanay Holmes and members of the company

2007 & 2010, Classical Brit Awards 2011, Les Misérables In Concert: 25th Anniversary, Les Misérables Concert at Windsor Castle.

Radio includes Les Misérables 21st Birthday Concert.

Recordings include Sweeney Todd (2012 London cast recording), Michael Ball: Past and Present.

Trained at Queen Margaret University College and Royal Academy of Music.

Leah Vassell Company Theatre includes Lauren in Kinky Boots (Storyhouse Chester); Rosa Parks/Amelia Earhart/Mary Seacole in Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (UK tour); alternate Jane Seymour/Catherine Parr in Six The Musical (West End, for which she won Best Recent Graduate at The Black British Theatre Awards 2023); Consuelo in West Side Story (Ljubljana Festival); Laurence Olivier Awards 2022 (Royal Albert Hall); Hetaira in Lysistrata Jones, Perch Perkins in The Spongebob Musical, Vicki in A Grand Night for Singing, Moulin Rouge,

Trish/Ana in Crabs (ArtsEd).

Trained at Arts Educational Schools.

X & Instagram @leahvassell Matthew Whennell-Clark Company Previously at Chichester, Guys & Dolls (Festival Theatre, also Phoenix Theatre, Théâtre Marigny Paris, Royal Albert Hall).

Theatre includes Groundhog Day (Old Vic); Come From Away (Phoenix Theatre); White Christmas, We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre); Me and My Girl (Frinton Summer Theatre); Kiss Me, Kate, My Fair Lady (Sheffield Crucible); Young Frankenstein (Garrick Theatre); Carousel (ENO London Coliseum); 42nd Street (Théâtre du Chatelet Paris & UK tour); Singin’ in the Rain (Théâtre du Chatelet Paris); Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Boy Friend (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Oliver! (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Matilda (Cambridge Theatre); Shoes (Peacock Theatre); Chicago (Cambridge Theatre, Singapore & UK tour); Grease (Victoria Palace & Scandinavian tour); West Side Story (Bregenz Festival Austria); Saturday Night Fever (UK tour & Cologne Germany); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (London Palladium); Oh! What a Night (UK tour); Fame (UK tour).

Trained at Bird College.

Lochlan White Charley Bates Theatre includes Patrick in Mame (Hope Mill Manchester/Royal & Derngate/Salisbury Playhouse); David in Rags (Hope Mill Theatre); Michael Hobbs in Elf (UK tour); Rupert in Nativity! The Musical (UK tour); Grisha in The Cherry Orchard (Royal Exchange/Bristol Old Vic); Toby in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (UK tour); City of Glass (Home Manchester/Lyric Theatre).

Television includes Victoria series 2.

Films include Holmes & Watson, Rocketman, Surviving Christmas.

Trained at Stagebox.

Fagin’s Gang Toba Agbelusi Swindler This is Toba’s debut appearance at the Festival Theatre; he has been a member of Chichester Festival Youth Theatre (CFYT) for several years. His TV roles include Anansi Boys and Tortola.

Toba studies at Oakwood Preparatory School where he has taken part in multiple performances for both school and the local Chichester Festival for Music, Dance and Speech (CFMDS).

Zoe Akinyosade George Theatre includes Cosette in Les Misérables (UK tour) and Annie in Annie (UK tour).

Films include the short Leave To Remain.

Trains with British Theatre Academy.

Ben Birch Snatch Ben is making his professional theatrical debut in Oliver!

He narrates the audiobook The Hedgerow Gang.

Trains at Holly King Performing Arts.

Finlay Burrows Snatch Theatre includes Gavroche in Les Misérables (West End).

Trains with Stagecoach Theatre Arts Epsom Preston Cropp Kenpop Preston’s credits include Rudy in The Book Thief (Belgrade Theatre & Curve Theatre Leicester).

Trains at Stagebox.

Benjamin Dalton Filch Theatre includes Christopher in Mrs Doubtfire, Les in Newsies and Chip in Beauty and the Beast (also UK & Ireland tour), all in the West End. Trains with Kirsty Cherrett, Unit 17 Northampton and DMA London.

Fagin's Gang From the top: teams Bethnal Green, Wapping and Limehouse

Kylan Michael Denis Snatch Kylan was nominated as Best Supporting Male in a Musical at the Black British Theatre Awards for his roles as Bruce Bogtrotter and Nigel in Matilda The Musical (RSC/Cambridge Theatre).

Trains at Sylvia Young Theatre School.

Sebastian Elton Sid Theatre credits include Jeremy Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Abingdon Operatic Society) and Bruce Bogtrotter in Matilda (Stagecoach). This is Sebastian’s professional debut; he trains with Stagecoach Performing Arts Oxford Botley.

Liam Findlay Spiv Liam made his theatre debut in Theatre Peckham’s Christmas show, Rapunzel.

Rudy Gibson Swindler / alternate Artful Dodger Theatre includes Bruce Bogtrotter in Matilda The Musical (RSC/Cambridge Theatre); Gavroche in Les Misérables (West End); and The Witches (National Theatre).

Aaron Sidwell Shanay Holmes

Television and film include Haven, Mimi’s World and Matilda The Movie.

Trains at Studio Six Dance School and with Martin Posnett.

Stanley Guy Spiv This is Stanley’s professional debut; he recently played the title role of Billy Elliot in Ringwood School’s musical production 2024.

George Hamblin Filch Theatre includes Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (UK & Ireland tour) and Michael Banks in Mary Poppins (West End).

Trains with Tucker Arts, Stars Performing Arts School and Dixon Woods School of Dance, Leicester.

Lily Hanna George Theatre includes Lavender in Matilda The Musical (RSC/Cambridge Theatre) and Young Clare/Alba in The Time Traveller’s Wife (Apollo Theatre).

Television and film includes Matilda The Musical: National Lottery Big Night

of Musicals and Matilda The Movie.

Trained at the British Theatre Academy, Julie Sianne Theatre Arts, Surrey Singing School.

Hugo Pechey Filch This is Hugo’s professional debut; he trains at Arabesque School of Performing Arts.

Charlie Hodson-Prior Swindler / alternate Artful Dodger Theatre includes Gavroche in Les Misérables (UK & Ireland tour).

Film and television includes Matilda The Movie and Too Good To Be True.

Trains at Genesis Performing Arts.

William Skinner Kenpop / alternate Artful Dodger Theatre includes Bruno in The Witches (National Theatre), and several musicals, performances and pantomimes at the Kenneth More Theatre, Ilford.

Trains at Redbridge Drama Centre.

Grace King George Grace is making her theatrical professional debut in Oliver!

Trains at Holly King Performing Arts Academy.

Dylan Xavier Kenpop This is Dylan’s professional debut; he trains at Steppaz Performing Arts.

Cooper McCrae Sid This is Cooper’s professional debut; he trains with PTC Arts Academy.

Jonny Niland Spiv Theatre includes The Wizard of Oz (Redbridge Creates), Peter Pan (Kenneth More Theatre, Ilford).

Trains with Deborah Day Theatre School.

Members of the company

Aaron Zhao Sid This is Aaron’s professional theatre debut.

Film includes Two Neighbours.

Trains with Stagecoach Theatre Arts Sutton.

Creative Team 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 Cameron Mackintosh Matthew Bourne

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 singles, 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’ featured 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 Sir 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 Reviser and Producer Cameron Mackintosh has been producing shows since 1967 and remains the world’s most prolific and creative producer of musicals in theatre history. His international hits include Cats, Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Little Shop of Horrors, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins (co-produced with Disney), Hamilton in the UK (co-produced with Jeffrey Seller), and of course Oliver! – the show that gave his legendary career a start.

Cameron’s last collaboration with Chichester Festival Theatre was the joyous

Half a Sixpence, introducing his young discovery Charlie Stemp as Kipps.

Cameron is also the owner of eight of the West End’s most historic theatres which he has gloriously rebuilt and spectacularly renovated. Music Theatre International, one of the world’s oldest and largest libraries of secondary rights to many of the great musicals, is also one of Cameron’s companies. In 1990, Cameron inaugurated the Chair of Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine’s College in Oxford University, with Stephen Sondheim as his visiting professor. The current Professor is worldrenowned director, Gregory Doran.

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. He is the only British Producer ever to have been invited to join the 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 Matthew Bourne

Olivier Award winner, and the only British director to have won the Tony Award for both Best Choreographer and Best Director of a Musical. He is the Artistic Director of New Adventures, the UK’s busiest and most popular dance company and the major exporter of British dance internationally.

As Artistic Director of his first company, Adventures in Motion Pictures, from 1987 until 2001, Matthew created many awardwinning works (including 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).

Matthew is also a West End and Broadway choreographer; a 30-year relationship with producer Cameron Mackintosh has resulted in the globally successful musicals Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, Old Friends (which opens on Broadway next year) and Oliver!

In 2015, he became the first dance figure to be given The Stage Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre. He received the OBE in 2001 and 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.

His latest work for New Adventures, The Midnight Bell, which premiered in 2021, went on to win the National Dance Award f or Best Modern Choreography. His productions of Romeo and Juliet and Edward Scissorhands are currently on tour.

Jean-Pierre van der Spuy Co-Director Previously at Chichester, Associate Director for Half a Sixpence (Festival Theatre & Noël Coward Theatre) and Barnum (Theatre in the Park).

Theatre as Director includes Porgy and Bess, Oliver! (Grange Park Opera); Les Misérables in Concert (Gielgud & Sondheim Theatres); The Dreamers (Abbey Road

Jean-Pierre van der Spuy

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).

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 Previously at Chichester, Woman in Mind, Me and My Girl, Flowers for Mrs Harris, Fiddler on the Roof, Forty Years On, My One and Only, The Schoolmistress (Festival Theatre).

Lez is an Associate Artist of New

Adventures. His long collaboration with Matthew Bourne includes 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 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); 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 Graham Hurman Llŷr Simon

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 (AMP); 12 Olivier nominations, winning in 1998 for Cinderella (AMP); 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.

Trained at Central School of Art and Design.

Graham Hurman Musical Supervisor and Conductor Previously at Chichester, Half a Sixpence (Festival Theatre & Noël Coward Theatre).

Graham is a Musical Supervisor for Cameron Mackintosh Limited. He is currently Musical Supervisor for Starlight Express (30th Anniversary production, Bochum Germany) and Cats (China & Asia tour).

Theatre as Musical Supervisor includes Mary Poppins (London & Tokyo); Les Misérables (South Korea, Holland & Belgian tour, UK tour & Mexico); Oliver!

(Tokyo); Stephen Ward (Sydmonton Festival & Aldwych Theatre, also conductor); The Wizard of Oz (also vocal & dance arrangements, Toronto & North American tours); Cats (also orchestral arranger, South Korea, UK tours, international tour, Vienna, London Palladium, Broadway revival, Japan, Australia).

As Musical Director The Wizard of Oz (London Palladium), Oliver! (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Les Misérables (Queen’s Theatre), Starlight Express (Germany and first UK tour), Cats (25th Anniversary UK tour, Hamburg).

Other credits include Music Associate for Starlight Express (North American tour, 2nd UK tour & German production 2002 & 2008), Saturday Night Fever (North American tour & Las Vegas); Musical Director/Piano for Honor Blackman’s one-woman show Wayward Women.

Recordings include ‘I Am Me’ from

Lez Brotherston Etta Murfitt

Starlight Express, ‘Memory’ from Cats, original cast recordings of Cats (Vienna & Japan), Starlight Express (Germany), original London cast recordings of Mary Poppins, Half a Sixpence, Stephen Ward, The Wizard of Oz and Oliver!; additional orchestral sessions for Love Never Dies DVD. Television and radio includes The Royal Variety Show, The Olivier Awards, The One Show, I Dreamed a Dream – The Susan Boyle Story, This Morning, The Alan Titchmarsh Show, The Passions of Girls Aloud, The Graham Norton Show, Elaine Paige on Sunday, Wogan.

He won the BritishTheatre.com Award for Best Musical Director (2014).

Paule Constable Lighting Designer Previously at Chichester Half A Sixpence, Three Sisters (Festival Theatre); Barnum (Theatre in the Park); Rock Follies, Local Hero, The Meeting, This House, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Minerva Theatre).

Many National Theatre credits include Nye, Till the Stars Come Down,

The Confessions, Dixon and Daughters, Master Harold and the Boys, The Visit, he 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).

RSC credits include Wolf Hall (& West End/Broadway).

Other credits include Guys & Dolls (Bridge); Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead (Complicite); The Glass Menagerie, Cock, 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 (Olivier Award, Sheffield); Les Misérables (25th Anniversary production, Broadway/international).

Opera productions include 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 Red Shoes, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, The Midnight Bell, Dorian Gray, Play Without Words (Matthew Bourne).

Ben Jacobs Lighting Designer Credits include King Hamlin (Park Theatre); Evita (Parque Villa-Lobos, Sau Paulo); Dawn French is a Huge Tw*t (UK tour); Salome, Seussical, Bring it On (Southwark Playhouse); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Wilton’s Music Hall); Caterpillar (Stephen Joseph Theatre); The Sorrows of Satan Members of the company

(Brocket Hall); 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 (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 (Theatre503); Adam & Eve, Foul Pages (Hope Theatre); The Lower Depths, Hamlet, Burial at Thebes, Love & Information, Secret Circus (RCSSD); Cuncrete, Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave (UK tours); 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/Assistant Lighting Designer credits include Les Misérables (UK tour/West End/international), Anna (National Theatre), Le Nozze di Figaro (Glyndebourne), Sondheim’s Old Friends (Sondheim Theatre), The Lorax (Old Vic), 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.

Adam Fisher Sound Designer Previously at Chichester, Associate Sound Designer for Barnum (Theatre in the Park, UK tour).

Sound Design credits include Kiss Me, Kate (Barbican); Pippin in Concert, Wild About You in Concert, Evita, Love Never Dies in Concert, Evita in Concert (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Bhangra Nation (Birmingham Rep); The Wizard of Oz (UK tour, West End, Curve Leicester); Evita, Billy Elliot (Curve Leicester); Cinderella (Nottingham

Playhouse); Sunset Boulevard (Savoy Theatre: Olivier and WhatsOnStage Awards); The Phantom of the Opera (Riyadh/Dubai, Christmas Theatre Athens/ Thessaloniki Concert Hall); Lizzie The Musical (Hope Mill Theatre & tour); The Lord of the Rings, Our Man in Havana (Watermill Theatre); The Witches of Eastwick Concert (Sondheim Theatre); Yeast Nation (Southwark Playhouse); Dick Whittington, Beauty and The Beast (Nottingham Playhouse); Cinderella (Hope Mill Theatre); The Last Five Years (Vaudeville Theatre, Garrick Theatre, Southwark Playhouse); The View Upstairs (Soho Theatre); Gillian Lynne Celebration (Gillian Lynne Theatre); Jack and the Beanstalk (Liverpool Empire); Cinderella (Hackney Empire); What I Go to School For (Theatre Royal Brighton); Jason and the Argonauts (Bridewell Theatre); Soho Cinders (Arts Ed, Ashcroft Theatre).

As Associate Sound Designer School of Rock (Broadway/West End/Melbourne/ South Korea/US tour); Miss Saigon (Broadway/West End/US tour/UK tour/

Jamie Birkett Ebony Jonelle

Japan); Cats (Broadway/US tour); Phantom of the Opera (West End/US tour); Les Misérables (Broadway/West End/ Japan/South Korea/Toronto/Australia); Sunset Boulevard (Broadway/London Coliseum); Chess, Carousel, Man of La Mancha (London Coliseum); Light in the Piazza (Royal Festival Hall); The Wizard of Oz (Toronto/US tour); Ich War Noch Niemals in New York (Apollo Theatre/ Stuttgart Germany).

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 Hercules (Neue Flora, Hamburg); Tarzan (Stuttgart); Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (Gielgud & Sondheim Theatres); Sunset Boulevard (Princess Theatre, Melbourne); In Dreams (Leeds Playhouse/Toronto); The Lord of the Rings (Watermill); 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

Shanay Holmes and members of the company

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 Orchestral Adaptation 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.

Etta Murfitt Choreographic Associate Previously at Chichester, Movement for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Festival Theatre & Theatre Royal Haymarket).

Cameron Mackintosh, the company, creative and production team.

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.

Sam Archer Choreographic Associate Previously at Chichester, played Slim in Oklahoma! (2009, Festival Theatre).

As a Creative: 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, Wonder.land, 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 (1st Class BA Hons).

Claire Llewellyn of Rc-Annie Ltd Fight Director Claire is an Associate Fight Director with Rc-Annie Ltd. Previously at Chichester, Never Have I Ever (Minerva Theatre).

Recent Fight Direction credits: Red Speedo (Orange Tree Theatre); Two

Gentlemen of Verona (Oxford Playhouse); Macbeth (Leeds Playhouse); The Fair Maid of the West (RSC); Feral Monster (National Theatre of Wales); Hir (Park Theatre); Unfortunate (Southwark Playhouse & UK tour); Peter Pan (Rose Theatre Kingston); Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) (Mirvish Theatre, Toronto); The Life of Pi (tour); Maud/Down in the Valley (Scottish Youth Opera); Midsummer Mechanicals (Shakespeare’s Globe); Peter Pan (Reading Rep); Around the World in 80 Days (Theatre by the Lake/Hull Truck); Kidnapped (National Theatre Scotland & tour); Duet for One (Orange Tree Theatre); The Walworth Farce (Southwark Playhouse); Caucasian Chalk Circle, Beauty and the Beast (Rose Theatre Kingston); Oklahoma! (West End); Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) (Criterion Theatre & UK tour); Evelyn (Metal Rabbit Productions); To Kill a Mockingbird (Sonia Friedman Productions); Wonder Boy (Bristol Old Vic); Macbeth (Leeds Playhouse); 71 Coltman Street (Hull Truck); Carmen (Opera North); Don Giovanni (Nevill Holt Opera); Witness for the Prosecution (London County Hall); The Prince of Egypt (Dominion Theatre, Associate FD).

Felicity French CDG and Paul Wooller CDG Casting Directors Paul Wooller and Felicity French are the in-house Casting Directors for Cameron Mackintosh Limited. For Chichester between them they have also cast Barnum and Half a Sixpence.

Together they currently cast Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre), The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre) and Hamilton (Victoria Palace Theatre), as well as the upcoming Mary Poppins UK tour and consulting on Hamilton UK tour. Previous shows include The Phantom of the Opera (UK tour), Les Misérables (UK tour and concert), Miss Saigon (UK tour) and Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre).

Before joining CML, Felicity was Casting Assistant for Pippa Ailion Casting on projects including Wicked, Dreamgirls

and Gypsy; and prior to becoming Head of Casting at CML, Paul was a Casting Associate at ATG whose projects included Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Spamalot and Richard III. Paul and Felicity were proud winners of the theatre category in the CDG’s inaugural awards in 2018.

Verity Naughton CDG Children’s Casting Director Most recent work includes Co-Casting Director on King & Conqueror (CBS) 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) and 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 Stephen Matthews and members of the company

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).

Tom O’Brien Resident Director As Director, theatre includes Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (ArtsEd); The Vicky Vox Project (Web series – New Frame Productions); Afterglow (Southwark Playhouse); Fabric (Marlowe Theatre Canterbury/UK tour/Underbelly: Scotsman Fringe First Award); Foiled (Edinburgh Festival: The Stage’s Pick of The Fringe); Our Friends, The Enemy (UK tour/Edinburgh Festival/Theatre Row, New York City); The Dogs of War (Old Red Lion); Remote (Drum Theatre Royal Plymouth/St Ives Theatre); The Wedding Singer, How to Succeed

in Business Without Really Trying (The Lowry); The Fastest Clock in the Universe (Old Red Lion, recorded for The V&A National Video Archive of Performance); Coming Up (Soho Theatre); Judy the Righteous (King’s Head); Christmas Is Miles Away (Hen and Chickens Theatre).

As Resident/Associate/Assistant Director theatre includes Miss Saigon (Vienna); Phantom of the Opera (UK tour); Miss Saigon (international tour); Half a Sixpence (Noël Coward); Dangerous Lady (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Thoroughly Modern Millie (Watermill); Merrily We Roll Along (Theatr Clwyd); Ruben Guthrie (New Wimbledon Theatre); Little Women (LOST Theatre); A Clockwork Orange, Titus Andronicus (Edinburgh Festival).

Tom founded and was Artistic Director for TREMErs Theatre and was acting Artistic Director for The Company Music Theatre (2013-14). He has taught, directed and lectured at institutions such as National Film and Television School, Arts Ed and Mountview. He is also an internationally recognised Acting Coach for Film and Television.

Trained at ArtsEd, National Theatre Studio and Living Pictures. tom-obrien.com 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: Kiss Me, Kate (Barbican); 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 is the FOH engineer for Remember Monday; 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).

BW Musicians Ltd – Andy Barnwell and Rich Weeden Orchestral Management Previously at Chichester, Rock Follies, The Sound of Music, Assassins.

Current/recent London productions: Next to Normal, Hello, Dolly!, Kiss Me Kate, Spirited Away, MJ The Musical, Operation Mincemeat, Opening Night, Sunset Boulevard, Crazy for You, Aspects of Love.

Current/recent regional/UK tours include: & Juliet, The Devil Wears Prada, Hamilton, Aladdin, Pretty Woman, Sinatra.

Andy Barnwell Previously at Chichester Babes in Arms, Funny Girl, The Music Man, Oklahoma!, Love Story, 42nd Street, She Loves Me, Singin’ in the Rain, Sweeney Todd, Kiss Me Kate, The Pajama Game, Barnum, Guys & Dolls, Gypsy, A Damsel in Distress, Mack and

Sam Archer and members of the company

Mabel, Travels with My Aunt, Half a Sixpence, Love’s Labour’s Lost/Much Ado About Nothing, Caroline Or Change, Fiddler on the Roof, Me and My Girl, Flowers for Mrs Harris, This Is My Family, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Crazy for You. Current/recent London productions Cabaret, Moulin Rouge!, Frozen, Pretty Woman, Tina – The Tina Turner Musical, Hamilton, Ain’t Too Proud, Newsies, Get Up Stand Up, The Band’s Visit, Dear Evan Hansen, Anything Goes, Hairspray.

Current/recent regional/UK tours include The Rocky Horror Show, The Commitments, Beauty and the Beast.

Rich Weeden Previously at Chichester, The Famous Five.

Current/recent London productions Fiddler on the Roof, ABBA Voyage, SIX, Brokeback Mountain, Once on this Island, La Cage aux Folles.

Current/recent regional/UK tours include SIX, Shrek, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Hairspray, Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

For Cameron Mackintosh Ltd Directors

Technical

Chairman

Cameron Mackintosh

Non-Executive Vice Chairman

Nicholas Allott

Managing Director

Alan Finch

Chief Financial Officer

Richard Knibb

Deputy Managing Director

Robert Noble

Executive Producer

Thomas Schönberg

Technical Director (UK)

Chris Boone

Senior Production Manager Production Managers

Tom Lee

Aggi Agostino, Nicki Brown, Neil Mickel

Deputy Production Manager

Tinky Walker

Technical Coordinator

Emma Nicholas

Technical Administrator

Katie Seeley

Technical Production Assistant

Liberty Hobbs

Assistant to Technical Director (UK) Jenny Sherriff Second Set Associate

Production, Casting and Music Associate Producers

Hannah Johnson, Rob Ottey, Dan Schumann & Jess Wright

Head of Music

Stephen Metcalfe

Head of Casting

Paul Wooller

Production Administrators

Suzy Hawes, Nancy Msiska, Alexander Parker

Production Assistant

Mary Cooper

Casting Director

Felicity French

Casting Associate

Lily Caisley

Casting Assistant

Krispian Foster

International Licensing Manager

Maria Baxter

Technical Director (International)

Jerry Donaldson

Associate Producer International Productions

Matthew Gordon, Lorna Cobbold

Isobel Nicolson

Second Lighting Associate Assistants to Directors Assistant to Cameron Mackintosh

David Grewcock

Office Assistant to Cameron Mackintosh

Liam Cullen

Assistant to Nicholas Allott

Claire Delfont

Assistant to Alan Finch and Thomas Schönberg

Emma Hedges

Assistant to Richard Knibb

Lauren Fourtout-Davies

Assistant to Robert Noble

Marketing Director

David Dolman

Marketing Account Directors

Lucy May, Emily Naughton, Susannah Ostrom

Saskia Connolly

Finance and Office Administration Group Accounts Manager

Kim Duffett

Deputy Accounts Manager

Michelle Paterson

Accounts Assistant Head of General Administration

Marketing and Press

Teresa Nagel

Carmel Mawson Alix Harvey-Thompson

HR Manager

Katy Warner

Archivist

Rosy Runciman

Office & IT Manager

Adrian Smith

Sales & Ticketing Director

Keith Kenny

Deputy Office & IT Manager

Graphic Designer

Angeline Teo

Office Management Assistant

Emily Mason

Receptionist

Anna Brown

Assistant to Marketing Director

Annemarie Gallagher

James McCormick

Press & Publicity, David Bloom, Oliver!

Lewis Jenkins for Storyhouse PR, storyhousepr.co.uk

The Mackintosh Foundation

Press & Publicity

Director of Theatre Development

Simon Raw, Daniel O’Carroll at Raw PR, rawpr.co.uk

Foundation Appeals Director

Nicholas Mackintosh Liz Botros

Events

Oliver!

Live Music Summer Sessions

Theatre Day

Friday evenings, 12 July – 30 August, 6.15pm Enjoy sunny, summer Friday evenings with live music on Oaklands Park.

It’s free whether you’re here for the show or just want to come and soak up the vibes!

Free

Thursday 15 August, 10.30am Get a real insider’s view at our Theatre Day with members of the creative team and technical crew. Over 90 minutes, you’ll enjoy demonstrations and discussion. For a completely immersive day, combine with a matinee ticket. £12 (plus optional show ticket)

Pre-Show Talk

Relaxed Performance

Monday 22 July, 5.45pm Join director and choreographer Matthew Bourne for a fascinating insight into how his production came together, with a chance to ask questions of your own. Matthew is in conversation with CFT Artistic Director Justin Audibert.

Free but booking is essential.

Wednesday 16 August, 2.30pm Welcoming audience members who would benefit from a more laid-back environment – particularly those who are autistic or neuro-divergent, or with learning disabilities.

Tickets £16 cft.org.uk/relaxed-performances

Dementia Friendly Performance Wednesday 31 July, 2.30pm This performance will feature minor adjustments to the sound and lighting levels. Staff will be on hand to ensure a welcoming atmosphere for people living with dementia.

Tickets £16 cft.org.uk/dementiafriendly

Knees-up on the Park Sunday 11 August Join us for a day of pure excitement suitable for all ages. Dance like no one is watching in our silent disco, unravel the secrets of our heritage treasure trail, and ignite your creativity in our workshops. With live local music, plus delicious food and drink available throughout the day.

Free, plus ticketed sessions cft.org.uk/knees-up

Post-Show Talk Friday 30 August Stay after the performance to hear from company members about all the action behind the scenes and ask questions of your own.

Free Pre- and Post-Show Talks sponsored by Close Brothers Asset Management

Consider yourself part of the CFT family Get closer to CFT and become part of our community with our Learning, Education and Participation team (you can call them LEAP for short).

Whatever your age or ability, there’s something for you at CFT. From people who have been coming to CFT for years, to those who have never set foot in a theatre, we offer exciting opportunities for everyone from newborns to those in their 90s.

Weekly classes. One-off workshops. Long term projects to get your teeth into.

Our LEAP team does it all.

This is a space where experiences are created and shared, and where everyone can find their place. So come join us, and become part of our story.

‘Working at the theatre under many guises gave me a well-rounded knowledge of our industry and the support was always there and still is – I wouldn’t be where I am without it. Please never stop working tirelessly to grow us into the next generation.’

Former CFYT member

‘I’ve discovered abilities I never knew I had. The classes contribute greatly to my quality of life and to that of the wider community.’

Community participant

So many people think they know what we do here at CFT. But did you know that we offer: • Free Youth Theatre places for young carers and anyone from underprivileged backgrounds

• Groups for adults with disabilities

• A creative outlet for isolated individuals through our weekly Chatter Project

• Wellbeing support for participants, visiting cast and company members, and staff

• Weekly Festival Fridays for kids who find creative ways of learning more accessible

• Free Buddy support for anyone who feels unable to attend shows or classes on their own

• Work experience, training opportunities and apprenticeships

• Training opportunities in Technical Theatre And that’s really just scratching the surface of our LEAP team’s reach.

Visit cft.org.uk/get-closer or email leap@cft.org.uk to find out more and discover a way into CFT that’s right for you.

With thanks to all our amazing LEAP supporters who generously fund this work.

Help us hatch the next generation of talent We have an urgent need to build a third space for emerging artists, community groups and families.

Our solution is The Nest: a sustainably built performance venue nestled among the trees, providing a safe space to incubate exciting new projects.

It will be a home for community and families, late night and fringe-style events, and it will hatch the work of our Emerging Artists Development Programme.

Help us make our dream a reality The Nest will cost at least £1,500,000 and we need your support to make it happen.

‘The Nest offers an amazing opportunity on a local level and also, really importantly, stands CFT confidently as a national cultural leader and change maker.’

JUSTIN AUDIBERT, CFT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Registered Charity No. 1088552

Please donate today cft.org.uk/the-nest

Staff Trustees Mark Foster (Chairman) Neil Adleman Jessica Brown-Fuller Jean Vianney Cordeiro Paddy Dillon Tasha Gladman Vicki Illingworth Rear Admiral John Lippiett CB CBE Caro Newling OBE Nick Pasricha Philip Shepherd Stephanie Street Hugh Summers

LEAP Ellen de Vere Matthew Downer

Directors Office Justin Audibert Kathy Bourne Keshira Aarabi

Louise Rigglesford

Helena Berry Angela Buckley

Artistic Director Executive Director Projects & Events Co-ordinator Heritage & Archive Manager Projects, Events & Green Book Co-ordinator

Miranda Cromwell Sophie Hobson Hannah Joss

Associate Director Creative Associate Associate Director (Literary)

Patricia Key Aimée Massey

Executive PA Diversity, Inclusion & Change Consultant

Julia Smith

Company Secretary & Board Support

Building & Site Services Chris Edwards Maintenance Engineer Lez Gardiner Duty Engineer Daren Rowland Facilities Manager Graeme Smith Duty Engineer Costume Brooke Bowden Ev Butcher Isabelle Brook Helen Clark Tobias Dane Chris Davenport Sophie Dodd Ella Duffy

Wardrobe Manager Dresser Wardrobe Assistant Dresser Dresser Wardrobe Manager Dresser Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Trainee

Lily Eugene-Kelly Aly Fielden Helen Flower Lysanne Goble Abigail Hart Sophie Kemp Kendal Love

Dresser Wardrobe Manager Senior Costume Assistant Wardrobe Assistant Wardrobe Assistant Wardrobe Assistant Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Manager Deputy Wigs, Hair & Make-Up

Natasha Pawluk Andy Robinson Roseby Willow Scovell

Wardrobe Trainee Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Assistant

Isobel Shackleton

Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Assistant

Hannah Sinclair

Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Assistant

Loz Tait Colette Tulley Rachel Usher Eloise Wood

Head of Costume Wardrobe Maintenance Dresser Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Assistant

Development Nick Carmichael Development Officer Julie Field Friends Administrator Sophie Henstridge-Brown Head of Philanthropy Sarah Mansell Liz McCarthy-Nield Leo Powell Charlotte Stroud Karen Taylor Megan Wilson

Finance Alison Baker Sally Cunningham Krissie Harte Katie Palmer

Simon Parsonage Amanda Trodd Protozoon Ltd

Appeal Director Development Director Appeal Co-ordinator Development Manager Development Manager Events and Development Officer

Payroll & Pensions Officer Purchase Ledger Assistant Finance Officer Assistant Management Accountant Interim Finance & Commercial Director Management Accountant IT Consultants

Youth & Outreach Trainee Cultural Learning & Participation Apprentice

Zoe Ellis Sally Garner-Gibbons

LEAP Co-ordinator Apprenticeship Co-ordinator

Matthew Hawksworth

Head of Children & Young People’s Programme

Hannah Hogg

Senior Youth & Outreach Manager

Shari A. Jessie Kate Potter

Creative Therapist Youth & Outreach Co-ordinator Senior Community & Outreach Manager

Dale Rooks Angela Watkins

Director of LEAP LEAP Projects Manager

Marketing, Communications & Sales Josh Allan Assistant Box Office Manager Caroline Aston Becky Batten

Audience Insight Manager Head of Marketing (Maternity leave)

Laura Bern

Head of Marketing (Maternity cover)

Jessica Blake-Lobb Helen Campbell Jay Godwin Lorna Holmes

Marketing Manager (Corporate)

Box Office Systems Manager Box Office Assistant Assistant Box Office Manager

Mollie Kent Box Office Assistant Stephanie McKelvey-Aves Box OfficeAssistant James Mitchell Sales & Marketing Assistant James Morgan Lucinda Morrison

Head of Sales & Ticketing Head of Press & Publications

Brian Paterson Kirsty Peterson Catherine Rankin Vic Shead Luke Shires

Distribution Co-ordinator Box Office Assistant Box Office Assistant Marketing Manager Director of Marketing & Communications

Jenny Thompson

Social Media & Digital Marketing Officer

Grace Upcraft Josh Vine Isobel Walter Claire Walters Joanna Wiege Jane Wolf

Box Office Assistant Box Office Assistant Marketing Officer Box Office Assistant Box Office Manager Box Office Assistant

People Paula Biggs Naz Jahir Emily Oliver Annie Thomas Bent Gillian Watkins

Head of People People Manager Accommodation Co-ordinator People Administrator HR Officer

Production Niamh Dilworth Producer Amelia Ferrand-Rook Senior Producer Robin Longley General Manager Claire Rundle Production Administrator George Waller Trainee Producer Nicky Wingfield Production Administrator Technical Sam Barnes Sound Technician Steph Bartle Deputy Head of Lighting Victoria Baylis Props Assistant Josh Bowles Senior Sound Technician Finley Bradley Technical Theatre Apprentice Leoni Commosioung Stage Technician Rebecca Cran Stage Crew & Stage Technician Sarah Crispin Connor Divers Elise Fairbairn Zoe Gadd Ross Gardner Lyla Garner-Gibbons Sam Garner-Gibbons Jack Goodland Fuzz Guthrie Laura Hackett Jamie Hall Anaya Hammond Katie Hennessy

Tom Hitchins Joe Jenner

Head of Stage & Technical Production Manager Apprentice

Mike Keniger Head of Sound Bethany Knowles Stage Crew Andrew Leighton Senior Lighting Technician Ethan Low Stage Crew Fin Macknay Stage Crew Connor McConnell No.1 Sound Engineer Charlotte Neville Head of Props Workshop Stuart Partrick Transport & Logistics Assistant Neil Rose Deputy Head of Sound Ernesto Ruiz Prop Maker Max Rusbridge Stage Crew Anna Setchell (Setch) Deputy Head of Stage James Sharples Senior Stage Crew & Rigger Sophie Spencer Laura Sprake Graham Taylor Dominic Turner Linda Mary Wise Simon Woods

Stage Crew Senior Lighting Technician Head of Lighting Lighting Technician Sound Technician Stage Crew

Theatre Management Janet Bakose Judith Bruce-Hay Charlie Gardiner Ben Geering

Theatre Manager Duty Manager Duty Manager Head of Customer Operations

Dan Hill Assistant House Manager Will McGovern Deputy House Manager Sharon Meier PA to Theatre Manager Gabriele Williams Deputy House Manager Caper & Berry Catering Proclean Cleaning Ltd Cleaning Contractor Goldcrest Guarding

Security

Stage Door: Bob Bentley, Janet Bounds, Judith Bruce-Hay, Caroline Hanton, Keiko Iwamoto, Chris Monkton, Sue Welling Ushers: Miranda Allemand, Judith Anderson, Maria Antoniou, Jacob Atkins, Carolyn Atkinson, Ieva Bagdonaite, Brian Baker, Richard Berry, Emily Biro, Gloria Boakes, Alex Bolger, Dennis Brombley, Judith Bruce-Hay, Louisa Chandler, Jo Clark, Gaye Douglas, Stella Dubock, Amanda Duckworth, Clair Edgell, Lexi Finch, Suzanne Ford, Suzanne France, Jessica Frewin-Smith, Nigel Fullbrook, Barry Gamlin, Charlie Gardiner, Lyla Garner-Gibbons, Anna Grindel, Caroline Hanton, Justine Hargraves, Joseph Harrington, Joanne Heather, Maisie Henderson, Marie Innes, Keiko Iwamoto, Joan Jenkins, Pippa Johnson, Julie Johnstone, Ryan Jones, Jan Jordan, Jon Joshua, Grace King, Sally Kingsbury, Alexandra Langrish, Judith Marsden, Janette McAlpine, Fiona Methven, Chris Monkton, Ella Morgans, Susan Mulkern, Chris Murray, Lucija O’Donnell, Isabel Owen, Martyn Pedersen, Susy Peel, Helen Pinn, Barbara Pope, Alice Rochford, Sian Rodd, Fleur Sarkissian, Derren Selvarajah, Peg Shaw, Janet Showell, Lorraine Stapley, Sophie Stirzaker, Angela Stodd, Christine Tippen, Charlotte Tregear, Andy Trust, Hannah Watts, Sue Welling, Gemma Wilcox, James Wisker, Dawn Wood, Donna Wood, Kim Wylam.

Deputy Head of Props Workshop

We acknowledge the work of all those who give so generously of their time for Chichester Festival Theatre, including our CFT Buddies, Heritage & Archive Volunteers, and our Volunteer Audio Description Team: Lily Barkes, Janet Beckett, Richard Chapman, Tony Clark, Robert Dunn, Geraldine Firmston, Suzanne France, Richard Frost, David Phizackerley, Christopher Todd, Joanna Wiege.

Lighting Technician Stage Technician Lighting Technician Stage Crew Stores Assistant Technical Director Stage Crew & Auto Technician

Youth Advisory Board: Issie Berg Rust, Theo Craig, Anayis Der Hakopian, Esther Dracott, Chloe Gibson, Aled Hanson, Ophelia Kabdenova, Alice Kilgallon, Francesca McBride, Ace Merriot, Katherine Munden, Jacob Simmonds, Susie Udall, Priya Uddin.

Senior Sound Technician Technical Apprentice Sound Technician Stage Crew Props Store Co-ordinator

Our Supporters 2024/5 Minerva Season Principal Charles Holloway Major Donors Deborah Alun-Jones Robin and Joan Alvarez Elizabeth and the late David Benson Philip Berry George W. Cameron OBE and Madeleine Cameron Sir William and Lady Castell David and Claire Chitty David and Jane Cobb John and Susan Coldstream Clive and Frances Coward Yvonne and John Dean Jim Douglas Nick and Lalli Draper Mrs Veronica J Dukes Melanie Edge Sir Vernon Ellis Huw Evans Steve and Sheila Evans Val and Richard Evans Sandy and Mark Foster Simon and Luci Eyers Robert and Pirjo Gardiner Angela and Uri Greenwood Themy Hamilton The Heller Family Liz Juniper Roger Keyworth Vaughan and Sally Lowe Jonathan and Clare Lubran Elizabeth Miles Eileen Norris Jerome and Elizabeth O’Hea Denise Patterson DL Stuart and Carolyn Popham Dame Patricia Routledge DBE David Shalit MBE and Sophie Shalit Greg and Katherine Slay Christine and Dave Smithers Alan and Jackie Stannah Oliver Stocken CBE Howard Thompson Bryan Warnett Ernest Yelf

Trusts and Foundations The Arthur Williams Charitable Trust The Arts Society, Chichester The Bassil Shippam and Alsford Trust The Bernadette Charitable Trust Bruce Wake Charitable Trust The Chartered Accountants’ Livery Charity Dora Green Educational Trust The Dorus Trust The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Elizabeth, Lady Cowdray’s Charity Trust Epigoni Trust Friarsgate Trust The Garrick Charitable Trust The G D Charitable Trust Hobhouse Charitable Trust John Coates Charitable Trust The Mackintosh Foundation The Maurice Marshal Preference Trust Noël Coward Foundation Rotary Club of Chichester Harbour Theatre Artists Fund Wickens Family Foundation

Festival Players 1000+ John and Joan Adams Lindy Ambrose and Tom Reid Sarah and Tony Bolton Robert Brown Ian and Jan Carroll C Casburn and B Buckley Jean Campbell Sarah Chappatte David Churchill Denise Clatworthy Michael and Jill Cook Lin and Ken Craig Deborah Crockford Clive and Kate Dilloway Jim Douglas Peter and Ruth Doust Gary Fairhall Mr Nigel Fullbrook George Galazka Wendy and John Gehr Marion Gibbs CBE Stephen J Gill Mr & Mrs Paul Goswell Rachel and Richard Green Ros and Alan Haigh Rowland and Caroline Hardwick Chris and Carolyn Hughes John and Jenny Lippiett Anthony and Fiona Littlejohn Alan and Virginia Lovell Dr and Mrs Nick Lutte Sarah Mansell and Tim Bouquet Patrick Martyn Rod Matthews James and Anne McMeehan Roberts Mrs Sheila Meadows Mrs Michael Melluish Celia Merrick Roger and Jackie Morris Jacquie Ogilvie Mr and Mrs Gordon Owen Graham and Sybil Papworth Richard Parkinson and Hamilton McBrien Nick and Jo Pasricha John Pritchard Trust Philip Robinson Nigel and Viv Robson Ros and Ken Rokison David and Linda Skuse Peter and Lucy Snell Julie Sparshatt Joanna Walker Ian and Alison Warren Angela Wormald

Festival Players 500+ Judy Addison Smith Mr James and Lady Emma Barnard (The Barness Charity Trust) Martin Blackburn Janet Bounds Frances Brodsky and Peter Parham Sally Chittleburgh Mr and Mrs Jeremy Chubb Mr Charles Collingwood and Miss Judy Bennett Lady Finch Colin and Carole Fisher Beryl Fleming Karin and Jorge Florencio Roz Frampton Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner Dr Stuart Hall Dennis and Joan Harrison Barbara Howden Richards Karen and Paul Johnston Frank and Freda Letch Anthony and Fiona Littlejohn Jim and Marilyn Lush Selina and David Marks Dr and Mrs Nick Lutte Sue Marsh Adrian Marsh and Maggie Stoker Trevor and Lynne Matthews Tim McDonald Mrs Mary Newby Margaret and Martin Overington Jean Plowright Ben Reeder Robin Roads Graham and Maureen Russel David Seager John and Tita Shakeshaft Mr and Mrs Brian Smouha Elizabeth Stern Anne Subba-Row Harry and Shane Thuillier Miss Melanie Tipples Penny Tomlinson Tina Webster Chris and Dorothy Weller Nick and Tarnia Williams

...and to all those who wish to remain anonymous, thank you for your incredible support.

‘Chichester Festival Theatre enriches lives with its work both on and off stage. It is a privilege to be connected in a small way with this inspirational and generous-hearted institution, especially at such a challenging time for everyone in the Arts.’

John and Susan Coldstream, Major Donors

Our Supporters 2024/5 Principal Partners Platinum Level

Prof. E.F. Juniper and Mrs Jilly Styles Gold Level

Silver Level

Corporate Partners Carpenter Box Jones Avens FBG Investment J Leon Group

Montezuma’s Oldham Seals Group Phoenix Dining

William Liley Financial Services Ltd

Why not join us and support the Theatre you love: cft.org.uk/support-us | development.team@cft.org.uk | 01243 812911