Cast & Creative

Ray Davies

Music, Lyrics and Original Story

Ray Davies CBE, one of the most successful and influential songwriters to emerge from the British Invasion of the 1960s, founded the rock band The Kinks with his brother Dave in London in 1964. The band’s string of 14 top ten international hits began with You Really Got Me, followed by All Day and All of The Night, Tired of Waiting, Set Me Free, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Sunny Afternoon, Waterloo Sunset, Lola, Apeman and Come Dancing among many others. Davies has released two solo albums, a choral collection of Kinks classics and his collaborations album See My Friends saw him return again to the top ten working with the likes of Metallica, Bruce Springsteen and Mumford and Sons. Davies collaborated with Barrie Keeffe in 1981 on his first stage musical, Chorus Girls, and in 1988 wrote 80 Days with Snoo Wilson, which was produced at the La Jolla Playhouse. He returned with his third musical, Come Dancing, in 2008 at Stratford East which won the WhatsOnStage Best Off-West End Musical award. In between the musicals Ray penned his unauthorized autobiography, X·Ray, from which he featured readings, during his Storyteller tour. August 2012 saw him perform at the London Olympics followed by his most successful solo tour to date. Ray returned in 2013 with his second autobiography, Americana, focusing on his time spent in the United States which the band first conquered in 1965 but were banned from shortly after by the Musicians’ Union until 1969. It takes the story through to the band’s second wave of success in the 1980s and up through Ray’s shooting by a mugger in New Orleans at the beginning of 2004. 2014/2015 sees the Kinks 50th Anniversary with a new box set. 

 

2014 saw the opening of Ray’s fourth musical Sunny Afternoon which made its world premiere at the Hampstead Theatre, London, before transferring to London’s West End’s Harold Pinter Theatre, where it went on to win four Olivier Awards including Best New Musical. Ray’s radio play Arthur The Decline And Fall of the British Empire was aired on BBC Radio 4. In 2021 the one man show The Money Go Round was performed at Upstairs at The Gatehouse starring Ben Norris. 2022 saw Ray’s radio play of Lola v Powerman being performed on BBC Radio 4. 2023 saw The Journey Part 1, which was the first instalment of the BMG trilogy The Journey, once again starring Ben Norris at Upstairs at The Gatehouse. 2024 saw the 60^thAnniversary of The Kinks and the re-release of the band’s first ever number one You Really Got Me which 60 years later was back in the UK charts at number 3. The trilogy of The Journey albums went on to see part 3 being released earlier in July this year. 

Joe Penhall

Book

Joe Penhall lives in London. His plays include The Constituent; Mood Music (Old Vic); Sunny Afternoon (Hampstead Theatre and West End 2014) for which he won an Olivier Award for Best New Musical 2015; Birthday (Royal Court Theatre, 2012); Haunted Child (Royal Court Theatre, 2011); Landscape with Weapon (National Theatre, 2007); Dumb Show (Royal Court Theatre, 2004); Blue/Orange (National Theatre, 2000, winner of the Evening Standard Best Play Award, the Olivier Award for Best New Play and the Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play); The Bullet (Donmar Warehouse, 1998); Love and Understanding (Bush Theatre, 1997); Pale Horse (Royal Court Theatre, 1995) which won the Thames Television Best Play Award; Some Voices (Royal Court Theatre, 1994) which won him the John Whiting Award.

His film and television work include King of Thieves, crime thriller MINDHUNTER, which he created for Netflix in 2017; Birthday, which he adapted from his stage play for Sky Arts, winner of Best Screenplay at Zoom Festival de Ficcio in Barcelona in 2016; Moses Jones, an original three-part crime drama for BBC2, winner of Best Screenplay at the Roma Fiction Festival 2009; his adaptation of The Road from Cormac McCarthy’s award-winning novel; the screenplay Enduring Love based on the novel by Ian McEwan; the feature adaptation of his play Some Voices for Film Four; and the BAFTA nominated The Long Firm for BBC2.

Edward Hall

director

Award-winning director Edward Hall has become one of the UK’s most sought after directors. His career, which spans over three decades, features West End theatre successes including Olivier Award winning Sunny Afternoon and Chariots of Fire. As Artistic Director of Hampstead Theatre he revived its fortunes, making it into an international award winning new writing theatre.  He directed plays including the Pulitzer prize winning Cost Of Living, starring Adrian Lester, Rabbit Hole, I and You, Firebird, Wonderland and Filthy Business. Other theatre productions A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and Edmond starring Ken Brannagh at the National Theatre, Henry V and Julius Caesar for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Calico, Rose Rage and Macbeth in the West End. In 1997, he founded the ensemble-based Propeller Theatre Company, performing Shakespeare’s plays in London’s West End and on tour to Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the United States, and beyond. Edward is currently serving as Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning Chicago Shakespeare Theater in the US. In February 2024, he directed his debut production as Artistic Director—Richard III starring Tony nominee and Paralympic champion Katy Sullivan and has subsequently directed Henry V, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and the US premiere of Sunny Afternoon.

Edward’s feature film credits include 2023’s The Heist Before Christmas for Sky as well as the reimagining of the Noel Coward classic Blithe Spirit – the epic comedy stars Dame Judi Dench, Isla Fisher, Leslie Mann and Dan Stevens. 

TV credits include Kingdom, Restless, Spooks, Partners in Crime, The Durrells, Gentleman Jack, Richard III and the season finale of Downton Abbey.

Miriam Buether

Set and Costume Designer

Miriam Buether is a multi-award winning stage designer, working internationally in theatre, opera and dance.

She is the winner of the 2025 Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critic’s Circle Award and the Olivier Award for Best Set Design for Stranger Things: The First Shadow.  She is also three times Tony Award nominated for Prima Facie, Three Tall Women, To Kill a Mockingbird, two times winner of the Evening Standard Award for The Jungle and Earthquakes in London and Sucker Punch, and winner of the Critics Circle Award for Wild Swans.

Theatre credits include:  Unicorn (Garrick); Kyoto (RSC/Sohoplace); The Fear of 13 (Donmar); Stranger Things: The First Shadow (Phoenix); Patriots (Almeida/Noël Coward/Ethel Barrymore); Prima Facie (Pinter/John Golden); The Jungle (St. Ann’s Warehouse/The Playhouse/Young Vic); The 47th (Old Vic); Jungle Book Reimagined (Akram Khan Company/Sadler’s Wells); Women Beware the Devil, Shipwreck, Spring Awakening (Almeida); The Cherry Orchard (International Theatre Amsterdam); Sunny Afternoon (Hampstead, Pinter); Chariots of Fire (Hampstead, Gielgud); Earthquakes in London, The Effect, Inter Alia (National); The Trial, Wild Swans (Young Vic), What If If Only, Love and Information, Sucker Punch (Royal Court); To Kill a Mockingbird (Shubert); Three Tall Women, A Doll’s House 2 (Golden); King Lear (Cort); The Children (Friedman); Wozzeck (Festival d’Aix), Festen, Aida, Anna Nicole (Royal Opera House.)

Adam Cooper

Choreographer

Theatre credits include: Junior Dolan in On Your Toes (Leicester Haymarket/Royal Festival Hall /Tokyo);  Badger in Wind in the Willows and  Soldier in A Soldier’s Tale (Royal Opera House and Japan), Guest Star in The Play What I Wrote (UK Tour); Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Japan Tour/Sadler’s Wells); Cliff in Wallflowering (Sevenoaks Playhouse); Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls (Piccadilly); Ramon in Zorro (World Premiere Tour); The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (Royal Festival Hall); Critical Mass with Russell Maliphant (Coliseum); Lead in Shall We Dance (Sadler’s Wells); Phil Davis in White Christmas  for 3 Christmas Seasons (Plymouth/ Lowry Salford/Sunderland/ Mayflower Southampton/ Dublin/Liverpool), Don Lockwood in Singin’ In the Rain (Chichester / Palace/Japan and UK tour); Death in The Merry Widow (Gartnerplatz Theatre Munich); Zach in A Chorus Line (Leicester Curve/Sadler’s Wells/UK tour); Macbeth in Lady Macbeth (Tokyo/Kyoto)/

For Adventures in Motion Pictures Adam created the role of The Swan in Swan Lake (Sadler’s Wells, UK Tour, West End, Japan, L.A. and Broadway for which he won Time Out Award, Evening Standard Award, Astaire Award for Outstanding Male Dancer, Tony Award Nomination for Best Actor), created the role of The Pilot and played The Angel in Cinderella (West End and LA) and Gala Performances of Spitfire. He recently returned to perform the role of Boris Lermontov in The Red Shoes for New Adventures.

Adam was a member of the Royal Ballet from 1998-97 (Principal from 94) where leading roles included Romeo/Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Crown Prince in Mayerling, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Espada in Don Quixote, The Prince and Kings of the North and South in Prince of the Pagodas , Lescaut and Gaoler in Manon, Gloria, The Invitation, Different Drummer, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Symphony in C, Daphnis and Chloe, Illuminations,  Ballet Imperial, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Agon, La Ronde, Checkmate, Fearful Symmetries, Herman Schmerman, Steptext, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Danses Concertantes, Symphonic Variations, Le Corsair Pas de Deux, Thais Pas de Deux, Onegin. He also created roles in Winter Dreams and Judas Tree (MacMillan), Firstext (Forsythe), Enclosure, Present Histories, Proverb and Desirable Hostilities (Tuckett), Tombeaux (Bintley), Bloodlines, Renard, Ebony Concerto, Two Part Invention and Room of Cooks (Page).

He has also performed with Irek Mukhamedov and Company, the Portugal Ballet Festival, An Evening with Sylvie Guillem, Darcey Bussell and Friends, La Scala Milan, Rome Opera Ballet, K Ballet, Star Dancers Japan, English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet and has led Adam Cooper and Friends/Adam Cooper Company at Exeter Festival for 3 years and at Washington International Ballet Festival 2003.

Television and Films credits include: The Merry Wives of Windsor (BBC), Winter Dreams, Royal Ballet Winter Gala (BBC), Swan Lake (NVC Arts), Dance Ballerina Dance (BBC), The South Bank Show (ITV), Madame Bovary (BBC), Jason and the Argonauts (Hallmark), Billy Elliot (Working Title), Sandman, Royal Variety Performance ’97 and  2011, Duet and The Sandman (Director Will Tuckett C4), A Perfect Turn.

Credits as Choreographer include: Just Scratchin’ the Surface (Scottish Ballet); Six Faces (K Ballet); Nature of Touch (Exeter Festival); On Your Toes (Leicester Haymarket/Royal Festival Hall. Won Critics’ Circle Dance Award for Best Choreography); Garbo (Oscarsteatern Stokholm); Singin’ In the Rain (Sadler’s Wells/Leicester Haymarket. Critics Circle Dance Award Nomination for Best Chreography); Grand Hotel (Donmar. Olivier Award Nomination for Best Choreography); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Japan Tour/Sadler’s Wells, also Directed); Wallflowering (Sevenoaks Playhouse); Promises Promises (Sheffield Crucible); Side By Side By Sondheim (The Venue); Carousel (Savoy. What’s on Stage Award Nomination for Best Choreography); Simply Cinderella (Curve Leicester, also Directed); Roberto Devereux (Opera Holland Park); Shall We Dance (Sadler’s Wells, also Directed. What’s on Stage Award Nomination for Best Choreography); 3 Phantoms (UK tour); Candide (Menier Chocolate Factory); Evita (Det Ny Teater Copenhagen); Sunny Afternoon (Hampstead/Harold Pinter/UK Tour); Gefahrliche Liebschaften – World Premirere (Gartnerplatz Munich); Candide (Gartnerplatz Munich and Oper Koln. also Directed), On The Town (Konzert und Theater St Gallen); Die Großherzogin von Gerolstein (Semperoper Dresden); The Rake’s Progress, The Pirates of Penzance (Gaertnerplatz Munich. also Directed); La Cage aux Folles, Mata Hari the Musical – World Premiere, Der Vetter aus Dingsda, Tootsie – European Premiere, IWC SIHH Gala Geneva 2016, Drei Männer im Schnee, The Merry Widow (Gaertnerplatz Munich).

Directing credits include: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (World Premiere, Sadlers Wells and Japan tour), Simply Cinderella (World Premiere, Curve Leicester), Shall We Dance (World Premiere, Sadlers Wells), Dangerous Liaisons the Musical (World Premiere, Co-Direction, Gartnerplatz Theatre Munich), Candide (Gartnerplatz Theatre Munich and Oper Koln), The Rake’s Progress (Gaertnerplatz Theatre Munich), Grand Hotel (University of Oklahoma), The Pirates of Penzance (Gaertnerplatz Theatre Munich).

Training: Arts Educational School, Royal Ballet School.

He also won the Ursula Moreton Choreographic Competition, Professional Level Prize at Prix de Lausanne, and the Critics’ Circle Audience Award for Most Popular Dancer.

Adam has taught extensively throughout his career including for Arts Educational School London, London Studio Centre and Tring Park School for the Performing Arts where he is also a Patron. In addition, he has led numerous workshops and demonstrations around the UK. Adam has now set up Adam Cooper Talent Agency which aims to help graduates with the transition from student to professional alongside representing established performers and creatives within the performing arts.

Rick Fisher

lighting Designer

Born in Philadelphia, Rick is based in London and is the winner of two Olivier Awards for Best Lighting Design and two Tony Awards for An Inspector Calls and Billy Elliot (both on Broadway).

Credits include: Billy Elliot The Musical (Korea, Broadway, Australia, UK); Sunny Afternoon (Chicago); Le Prophete, The Silent Woman (Bard USA); Carmen (Opera North UK); Don Carlos, Madame Butterfly (Los Angeles); La Traviata (Royal Opera Muscat); San Xing Dui, Porgy and Bess (China); The World of Abdul Hussain (Kuwait); The King And I (Paris, Chicago); Sweeney Todd (Paris, Houston, San Francisco); The Audience (Broadway); Disney’s The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (Berlin); Natasha (New National Theatre Japan); Numerous semi-staged operas with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and over 25 operas for Santa Fe Opera.

Rick is President and a Fellow of the Association for Lighting Production and Design in the UK.

Matt McKenzie

sound Designer

Matt McKenzie was Sound Supervisor for the Peter Hall Seasons at The Old Vic and The Piccadilly. His West End musical work includes Blues in the Night, Love Story, Singing In The Rain, and Sunny Afternoon for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award.

Theatre credits include: The House of Bernarda Alba (Gielgud); Journey’s End (Whitehall); When She Danced (Gielgud); Three Days of Rain (Apollo); Misery (Criterion); Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Wyndham’s); Macbeth (Albery); Nicholas Nickleby (Gielgud); Lysistrata (Old Vic, Wyndham’s); King Lear (Globe); The Master Builder, A Streetcar Named Desire (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Amadeus (Old Vic, Broadway).

Elliott ware

Musical Supervisor

Elliott is a Music Supervisor, Music Director, Composer and Arranger having graduated from the Royal Academy of Music. 

As music supervisor, he worked on the original production of Sunny Afternoon (Hampstead Theatre) as well as the West End transfer (The Harold Pinter). The production won four Olivier Awards including Best New Musical and Outstanding Achievement in Music.

Elliott has worked as co-musical director, keyboard player and string arranger for The Who, performing Quadrophenia at the Royal Albert Hall and he has appeared with other artists including Alice Cooper, as well as Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen. 

He has also worked as music supervisor and/or music director for the productions of Mrs Doubtfire (London), We Will Rock You (London’s Dominion Theatre and Toronto); a stage production of Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia (UK tour); Rock of Ages (Shaftesbury, Garrick, UK tour); Footloose (London’s Playhouse Theatre). Elliott contributed as music director for a UK tour of The Rocky Horror Show and the workshops of Get Up, Stand Up (The Bob Marley Musical) and Ordinary World, using the music of Duran Duran.

He has been keyboard player for singer/songwriter Jim Diamond and has played keyboards for the West End productions of Wicked, Spamalot, Zorro, The Sound of Music, and for the UK Tour of Flashdance.

Other work as music supervisor, music director and/or keyboard player includes performances on TV and radio for Comic Relief, World Cup ’66 Live at Wembley Arena, Children In Need, The Andrew Marr Show, The London Music Awards at The Roundhouse (BBC); Dancing On Ice, Al Murray’s Happy Hour with Queen (ITV);  Dancing With The Stars (RTE); Weekend Wogan (BBC Radio 2); Gaby Roslin (Radio London) and numerous concerts, music festivals and recordings.

NATALIE GALLACHER CDG

Casting
(for Pippa Ailion & Natalie Gallacher Casting)

Natalie Gallacher CDG for PIPPA AILION CDG and NATALIE GALLACHER CDG CASTING

Pippa has cast over 200 productions internationally. She was awarded a special recognition Olivier Award in 2023. Natalie has worked with Pippa for 20 years. 

Together with Associates Richard Johnston and Grace McInerny, they have cast numerous productions for West End, The Old Vic, Almeida, Regents Park, Chichester Festival Theatre, The Young Vic, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, UK and International tours. 

Current West End: Hercules; MJ: The Musical; Moulin Rouge!; TINA: The Tina Turner Musical; The Book Of Mormon and The Lion King.

Current UK tours: Moulin Rouge! World Tour; TINA: The Tina Turner Musical; The Book of Mormon; Dear Evan Hansen.

Selected West End/UK tours: Mean Girls; Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet Of 1812; Come From Away; Coming to England; Hello Dolly; Ain’t Too Proud; Get Up Stand Up; Beauty and The Beast; On Your Feet!; Dreamgirls; Funny Girl; Sunny Afternoon; Motown; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Wind in the Willows; Memphis; Bend It Like Beckham; Legally Blonde; Wicked; Billy Elliot; Top Hat; We Will Rock You: Here Lies Love; Fela! and Spring Awakening.

Theatre includes: Legally Blonde; Sound of Music; Porgy and Bess; Into The Woods; Ragtime; Midsummer Night’s Dream; Lord of the Flies; The Importance of Being Earnest (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Tammy Faye; Spring Awakening; American Psycho; Decade (Almeida); The Sound of Music; Rock Follies; Gypsy; Guys and Dolls; The Pajama Game; Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Kiss Me Kate; Love Story (Chichester Festival Theatre / West End); Mandela; Tree; Twelfth Night; Far Away; Generations; Been So Long; The Enchanted Pig; Simply Heavenly (Young Vic); One Love – The Bob Marley Musical; The Rise and Fall of Little Voice; The Wiz; Waiting for Godot and Follow My Leader (Birmingham Rep). 

Film Dance Casting: Rocketman; Wonka and Disney’s Snow White.

Future Projects: Top Hat (Chichester Festival Theatre), Grease- Secret Cinema, Sunny Afternoon UK Tour, American Psycho (Almeida)

Awards: Casting Directors Guild award 2020 Come From Away; WhatsOnStage award 2023 for Spring Awakening and Casting Director Guild award 2009. 

Carole Hancock

Hair, Wigs, Makeup

Theatre credits Include: Evita (Palladium); Shucked, Twelfth Night, La Cage aux Folles, Once On This Island, 101 Dalmatians, Hansel & Gretel, On the Town (Regents Park); Much Ado About Nothing,  The Tempest (Drury Lane); Burlesque (Opera House Manchester); Backstairs Billy (Duke of York’s); Patriots, The Night of The Iguana (Noël Coward); 4000 Miles, The Deep Blue Sea, Country Girls (Chichester);  Private Lives, Trouble in  Butetown, Sweet Charity, Versailles (Donmar);  Orlando (Garrick); Jerusalem (Apollo); The Shark Is Broken (Ambassadors);  South Pacific (Chichester/UK Tour); Dusty – The Dusty Springfield Musical (Adelphi); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace, International, winner of six Tony Awards and nine Olivier Awards including Best New Play); One Love (Birmingham Rep); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Sunny Afternoon, Mojo (Pinter); Hamlet (Barbican); A Christmas Carol (West End); Wonderland (National/Manchester International Festival); on Women the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Playhouse); Anything Goes (Sheffield); Handbagged (Tricycle Theatre, Vaudeville); Pygmalion (UK Tour); The Low Road, The Children, Love, Love, Love, In Basildon, Chicken Soup and Barley (Royal Court).

Film and Television: Warhorse, Batman – The Dark Knight Rises, Snow White & the Huntsman, Thor, Captain America and Game of Thrones.