Betty trained in Hairdressing, Wig Making and Make-Up before starting her career at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon. She has worked extensively for the RSC, Royal Opera House, Royal Ballet, Glyndebourne and Garsington Opera House.

West End and International credits as Designer or Supervisor include: Moulin Rouge; Frozen; Gin Craze; Dear Evan Hansen; & Juliet; Dial M For Murder; Piaf; Indecent; The Witches Of Eastwick; Come From Away; Nativity! The Musical; Bat Out Of Hell (Germany); Strictly Ballroom; 42nd Street; Monty Python Live (Mostly) at The O2; Jesus Christ Superstar; Travesties; Rent; Pride And Prejudice; Sinatra; The Go Between; Titanic; Mr Foote’s Other Leg; Fanny Hill; Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage; Batman International Arena Tour (US); The Bodyguard; Black Comedy And The Stepmother (Chichester Festival Theatre); American Psycho; The Quartermaine’s Terms; The Pride; Macbeth; Dreamboats And Petticoats; Knives In Hens, The Prince Of Homburg and Night Alive (all for the Donmar Warehouse); Evita; Cabaret; Pack Of Lies; Backbeat; Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies (Athens, 2004).

Credits as Associate Supervisor include: Barnum (UK Tour); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Other credits include: Mary Poppins; The Lion King; Betty Blue Eyes; Miss Saigon; Les Misérables; French & Saunders; The King & I; Sir Peter Hall’s Tantalus and Taboo; Wicked; Indiana Jones 5; Ted Lasso.

Television and Film credits includes: Disney’s The Little Mermaid; Cinderella; Spy; I Zombie; The Princess In The Tower; Far From The Loved Ones; Dirty Work; Any Human Heart (Kim Cattrall’s personal Hair Stylist).

Recent theatre projects include: Gary Barlow: A Different Stage (UK Tour and Duke of York’s Theatre); Back To The Future (Opera House, Manchester and Adelphi Theatre); The Band’s Visit (Donmar Warehouse); Sondheim’s Old Friends (Sondheim Theatre); The Drifters Girl (Garrick Theatre); Frozen (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Jerusalem (Apollo Theatre); To Kill A Mockingbird (Gielgud Theatre); Disney’s Beauty And The Beast (UK Tour and London Palladium); Jersey Boys (Trafalgar Theatre and UK Tour); The Phantom Of The Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre and UK Tour); Mrs Doubtfire (Opera House, Manchester); Into The Woods (Theatre Royal, Bath); The Taxidermist’s Daughter and Crazy For You (both Chichester Festival Theatre); Hangmen (John Golden Theatre, Broadway); Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical (UK Tour, Paris Hotel Las Vegas); Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre, Lyric Theatre, Sydney and QPAC, Brisbane); & Juliet (Shaftesbury Theatre, Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto and Stephen Sondheim Theatre, Broadway).

Other theatre credits include: Tina The Musical (Aldwych Theatre and Teatro Coliseum, Madrid); A Doll’s House, Part II (Donmar Warehouse); Come From Away (Phoenix Theatre); Dear Evan Hansen (Noel Coward Theatre); Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and 42nd Street (both Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Hamilton (Victoria Palace); MAMMA MIA! The Party (The O2); Motown and Memphis (both Shaftesbury Theatre); Half A Sixpence (Chichester Festival Theatre & Noel Coward Theatre); Groundhog Day (Old Vic); I Can’t Sing! (London Palladium); Viva Forever (Piccadilly Theatre); Bend It Like Beckham (Phoenix Theatre); Young Marx (The Bridge Theatre); Rosmersholm (Duke of York’s Theatre); The Night Of The Iguana (Noel Coward Theatre); Walden (Harold Pinter Theatre); My Name Is Lucy Barton (The Bridge Theatre); Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf and The Birthday Party (both Harold Pinter Theatre); Apologia (Trafalgar Studios); Art (The Old Vic); Young Chekhov (National Theatre); Hamlet (Barbican); Macbeth (Trafalgar Studios); American Buffalo (Wyndham’s Theatre); Marys Seacole (Donmar Warehouse); Bedknobs & Broomsticks, Dreamgirls, Kinky Boots and Calendar Girls The Musical (all UK Tours); Top Hat (Aldwych Theatre); The Commitments (UK Tour); The Band (Theatre Royal Haymarket and UK Tour); The Witches Of Eastwick (Cirkus, Stockholm).

Previous TV and film credits include: Adam Handling for The Great British Menu (BBC); The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (NBC/Universal)

Other credits include: The Shard Christmas Tree; Fortnum & Mason Christmas Windows – JOY.

Follow Marcus on social media:

Instagram: @marcushallprops

Kay is an Associate Artist of Curve.

Theatre credits include: Billy Elliot The Musical, Beautiful – The Carole King Musical (and UK Tour), West Side Story (all Curve, Leicester); The Color Purple (Curve, Leicester and Birmingham Hippodrome); Beautiful Thing (Arts Theatre and UK Tour); The Solid Gold Cadillac (Garrick); Sweeney Todd (Royal Festival Hall); Breakfast At Tiffany’s (Curve and National Tour); Dangerous Corner (West Yorkshire Playhouse and West End); Round The Horne… Revisited, Aspects Of Love, The Witches Of Eastwick, All The Fun Of The Fair (National Tours); Kes (Liverpool Playhouse and National Tour); Great Expectations (Watford Palace Theatre and National Tour); Bat Boy (West Yorkshire Playhouse and West End); Young America Season (Northampton and National Theatre); Singin’ In The Rain (West Yorkshire Playhouse, National Theatre and National Tour).

Kay was Resident Casting Director at West Yorkshire Playhouse where she cast many shows including Hamlet, the McKellen Ensemble Season and the Patrick Stewart Priestley Season, amongst others.

Kay casts regularly for Sherman Cardiff (Iphigenia In Splott, The Cherry Orchard, A Doll’s House, The Weir (co-production with the Tobacco Factory), Dublin Carol, The Motherf***er With The Hat (co-production with The Tron, Wind in the Willows et al.)), Derby Theatre (Two, Look Back In Anger, Alice, A Christmas Carol, Solace Of The Road and Great Expectations, amongst others), Storyhouse Chester (The Beggar’s Opera, The Secret 7, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, The Crucible, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy Of Errors, Macbeth, The Secret Garden, Stig Of The Dump, Julius Caesar et al.), Liverpool Everyman (Hope Place, Macbeth, Bright Phoenix and the Rock and Roll Panto every year), Birmingham Stage Company (including James And The Giant Peach, Horrible Histories, Gangsta Granny and Awful Auntie). For Curve, Kay has cast A Streetcar Named Desire, Wipers, The Importance Of Being Earnest, Grease, Legally Blonde, Scrooge, The Witches, The Twits, George’s Marvellous Medicine and An Officer And A Gentleman, amongst others. Kay is also Casting Associate at West Yorkshire Playhouse, where she works on artist development as well as casting shows (recently Talking Heads, Richard III, Enjoy, Kes and Romeo and Juliet).

Kay is a member of the Casting Director’s Guild of Great Britain (CDG).

George read Music at Durham University before being offered a scholarship to study Musical Direction at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

Credits as Musical Director include: The Wizard Of Oz (Curve, Leicester), Billy Elliot The Musical (Curve, Leicester); West Side Story (Curve, Leicester); Annie (West End); The Last Five Years (Southwark Playhouse); The Wizard Of Oz (Birmingham Rep); Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Kilworth House); The Wedding Singer (UK Tour); Annie (UK Tour, BroadwayWorld Awards – Best Musical Direction); Bugsy Malone (Curve, Leicester); Dogfight (Southwark Playhouse and St. James’ Theatre – European Premiere, BroadwayWorld Award – Best Musical Direction); The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice (Derby Theatre); Sweeney Todd (West Yorkshire Playhouse and Manchester Royal Exchange); Footloose (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre); Liza (On An E) (Vaudeville Theatre, West End); Howard Goodall’s A Winter’s Tale (Professional Premiere); Merrily We Roll Along (Theatr Clwyd); Annie (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Ragtime (Landor Theatre); The Wiz (West Yorkshire Playhouse and Birmingham Rep); Sincerely Nöel – With Alistair McGowan (Riverside Studios); Momentous Musicals (New Wimbledon Theatre and UK Tour); Betwixt! (Trafalgar Studios); Peter Pan (Casino Theatre, Geneva); Shoshana Bean: Live In The West End (Ambassadors Theatre); Helena Blackman; The Sound Of Rodgers & Hammerstein (Prince of Wales Theatre); Tomorrow Morning (Landor Theatre); Zombie Prom (UK Premiere, Landor Theatre); Cinderella, Robinson Crusoe And The Caribbean Pirates and Jack And The Beanstalk (all QDOS and Mayflower Theatre, Southampton); Cinderella (Theatre Royal, Newcastle); Sleeping Beauty (Alhambra Theatre, Bradford).

Credits as Arranger & Orchestrator and Musical Supervisor include: The Wizard Of Oz (Curve, Leicester) Billy Elliot The Musical (Curve, Leicester); Nativity! The Musical (UK Tour); West Side Story (Curve, Leicester); The Wizard Of Oz (Birmingham Rep); The Last Five Years (Southwark Playhouse and West End); An Officer An A Gentleman – The Musical (UK and US Tour); The Wedding Singer (UK Tour 2017, Korea and Troubadour Theatre); Annie (West End, UK Tour, Canada and South African productions); Bugsy Malone; Footloose; Merrily We Roll Along; Ragtime; The Wiz; Momentous Musicals.

Other theatre credits include: Wonderful Town (The Lowry, Assistant to Sir Mark Elder); Kiss Me Kate (Philharmonie Luxembourg).

Graduate productions for UK Drama Schools include: Jesus Christ Superstar and On The Town (both GSA); Girlfriends and Pal Joey (both Mountview); Big Fish and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (both Bird).

Television credits include: Vocal Coach for Channel 5’s Don’t Stop Believing.

Recordings include: Nativity! The Musical (Original Cast Recording); An Officer And A Gentleman – The Musical (Original Cast Recording); Momentous Musicals (Live Album). George was also Assistant Musical Director for the feature film of London Road for the National Theatre, BBC and Cuba Pictures that was released in June 2015 starring Olivia Coleman and Tom Hardy.

Future and current productions include the World Premiere of The Wizard Of Oz (The London Palladium), My Best Friend’s Wedding – The Musical (World Premiere UK Tour), and Annie (2023 UK Tour), all as Musical Supervisor and Orchestrator.

Follow George on social media: Twitter: @georgedyermd | Instagram: @georgedyermd

Sound design credits include: Billy Elliot The Musical (Curve); The Last Five Years (& Garrick Theatre), Yeast Nation (Southwark Playhouse); Into The Woods (Theatre Royal, Bath); The Witches Of Eastwick Concert (Sondheim Theatre); The Show Must Go On! (Palace); Our Man In Havana (Watermill Theatre); Beauty And The Beast (Nottingham Playhouse); the European premiere of The View Upstairs (Soho Theatre) and world premieres of What I Go To School For – The Busted Musical (Brighton Theatre Royal) and Soho Cinders (Soho Theatre). Other credits include: Carrie (Mountview Academy); Jesus Christ Superstar (LAMDA); Bandstand, The SpongeBob Musical, Cats, The Wedding Singer, Ragtime, Kipps, The Wild Party, Freaky Friday, Legally Blonde and Nice Work If You Can Get It (ArtsEd).

As associate sound designer credits include: West End, Broadway and international productions of Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Sunset Boulevard and School Of Rock. Other credits include: The Light In The Piazza (Royal Festival Hall), Man Of La Mancha (West End), Chess (West End), Carousel (West End), Cats (Broadway & US Tour), The Wizard Of Oz (Toronto & US Tour), Ich War Noch Niemals in New York (Stuttgart), The Phantom Of The Opera (US Tour, West End), Barnum (Chichester & UK Tour). Adam was also involved in the 25th Anniversary concerts of Les Misérables (The O2) and The Phantom Of The Opera (Royal Albert Hall).

Adam produced and engineered the studio cast recording of Alex Parker and Katie Lam’s musical, After You.

Ben is an Associate Artist of Curve. He trained at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in London where he was honoured to be awarded a Fellowship in 2021.

West End includes: Grease (Dominion Theatre); The Drifters Girl (Garrick); Joseph And The Amazing Technicoloured Dreamcoat (London Palladium); Heathers (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Young Frankenstein (Garrick); Inala (Peacock Theatre); Annie (Piccadilly); Pantoland At The Palladium, Goldilocks And The Three Bears, Snow White, Dick Whittington and Cinderella (London Palladium); Breakfast At Tiffanys (Theatre Royal Haymarket); All The Fun Of The Fair (Garrick); Visiting Mr Green (Trafalgar Studios); Dancing In The Streets (Cambridge) and African Snow (Trafalgar Studios).

Regional and UK Tours include: Billy Elliot The Musical (Curve); The Great British Bakeoff Musical (Cheltenham); Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, What The Butler Saw (Curve/Theatre Royal Bath); Sunset Boulevard and The Color Purple At Home (Streamed from Curve), The Cher Show, The Addams Family, The Osmonds, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Rough Crossing, Dracula, Rock Of Ages, La Cage Aux Folles (UK Tours); The Comedy Of Errors, Pieces Of String (Mercury Theatre, Colchester); Love On The Links and Before The Party (Salisbury Playhouse); My Beautiful Laundrette, An Officer And A Gentleman, Sunset Boulevard, Beautiful Thing (Curve/UK Tour); The Importance Of Being Ernest (Birmingham Rep/Curve); Kiss Me Kate (WNO/ Opera North), Saturday Night Fever (Theatre Royal, Bath/UK Tour); The Tempest, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It (Stafford Shakespeare Festival); The Memory Of Water (New Vic, Stoke); Our House (New Wolsey, Ipswich/UK Tour); Sherlock Holmes, Angus Thongs And Even More Snogging (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Merrily We Roll Along (Theatre Clwyd).

International includes: We Will Rock You (Manila and World Tour); Chess (Tokyo & Osaka); La Clemenza Di Tito (Opéra de Lausanne / Bilbao Opera); Romeo Und Julia (Theater Trier); Annie and Chess (Toronto); The Picture Of Dorian Grey, The Life, Strangers On A Train, Sweet Charity and Tommy (English Theatre, Frankfurt); Legally Blonde (South Korea); Inala (Sadlers Wells/ International Tour); Faust, 1984 (Altes Schauspielhaus, Stuttgart); Dracula (Singapore/Bangkok) and Voices Of The Amazon.

Television includes: The Prince’s Trust Awards (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); The Classic Brit Awards (Royal Albert Hall); The Olivier Awards 2011-2022 (2014 & 2019 Knight of Illumination Award for Best Lighting) (Royal Opera House and Royal Albert Hall); The Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra (Royal Festival Hall) and Il Divo (Coliseum).

Training: Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Set and Costume Design credits include: Pinocchio, A Christmas Carol, Hansel And Gretel and Rapunzel (all Citizens Theatre); Swanhunter (Opera North and The Wrong Crowd); Hag, Kite And The Girl With The Iron Claws (all The Wrong Crowd); Magical Night (Royal Opera House); Mad Forest (Battersea Arts Centre); House (Clean Break); Beauty And The Beast, Sleeping Beauties And The Snow Tiger (Sherman Cymru); The Tailor’s Daughter (Welsh National Opera); Peter Grimes (Grand Theatre Geneva); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park); Winnie And Wilbur (Birmingham Rep); Purcell His Ground (English National Opera).

Puppet Design and Direction credits include: Merlin (Northern Ballet); The Jungle Book, Of Mice And Men, Into The Woods and Oliver Twist (all Leeds Playhouse); The City Madam (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Three Musketeers And The Princess Of Spain (English Touring Theatre, Traverse and Belgrade Theatre, Coventry); Into The Woods and Peter Pan (both Regent’s Park and Public Theatre NYC); The Red Balloon (Royal Opera House); Kes and The Wizard Of Oz (both Sheffield Crucible); Crocodile Fever (Traverse); Merlin (Northern Ballet); Peter Pan and A Christmas Carol (both Birmingham Rep); A Christmas Carol (Sherman Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scottish Opera); The Famous Five: A New Musical (Theatr Clwyd and Chichester).

Training: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Theatre credits include: Identical (Nottingham Playhouse); We Will Rock You (International Tour); Grease (Dominion Theatre); All’s Well That Ends Well and The Magician’s Elephant (both RSC); Royal Hunt Of The Sun (Parco Theatre, Japan); The Lost Thing (Royal Opera House); The Witches Of Eastwick (Cameron Mackintosh and 2Entertain); The Magic Flute (Opera North); Hogarth’s Progress: The Taste Of Town and The Art Of Success (Rose Theatre); An Officer And A Gentleman (Curve, Leicester and UK Tour); Sunset Boulevard (Curve, Leicester/David Ian Productions, UK Tour); A Tale Of Two Cities (Regent’s Park); Pinocchio (National Ballet of Canada); Into The Woods (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Opera North); Don Giovanni (Hampstead Garden Opera); The Mystery Plays (York Minster Cathedral); Dance Marathon (Barbican); Fit And Proper People (RSC/Soho Theatre); Silence (RSC/Filter Theatre/Hampstead Theatre).

Events include: Mozart And Son: Benefit Gala (Royal Opera House); 300th Anniversary Gala (St Johns Smith Square); Installation for Global Summit to End Sexual Violence against Children (Save The Children); 50th Anniversary Gala Of Harold Pinter’s Birthday Party (Lyric Hammersmith).

Follow Douglas on social media:

www.douglasoconnell.com | Twitter: @D_Oconnellvideo

Training: Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Theatre credits include: Toy Show The Musical (RTE); 101 Dalmatians (Regent’s Park); The Magicians Elephant (RSC); Wendy & Peter Pan (Bunkamura Tokyo/RSC/Leeds playhouse); The Royal Hunt of the Sun (Parco, Tokyo); The Witches of Eastwick (Cameron Mackintosh/Cirkus Stockholm); Annie (West End, South Africa, Toronto and UK Tour); Grease (UK Tour); Sunset Boulevard (UK Tour); Pressure (West End, Edinburgh Lyceum and Chichester Minerva); Titus Andronicus (RSC); Breakfast with Mugabe (RSC and West End); Spring Awakening (Headlong); Sunshine on Leith (Leeds Playhouse and UK Tour); Animal Farm (Leeds Playhouse); Come on Home and Jimmy’s Hall (both Abbey, Dublin); Sweeney Todd (WNO, La Monnaie and Royal Danish Opera); The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice and Dancing At Lughnasa (both Birmingham Rep); Twelfth Night and Betrayal (both Sheffield Crucible); All’s Well That Ends Well and Antony And Cleopatra (both The Globe); Beautiful Thing (West End and UK Tour).

Previous television and film credits include: Doctor Who (BBC); Old Friends and Other Days (NI Opera and Causeway Pictures).

Ballet credits include: Merlin (Northern Ballet); Pinocchio (National Ballet of Canada/Texas Ballet Theater).

Opera credits include: Carmen, The Magic Flute and Kiss Me Kate (all Opera North).

Follow Colin on social media:

www.colinrichmond.com | Twitter – @Crichmonddesign | Instagram – @colinrichmonddesigner

Training: Bird College and The BRIT School.

Credits as Choreographer include: Orfeus: A House Music Opera (workshop/Young Vic).

Credits as Assistant Choreographer include: Snow White (Walt Disney Pictures).

Film and Television Credits as a performer include: Wonka (Warner Bros.); Cinderella (Columbia Pictures/Amazon); Cats (Working Title/Universal); Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans (Altitude/BBC Films); Mary Poppins Returns (Walt Disney Pictures); The BRIT Awards (ITV); The Royals (Lionsgate/ NBC); Strictly Come Dancing (BBC); and The X Factor (ITV).

Stage credits as performer include: Carousel (Open Air Theatre) and Hairspray (National Tour).

Nikolai is Artistic Director at Curve, Leicester, one of the UK’s leading regional theatres and recently described as ‘world class’ by The Daily Telegraph.

Nikolai was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, grew up in North Yorkshire and trained at Drama Centre London and at the Crucible, Sheffield.

He has created work for many of the UK’s major producing theatres, touring houses and internationally. Nikolai has been director on attachment at the Sheffield Crucible, the Royal Court Theatre and National Theatre Studio and served as an Associate Director at Leeds Playhouse.

Most recently, Nikolai has directed the award-winning UK production of Billy Elliot The Musical (winner of Best Musical Production at the UK Theatre Awards), described as a ‘masterpiece’ by the Times, Grease at the Dominion Theatre and an acclaimed revival of A Chorus Line. During lockdown, Nikolai directed Curve’s first digital streamed production, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s critically acclaimed Sunset Boulevard – At Home, which was hailed as a ‘Gamechanger’ by the Telegraph. Nikolai has also recently directed a major revival of West Side Story, Hanif Kureishi’s My Beautiful Laundrette (nominated for Best Regional Production at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2020), Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, the world-premiere of Dougal Irvine’s adaptation of Riaz Khan’s Memoirs Of An Asian Football Casual (nominated for Best Regional Production at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2019), An Officer And A Gentleman – The Musical (& UK tour), Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard (& UK tour), Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw (with Theatre Royal Bath), Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s Grease (Curve, Dubai World Trade Centre & UK tour), Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest (with Birmingham Rep), the Broadway musical Spring Awakening (with NYMT), Legally Blonde (Opera Garnier, Monaco & Daegu Opera Festival, South Korea – Winner Best Musical – Daegu International Musical Festival Awards), Truman Capote’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s (& Haymarket Theatre, London & UK tour), Roald Dahl’s The Witches (with Rose Theatre Kingston, Lyric Theatre, Hong Kong, Leeds Playhouse, Leeds & UK tour), Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Shakespeare’s Richard III, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good and a performance to celebrate the reveal of the tomb of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral.

Nikolai has also directed acclaimed productions of Calamity Jane (UK tour); Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (Leeds Playhouse); Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing (20^th anniversary production – Arts Theatre, London); Calamity Jane (Watermill Theatre, Newbury & UK tour); Brecht’s The Good Person Of Sichuan (Mercury Theatre, Colchester); Sherlock Holmes – The Best Kept Secret by Mark Catley (Leeds Playhouse); Shelagh Stephenson’s The Memory Of Water (New Vic, Stoke & Stephen Joseph, Scarborough); the European premiere of Morris Panych’s The Dishwashers (Birmingham Rep); the Sondheim/Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along (Clwyd Theatr Cymru); The Diary Of Anne Frank (York Theatre Royal & The Touring Consortium); a major new production of the Broadway musical, Annie (Leeds Playhouse and on tour throughout 2015); Shakespeare’s As You Like It (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester) and Macbeth (Singapore Repertory Theatre, Fort Canning Park, Singapore).

Lyman Frank Baum was born in Chittenango, New York, on May 15, 1856.

Over the course of his life, Baum raised fancy poultry, sold fireworks, managed an opera house, opened a department store, and an edited a newspaper before finally turning to writing.

In 1900, he published his best known book The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. Eventually he wrote fifty-five novels, including thirteen Oz books, plus four ‘lost’ novels, eighty-three short stories, more than two hundred poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings.

Baum died on May 6, 1919. He is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California.

Theatre: David Cullen has worked mainly as an orchestrator of musicals, most notably those of Andrew Lloyd Webber – Cats, Starlight Express, Song & Dance, The Phantom Of The Opera, Aspects Of Love, Sunset Boulevard, By Jeeves, Whistle Down The Wind, The Beautiful Game and Love Never Dies. Other musicals he has orchestrated include Abbacadabra, Jeeves, Shogun The Musical (in New York), Children Of Eden, Edna – The Spectacle, Stepping Out and three London revivals – Can-Can, The Baker’s Wife and Carmen Jones. Records he has arranged include the America album by the King’s Singers, Christmas With Kiri by Kiri Te Kanawa and I Am What I Am by Shirley Bassey. He both arranged and produced the albums Music Of The Night for Cantabile and Lloyd Webber Plays Lloyd Webber for Julian Lloyd Webber.

Film and television include: Jesus Christ Superstar (Really Useful Films). David has orchestrated much film and television music for Carl Davis – Show People, The Crowd, The Thief Of Baghdad, Our Hospitality and Champions.

He provided the orchestrations for the Disney productions of Cinderella and Geppetto. He has contributed original themes and incidental music to three television series – The Bretts, Relative Strangers and Surgical Spirit.

Awards include: the New York Drama Desk Award for his orchestrations of The Phantom Of The Opera and he was nominated again the following year for Aspects of Love. David lives in East Sussex with his wife Jessie and children Poppy and Richard.

Jeremy Sams is a Tony and Olivier-nominated theatre director, writer and translator and a BAFTA award-winning film composer, orchestrator, musical director, and lyricist.

Directing credits include: The Lavender Hill Mob (The Good Life (UK Tour); Oklahoma (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Rehearsal (Chichester Festival Theatre); Peter Grimes (Grange Park Opera); Die Fledermaus and The Enchanted Island (The Met Opera); The Wizard Of Oz (West End and Toronto); Educating Rita (West End); La PÈrichole (Garsington Opera); The Sound Of Music (West End and Toronto); 13 (Broadway); Little Britain Live (London and UK Tour); Noises Off (National Theatre and Broadway); The King And I (Royal Albert Hall), Passion (Queen’s Theatre); Wild Oats (National Theatre); Marat/Sade (National Theatre); Enter The Guardsman (Donmar Warehouse); The Wind In The Willows (Chichester Festival Theatre); 2 Pianos 4 Hands (Birmingham Rep and West End); What The Butler Saw (Theatre Royal Bath and UK Tour); Spend Spend Spend (West End and National Tour); and Benefactors (West End and UK Tour).

Lyrics include: Amour (Broadway); The Threepenny Opera (Donmar Warehouse & Boston).

His many translations include: CosÏ Fan Tutte (Kent Opera and ENO); Les Parents Terribles, The Miser and Mary Stuart (all National Theatre); The Rehearsal (Minerva Theatre); Beckett (West End); Figaro’s Wedding, La BohËme, The Magic Flute and The Ring Cycle (all ENO); The Merry Widow (Covent Garden and Metropolitan Opera); La PÈrichole (Garsington Opera).

As Composer he has written, arranged and directed music for over 50 theatre shows, TV/Film and radio productions including: The Wind In The Willows (Chichester Festival Theatre); Arcadia (National Theatre); The Merry Wives Of Windsor (RSC); The Mother (BBC); Enduring Love (PathÈ); Hyde Park on Hudson and Le Weekend (Film4); Persuasion (BBC Films).

Adaptor credits include: The Good Life (UK Tour); A Damsel In Distress (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Wizard Of Oz (West End and Toronto); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (West End and New York); The Enchanted Island (Metropolitan Opera).

Harold Arlen (1905-1986) wrote some of the greatest hits from the 30’s and 40’s, including the entire score to the classic movie The Wizard Of Oz. Songs such as Over The Rainbow, Get Happy, Stormy Weather, It’s Only A Paper Moon, I’ve Got The World On A String and Last Night When We Were Young are just some of the standards that live on today and have distinguished Harold Arlen as one of the Great American Composers of the 20th Century.

Born and bred in New York, Harold Arlen began his career as an accompanist in vaudeville and appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records, often singing his own compositions. During his career he wrote over 500 songs, including Let’s Fall In Love, Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea and I Love A Parade (all with lyrics by Ted Koehler). Arlen had a long and productive partnership with Johnny Mercer with many resulting hits, including That Old Black Magic, Blues In The Night, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive and One For My Baby (And One More For The Road).

His Broadway musicals include Bloomer Girl, St. Louis Woman, House of Flowers, Jamaica and Saratoga. Films include The Singing Kid (1936), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), The Petty Girl (1950), My Blue Heaven (1950), The Farmer Takes A Wife (1953), and Gay Purr-ee (1962). With Ira Gershwin he wrote the songs for 1954’s A Star Is Born, starring Judy Garland, including the Oscar-nominated The Man That Got Away. Arlen won an Academy Award for the song Over The Rainbow, voted the 20th century’s No. 1 song by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

E. Y. (Yip) Harburg (1896-1981), in a career spanning over fifty years, was known as ‘Broadway’s social conscience.’ A master lyricist, poet and book writer, Yip was always dedicated to social justice. He wrote the words to over 600 songs, most notably all the lyrics in the 1939 motion picture classic The Wizard Of Ozincluding Over The Rainbow, which was voted the Number 1 recording of the 20th century in a 2001 poll conducted by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Recording Industry Association of America.

On Broadway, Yip began writing lyrics for multiple revues in the 1930s which included songs that became standards including Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?, the classic anthem of the Depression (with composer Jay Gorney, 1932) and April In Paris (with Vernon Duke, 1932). He wrote lyrics for the satiric Life Begins At 8:40 (1934, with co-lyricist Ira Gershwin and music by Harold Arlen). He also conceived and wrote lyrics for book musicals with political and social themes, including Hooray For What! (1937, with an anti-war theme, music by Arlen) and Bloomer Girl (1944, feminist, anti-racist theme, music by Arlen). He co-wrote the book (with Fred Saidy) and wrote the lyrics for Finian’s Rainbow (1947, music by Burton Lane) which won the Henderson and George Jean Nathan Awards for Best Musical Comedy; for Flahooley (1951, music by Sammy Fain), and for Jamaica, starring Lena Horne (1957, music by Arlen). He conceived the book and wrote the lyrics for The Happiest Girl In The World (1961, a musical version of Lysistrata, music by Jacques Offenbach). His last Broadway lyrics were for Darling Of The Day (1968, music by Jule Styne).

In Hollywood, Yip Harburg wrote lyrics for numerous film musicals during the 1930’s and 1940’s. His most famous work was The Wizard Of Oz (1939, with Arlen). In this classic, Yip conceived the integration of song and script, wrote the recitative for the Munchkin ‘operetta’, and wrote the lyrics to all the songs, including the Academy Award-winning Over The Rainbow. He was also the final script editor and made significant contributions to the dialogue. In 1962 he and Arlen scored the animated feature Gay Purr-ee (now a video classic featuring the voice of Judy Garland). From 1951 to 1961 during the House Un-American Activities Committee investigations and the McCarthy hearings Yip was ‘blacklisted’ for his political views from film, television and radio. Broadway, however, remained free from this kind of censorship.

Altogether, Yip wrote the lyrics to over 600 songs with a variety of composers. It’s Only A Paper Moon (1932, with Arlen), Over The Rainbow (1939, Arlen, which won the Academy Award), We’re Off To See The Wizard, Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead and Happiness Is Just A Thing Called Joe (1943, Arlen, from the film Cabin in the Sky). Later, with Lane, he wrote Old Devil Moon and How Are Things In Glocca Morra? The team of Arlen and Harburg also wrote Groucho Marx’s signature song, Lydia, The Tattooed Lady (1939, from At The Circus). In 2006 Yip’s two volumes of satiric light verse, Rhymes for the Irreverent (1965) and At This Point In Rhyme (1976) were reissued together in one hardcover edition under the title Rhymes, For The Irreverent by the Freedom from Religion Foundation in cooperation with the Yip Harburg Foundation.

As Broadway’s social commentator, and given his ability to ‘gild the philosophic pill’ with witticisms and a lyric style all his own, Yip Harburg is a unique and major lyricist of 20th century American musical theatre.

Yip Harburg died on March 5, 1981 at 84 years young.

Tim Rice has worked in music, theatre and films since 1965 when he met Andrew Lloyd Webber, a fellow struggling songwriter. Rather than pursue Tim’s ambitions to write rock or pop songs they turned their attention to Andrew’s obsession – musical theatre. Their first collaboration was based on the life of Dr. Thomas Barnardo, the Victorian philanthropist, The Likes Of Us. Their next three works together were much more successful – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita.

Tim has since worked with other distinguished popular composers such as Elton John (The Lion King, Aida), Alan Menken (Aladdin, King David, Beauty and the Beast), Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (Chess), and Stuart Brayson (From Here To Eternity). He also written with Freddie Mercury, Burt Bacharach and Rick Wakeman among others.

He is currently writing and presenting a podcast (entitled Get Onto My Cloud) reminiscing about his years in music, theatre and film – playing hits and flops, out-takes and number ones.

His recent musical From Here To Eternity returned to London in November 2022. A new production of the Tony-winning Broadway hit Aida (which has still not been seen in the West End) and a new Broadway presentation of Chess are also in the works.

Sir Tim founded his own cricket team in 1973, which has now played over 700 matches, and was President of MCC, founded in 1789, in 2002. He was President of the London Library from 2017-2022. He is a Trustee of Sunderland FC’s Foundation of Light and a Life Vice-President of the schools/cricket charity Chance to Shine. He crops up here and there in all branches of the media drawing on his extensive knowledge of the history of popular music since Elvis was a lad. He has won several awards, mainly for the wrong thing or for simply turning up.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has composed the scores of some of the world’s most famous musicals. From Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1969) to Cinderella (2021), his work has been consistently seen on world stages. Before the COVID pandemic hit, Lloyd Webber had shows continually running in the West End for 48 years and on Broadway for 41. When Sunset Boulevard joined School Of Rock, CATS, and The Phantom Of The Opera he equalled Rodgers & Hammerstein’s record of four shows running simultaneously on Broadway. He is one of the select group of artists with EGOT status, having received Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards.

Lloyd Webber owns six London theatres including the iconic London Palladium and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Reopening in July 2021, the latter has been completely restored and renovated at a cost of over £60 million. It is one of the biggest projects ever undertaken by a private theatre owner in recent times. His mantra that every penny of profit made from his theatres is ploughed back into the buildings has meant that considerable work has been undertaken across his theatre portfolio during the pandemic, including the complete re-modelling and re-seating of the Gillian Lynne.

Lloyd Webber is passionate about the importance of musical education and diversity in the arts. Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation provides 30 performing arts scholarships every year for talented students with financial need and supports a range of projects such as the Music In Secondary School Trust and commissioning research into diversity in theatre.

Andrew Lloyd Webber was knighted in 1992 and created an honorary life peer in 1997. To mark his 70th birthday, his best-selling autobiography Unmasked was published by Harper Collins in March 2018.