Anthony Drewe

Lyricist/Bookwriter

Board Member

The dynamic musical theatre songwriting partnership that is George Stiles (music) and Anthony Drewe (lyrics) have been writing together since they met at Exeter University over twenty years ago. George and Anthony have written five musicals together: In 2004 they composed the new songs, additional music and lyrics, vocal and dance arrangements for the multi-award winning MARY POPPINS, currently one of the UK's and Broadway’s biggest attractions. Their first musical was TUTANKHAMUN (Northcott Theatre and Imagination Building); which they hope to revisit one day. JUST SO was produced by Cameron Mackintosh and won the 1985 Vivian Ellis Prize…none other than Steven Spielberg then secured an option to turn it into a feature animation. Just So most recently played at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2004. HONK!– which was commissioned by the Watermill Theatre in 1993 – has been produced over 4,000 times and won the Olivier Award for Best Musical in 2000, the FNB VITA Award in South Africa, and the Elliot Norton Award in the USA. PETER PAN– A Musical Adventure, began life as a BBC concert presented in 2001 at the Royal Festival Hall starring John Thaw as a wonderfully menacing Captain Hook. Won Best Song and the Orchestras Award at the 1996 International Musical of the Year in Denmark. They’ve started work on that very rare thing, an original musical called Soho Cinders which is currently at workshop stage; set in modern day London SOHO CINDERS has a very contemporary feel. It’s a 21st century fable, centered on an internet love-story that blends a strong vein of satire with a story of celebrity politics. It has a delicious leading song titled ‘I’m So Over Men’… They have also written two revues and contributed songs to a variety of theatre, TV, and radio shows, including the RSC’s SHAKESPEARE REVUE, THE CHALLENGE, and Dame Edna Everage’s LOOK AT ME WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU. Anthony wrote the lyrics for THE CARD (Watermill Theatre, Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, and UK Tour - nominated for Best Revival in the 1995 Laurence Olivier Awards), and A TWIST OF FATE (Jubilee Hall and Esplanade Theatre, Singapore, voted Best Musical of the Year). As a performer he has been seen in ROGUES TO RICHES, as Porthos in George’s THE THREE MUSKETEERS in Denmark, and as Inspector East in his own A TWIST OF FATE in Singapore. As a director his credits include a revival of the musical SNOOPY at the Watermill, COWARDY CUSTARD at the Royal Academy of Music, HONK! in Cape Town, Chicago, Tokyo and Singapore, and JUST SO at North Shore Music Theatre, Massachusetts and S Festival Theatre.

http://www.stilesanddrewe.biz/index.html

Caroline Underwood

Board Member

Francis Matthews

Board Member

From 1990 to 1998, Francis was Artistic Director of the Greenwich Theatre. His work there included his own adaptations of TALE OF TWO CITIES, DAVID COPPERFIELD,THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, NORTHANGER ABBEY and HUCKLEBERRY FINN, (all of which have been published) as well as productions of CYRANO DE BERGERAC (with Edward Petherbridge), THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR (with Timothy Spall), THE CORN IS GREEN (with Patricia Routledge), SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM,(with Dawn French) CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA (with Alec McCowan) and many others. He directed ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD for the National Theatre, and his work in opera includes FIDELIO for Opera Northern Ireland. He has directed for The National Youth Theatre, at the University of South Florida (workshops of the Stiles/Raby musical THREE MUSKETEERS in 1999, his own adaptation of THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP in 2000, and THE COMEDY OF ERRORS IN 2002) He has worked extensively in repertory theatres across the UK. He was Associate Director at the Chichester Festival Theatre - where his work included THE RELAPSE, THE TEMPEST, TWELFTH NIGHT and Pinero's THE SCHOOLMISTRESS. He directed NOEL AND GERTIE (1999) and Shaw’s CANDIDA (2000) for Alan Ayckbourn at Scarborough. In 2001 he directed Dawn French as Bottom in a West End production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, and in 2003 Michael Richards (Kramer from Seinfeld) starred in his London revival of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE at the Strand Theatre. His credits as television producer include OFFICE GOSSIP and GIMME GIMME GIMME (the UK inspiration for WILL & GRACE) - for which he has been nominated for both a BAFTA award and the Golden Rose of Montreux. After working on the second series of the successful comedy MY DAD’S THE PRIME MINISTER, Francis produced the third series of the BBC’s most successful drama NEW TRICKS. He produced both series of ITV’s LADIES OF LETTERS with Anne Reid and Maureen Lipman, and most recently the 5th series of BENIDORM. Francis collaborated on a music theatre adaptation of the movie IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE with Steve Brown, which enjoyed great success at The Wolsey Theatre Ipswich. He directed his own adaptations of Rose Tremain’s novel RESTORATION at the Salisbury Playhouse, and Carl Hiaasen’s LUCKY YOU at the Edinburgh Festival. Francis directed the London premiere of the Stiles/Leigh/Raby THREE MUSKETEERS at The Rose Theatre, Kingston. Francis began his career as an actor - when, between theatre and TV appearances, he spent three happy months as front man for the Swedish pop group ABBA.

George Stiles

Composer

Board Member

The dynamic musical theatre songwriting partnership that is George Stiles (music) and Anthony Drewe (lyrics) have been writing together since they met at Exeter University over twenty years ago. George and Anthony have written five musicals together: In 2004 they composed the new songs, additional music and lyrics, vocal and dance arrangements for the multi-award winning MARY POPPINS, currently one of the UK's and Broadway’s biggest attractions. Their first musical was TUTANKHAMUN (Northcott Theatre and Imagination Building); which they hope to revisit one day. JUST SO was produced by Cameron Mackintosh and won the 1985 Vivian Ellis Prize…none other than Steven Spielberg then secured an option to turn it into a feature animation. Just So most recently played at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2004. HONK!– which was commissioned by the Watermill Theatre in 1993 – has been produced over 4,000 times and won the Olivier Award for Best Musical in 2000, the FNB VITA Award in South Africa, and the Elliot Norton Award in the USA. PETER PAN– A Musical Adventure, began life as a BBC concert presented in 2001 at the Royal Festival Hall starring John Thaw as a wonderfully menacing Captain Hook. Won Best Song and the Orchestras Award at the 1996 International Musical of the Year in Denmark. They’ve started work on that very rare thing, an original musical called Soho Cinders which is currently at workshop stage; set in modern day London SOHO CINDERS has a very contemporary feel. It’s a 21st century fable, centered on an internet love-story that blends a strong vein of satire with a story of celebrity politics. It has a delicious leading song titled ‘I’m So Over Men’… They have also written two revues and contributed songs to a variety of theatre, TV, and radio shows, including the RSC’s SHAKESPEARE REVUE, THE CHALLENGE, and Dame Edna Everage’s LOOK AT ME WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU. Independently, George Stiles has collaborated three times with Sam Mendes as a composer at the Donmar Warehouse, and is the composer of:- MOLL FLANDERS (winner of Best Musical in the 1995 TMA Awards). TOM JONES (Theatre Royal, York, North Shore Music Theatre, NYMF New York) and, most recently. THE THREE MUSKETEERS (Stadttheater, St. Gallen, Switzerland, and the American Musical Theatre of San Jose in USA). Other recent projects include the score for Sam Mendes’s productions of HABEAS CORPUS, TWELFTH NIGHT and UNCLE VANYA at the Donmar Warehouse and working as Dame Edna’s musical director and arranger.

http://www.stilesanddrewe.biz/

Grant Olding

Bookwriter/Lyricist/Composer

Board Member

http://www.grantolding.com/

Joanne Benjamin

Board Member

John Cohen

Board Member

John Sparks

Bookwriter

Board Member

John Sparks was the founder/co-Director of the Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (1979-1995) and the Artistic Director of ANMT from 1995 to the present. He founded the Writers' Workshop at Theatre Building Chicago in 1987 and was its Artistic Director for over a decade. Between the two workshops, John has mentored the work of over 250 writers, including Mark Hollmann, composer/lyricist of "Urinetown"; George Gorham and Dan Sticco, "A Change in the Heir". Other writers in the workshops have earned three Richard Rodgers Awards and two Kleban Awards. Nearly 400 shows written by workshop members have been produced in theatres across the country. John’s own musicals have been produced in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Mark Shenton

Board Member

Neil Marcus

Board Member

Neil is Executive Director of Mercury Musical Developments which joined the Arts Council National Portfolio this year. He is Associate Programmer at the recently-opened London Hippodrome and some of the highlights have included Adam Guettel and Friends, Suzi Quatro, Stephanie Powers, Maria Friedman, Julian Ovenden and Tony Christie. Neil was the first Artistic Director of the Jermyn Street Theatre and later an Associate Producer at The Shaw Theatre, where he devised and produced the Spotlight On series, initially in conversation With Elaine Paige and later hosted by Mark Shenton. In 2009 Neil presented The Great British Songbook Series which opened with Maria Friedman (now available on CD) followed by Kerry Ellis with Brian May and most recently, Jill Halfpenny. In 2010, Neil presented Live At Wiltons! featuring Marc Almond, David McCalmont, Jessie Buckley, Gwyneth Herbert and Sian Phillips. His most recent productions include Beyond The Gate (Gate Theatre), A Song Cycle For Soho (Soho Theatre) and Soho Cinders in Concert (Queens Theatre). All three have been recorded by SimG Records. Neil has been a guest lecturer on the Masters Degree: Performance at Arts Ed and contributed to BBC4’s History Of The Comedy Song: The Pop Years.

Peter Fineman

Board Member

Peter spent 17 years in Edward Erdman’s retail offices and business space Departments, becoming Head of their Agency Division. He was joint founder of Fineman Ross with Clive Ross. Peter concentrates on the more creative type of opportunity and on extending the firm’s client base, Peter has concentrated latterly on Central London advising such clients as Land Securities and Standard Life. He has built a strong relationship with Barclays Wealth whose clients the firm have advised on a series of high profile acquisitions. Married to Sarah with three adult children and two grandchildren, Peter lives in Wiltshire and enjoys all types of country activities. He is a trustee of charities Mercury Musical Developments and the House of Illustration.

Sean Gray

Board Member

Teresa Howard

Lyricist/Bookwriter

Board Member

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Tony Bogod

Board Member