Amber hails from North Wales and trained at Urdang Academy in London earning her Professional Diploma in Musical Theatre graduating in 2016.
Most recently, Amber originated the role of Jordan Baker in the London production of The Great Gatsby. Prior to this, she played Vivian Ward in the UK tour of Pretty Woman, Lorraine Baines in Back to the Future at the Adelphi Theatre and Campbell in Bring It On (written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Tom Kitt) at London’s Southbank Centre. Her professional theatre debut was the role of Judy in the Original West End Cast of 9 to 5 the Musical at the Savoy Theatre which she then continued to play on the UK Tour. Whilst she was preparing for the role, she filmed a documentary for ITVBe, Amber and Dolly: 9 to 5, which involved her flying to Nashville to meet and interview Dolly Parton and then followed her journey from auditions to rehearsals to opening night in the West End. She was the winner of Love Island 2017, a semi-finalist on Dancing on Ice, and her screen credits also include the role of Jess in Almost Never for CBBC/BBC iPlayer. She is also the Director and Host of Call to Stage podcast - listen wherever you get your podcasts!
Twitter: @Amber_Davies7
Instagram: @amb_d
Laurence O'Keefe received 2007 Tony and Drama Desk nominations for his work on Legally Blonde. Larry thanks all Blonde producers and creative team. He won the Ed Kleban Award, the ASCAP Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award and a Jonathan Larson award for his music and lyrics.
Off-Broadway credits include: Bat Boy: The Musical (Lucille Lortel, Richard Rodgers, Outer Critics' Circle awards), which has received 100+ productions worldwide, music for Sarah, Plain and Tall, lyrics by Nell Benjamin (touring with TheatreWorksUSA), co-author with Nell Benjamin of Cam Jansen (Drama Desk nomination) and The Mice.
Larry is a product of his education with the Harvard Krokodiloes, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the Harvard Lampoon and the Actors' Gang, but especially the incomparable Nell Benjamin.
Nell co-wrote the score to Legally Blonde the Musical with composer Laurence O'Keefe, which received Tony Award nominations, Drama Desk nominations and the Olivier and Helpmann Awards for Best Musical.
Nell wrote the lyrics to Mean Girls, which received multiple Tony Award nominations, including for Best Original Score and Best Musical.
Nell's play, The Explorers Club, won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play, the Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant.
Book and/or lyrics credits include: Pirates! (or Gilbert and Sullivan plunder'd), Sarah, Plain and Tall, Cam Jansen (Drama Desk-nominated), I Want My Hat Back, How I Became A Pirate, The Mice, Life of the Party and Because of Winn Dixie.
Upcoming musicals include: Huzzah!, Life of the Party and Dave.
Television writing includes: Unhappily Ever After, Animal Planet's Whoa! Sunday with Mo Rocca, Electric Company, Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and Julie's Greenroom.
Benjamin is the recipient of the Kleban Foundation Award and a Jonathan Larson Grant.
Heather received 2007 Tony and Drama Desk nominations for her work on Legally Blonde. Heather is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder, School of Journalism.
Heather worked at The New York Times Denver Bureau as a research assistant and Sports and Fitness Publishing in Boulder, Colorado, as a magazine editor. Heather is also a member of Denver's Comedy Sports improv comedy troupe.
TV shows include: Caroline in the City and Dilbert. Heather won Walt Disney Screenwriting Fellowship in 1999.
Film credits include: Disney's Freaky Friday and What to Expect When You're Expecting.
Heather also wrote the young adult novel Freaky Monday with Mary Rodgers.
Much love to friends and family, especially Jason, Harper and Drake.
Nikolai is Artistic Director at Curve, Leicester, one of the UK’s leading regional theatres, described as “world class” by The Daily Telegraph.
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Nikolai 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 international venues. 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. In 2024, Nikolai was awarded an Honorary Doctor of the Arts by Leicester’s De Montfort University for his contribution to theatre in Leicester.
Most recently at Curve, Nikolai directed Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady, A Chorus Line (also at Sadler’s Wells & UK tour), Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice’s Evita and The Wizard of Oz (also at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, London Palladium & UK tour). The first new UK production of Lee Hall & Elton John’s Billy Elliot the Musical (winner Best Musical Production UK Theatre Awards & Best Regional Production WhatsOnStage Awards), described as a “masterpiece” by The Times, and Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey’s Grease at London’s Dominion Theatre and extensive UK tours. During lockdown, Nikolai directed Curve’s first digital streamed production, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black & Christopher Hampton’s Sunset Boulevard, hailed as a “game-changer” by The Telegraph. Nikolai has also directed a major revival of Bernstein, Sondheim & Laurents’ West Side Story, Hanif Kureishi’s My Beautiful Laundrette (nominated for Best Regional Production at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2020), An Officer and A Gentleman – the Musical (UK tours), Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (also at the Dominion & on tour), the world-premiere of Dougal Irvine’s adaptation of Riaz Khan’s Memoirs of An Asian Football Casual (winner Best Stage Production Asian Media Awards), Sunset Boulevard (UK tour & winner Best Regional Production WhatsOnStage Awards), Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw (with Theatre Royal Bath), Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (with Birmingham Rep), the Broadway musical Spring Awakening (with NYMT), Legally Blonde (Opera Garnier, Monaco and 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 & 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.
As Associate Director at Leeds Playhouse, he directed Orwell’s Animal Farm, a new Sherlock Holmes story (THE BEST KEPT SECRET by Mark Catley), Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (adapted by Bryony Lavery & Jason Carr), Louise Page’s Salonika and Amanda Whittington’s Bollywood Jane. At the Crucible Sheffield, Nikolai made his directorial debut with A Chorus Line (2003), later followed by productions of Sondheim’s Assassins and Shaffer’s Amadeus.
Nikolai has also directed acclaimed productions of Coward’s Hay Fever (Chichester Festival Theatre), Annie (Piccadilly Theatre, Toronto, South Africa & extensive UK tours), Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing (Arts Theatre, London), Shelagh Stephenson’s The Memory of Water (Stephen Joseph Scarborough), Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (English Touring Opera & Pegasus Opera), A Streetcar Named Desire and Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along (Theatr Clwyd), The Jungle Book (Glasgow Citz), Barry Hine’s Kes & Ayckbourn’s Season’s Greetings (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse), David Essex’s All The Fun Of The Fair (UK tour), Coward’s final play A Song At Twilight, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Steinbeck’s Of Mice & Men and Brecht’s The Good Person of Sichuan (All Mercury Theatre, Colchester), The Witches of Eastwick (UK tour), Shakespeare’s As You Like It (Chester Storyhouse), The Diary of Anne Frank (York Theatre Royal), Macbeth (Singapore Repertory Theatre), Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach (UK tour), Ayckbourn’s Absent Friends and Terry Johnson’s Dead Funny (Oldham Coliseum), Tanika Gupta’s adaptation of Dickens’ Great Expectations (Palace Theatre Watford & ETT) and Boucicault’s London Assurance and Calamity Jane at the Watermill (2010).
Leah is a much sought after choreographer following her win at the Black British Theatre Awards in 2022 for her choreographic debut on the 5-star smash hit, The Wiz at the Hope Mill Theatre. Leah’s most recent work as Assistant Choreographer can be found in the smash hit feature film WICKED.
Choreography Credits include: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Curve Theatre & UK Tour), The Wiz (Hope Mill Theatre) and Fiery Angel (Workshop).
Assistant Choreographer credits include: Wicked: Film (Universal) and the live action re-make of Aladdin (Disney FILM).
Prior to choreographing Leah had a hugely successful performing career in film and theatre, in London’s West End and internationally.
Her credits include: Ensemble/Velma in West Side Story (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Original Ensemble in Hamilton (Victoria Palace), Ensemble in THRILLER LIVE! (Lyric Theatre), Ensemble in Snow White (Disney FILM) and Ensemble in Beauty and the Beast (Disney FILM).
Leah is thrilled to return to Curve choreographing this brilliant new production of Kinky Boots and would like to thank Nikolai, The Curve & Producers for this extraordinary opportunity. Leah would also like to thank her mum Andrea for her love and constant support.
@leahhill_dancer
Represented by: Michelle Blair Management
Training: The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.
Theatre credits include:
As Musical Supervisor: HERE & NOW [plus Orchestrator] (Birmingham Alexandra), Dear Evan Hansen (UK Tour), The Years [Associate Supervisor] (Almeida Theatre & Harold Pinter Theatre), School of Rock (UK tour), Beautiful - The Carole King Musical (UK tours), The Last Tango (Phoenix Theatre/UK tour), Love Me Tender [plus Orchestrator] (UK tour) and We Will Rock You [Associate] (North American Tour).
As Musical Director: My Neighbour Totoro (Gillian Lynne Theatre & Barbican), Ain’t Too Proud (Prince Edward Theatre), Dear Evan Hansen (Noël Coward Theatre), School of Rock (Gillian Lynne Theatre), Beautiful – The Carole King Musical (Aldwych Theatre), The Infidel (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Taboo (Brixton Club House), Taboo 20th Anniversary concert (London Palladium), The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber (Leicester Curve), Water Babies (Leicester Curve), Unmasked (The Other Palace), Never Forget (Savoy Theatre/UK tours), We Will Rock You (Stuttgart/Berlin), Some Girl I Used To Know (Arts Theatre), The Prodigals (Coventry Belgrade), Footloose (UK/European tours), The Rocky Horror Show (European tour), Thriller Live [assistant MD] (Lyric Theatre), Cinderella (New Wimbledon Theatre), Bohemian Rhapsody (tour), This Is Elvis (UK tour), Dancing in the Streets (UK tour) and Vampirette (Manchester Opera House).
Television credits include:
As Vocal Coach & Musical Director: Cilla (ITV) and World At War (BBC).
Matt is a patron of NK Theatre Arts in Manchester.
Theatre credits include: Wizard of Oz (Set) (Curve Theatre / London Palladium / UK Tour), The Faith Healer (Lyric Theatre Hammersmith), Oliver! (Leeds Playhouse), The Little Big Things (Soho Place), The Red Shoes, The Magicians Elephant (RSC), Grania (Abbey Theatre Dublin), La Cage aux Folles, 101 Dalmatians (Regent’s Park), 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), The Hypochondriac, Twelfth Night, Betrayal (Sheffield Crucible), All’s Well That Ends Well and Antony And Cleopatra (both The Globe), Beautiful Thing (West End and UK Tour).
Ballet credits include: Macbeth (National Ballet of Japan), 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).
Previous television and film credits include: Doctor Who (BBC), Old Friends and Other Days (NI Opera and Causeway Pictures).
Follow Colin on social media:
www.colinrichmond.com | Instagram – @colinrichmonddesigner
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 designs include: Clueless (Trafalgar Theatre), The Wizard of Oz (London Palladium), 42nd Street (Sadlers Wells), The Great British Bakeoff Musical (Noel Coward), Grease (Dominion), The Drifters Girl (Garrick), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (London Palladium), Heathers (Soho Place, Theatre Royal Haymarket), Young Frankenstein (Garrick), Inala (Peacock), Annie (Piccadilly), Robin Hood, Peter Pan, Jack & the Beanstalk, 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) and Dancing in the Streets (Cambridge).
Regional and UK tours include: The Merry Widow (Glyndebourne Opera), Beautiful, What the Butler Saw (Curve/Theatre Royal Bath), The Great British Bakeoff Musical (Cheltenham), Sunset Boulevard, The Color Purple At Home (Streamed from Curve), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Shrek, 42nd Street, Annie, Heathers, 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, Before the Party (Salisbury Playhouse), Billy Elliot, My Beautiful Laundrette, An Officer and a Gentleman, Sunset Boulevard, Beautiful Thing (Curve/UK tour), The Importance of Being Earnest (Birmingham Rep), Kiss Me Kate (WNO/Opera North), Saturday Night Fever (Theatre Royal, Bath/UK tour), The Tempest, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, 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) and Merrily We Roll Along (Theatre Clwyd).
International credits include: Wicked (Teatro Santander, Sao Paulo), Abenteuerland (Capitol Theatre, Dusseldorf), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (Toronto and Australian National Tour), We Will Rock You (Manila & World Tour), Chess (Tokyo & Osaka), La Clemenza di Tito (Opéra de Lausanne / Bilbao Opera), Romeo und Julia (Theater Trier), 42nd Street, Annie, Chess (Toronto), The Picture of Dorian Grey, The Life, Strangers On A Train, Sweet Charity, 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 credits include: The Prince’s Trust Awards (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), The Classic Brit Awards (Royal Albert Hall), The Olivier Awards 2011-2024 (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).
@ben.cracknell.lighting
Theatre includes: Disney’s Hercules (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Evita (London Palladium); Kinky Boots (UK Tour); Oliver! (Gielgud/Chichester Festival Theatre); Sunset Boulevard (Savoy/Broadway); Here & Now (Birmingham Alex); Muriel’s Wedding, My Fair Lady, Evita, Billy Elliot (Leicester Curve); The Lord of the Rings (International); Your Lie In April (Harold Pinter); Kiss Me Kate (Barbican); Bhangra Nation (Birmingham Rep); The Wizard of Oz (London Palladium/Leicester Curve/UK Tour); Lizzie The Musical (Hope Mill/UK Tour); The Last Five Years (Garrick/Southwark Playhouse); The Phantom of the Opera (International); Our Man in Havana (Watermill); Into the Woods (Theatre Royal Bath); Cinderella (Hope Mill); The View Upstairs, Soho Cinders (Soho).
For his work on Sunset Boulevard, Adam received the Olivier Award 2024 for Best Sound Design as well as a Tony Nomination 2025 for Best Sound Design of a Musical.
He produced and mixed the cast recordings of After You, Henrietta the Musical and Sunset Blvd: The Album.
