Original Cast

The Phantom of the Opera is Michael Crawford’s fourth major West End musical, after Barnum, Billyand Flowers for Algernon.

Michael Crawford was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire and began his professional career as a boy soprano in Benjamin Britten’s Let’s Make An Opera. There followed television and some 500 radio broadcasts and he was hailed in the 60s for his portrayal of ‘Byron’ in the popular television programme Not So Much A Programme, More A Way Of Life. This was followed by playing Colin in The Knack which won the Best Film Award at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival. On his return to England from filming A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, he was greeted with the Variety Club’s Award for the ‘Most Promising Actor’ for that year for Not So Much A Programme and as ‘Best Newcomer’ for his performance in The Knack in the Film Academy Awards. This was followed by more television work and the films The Jokers co-starring with Oliver Reed and Harry Andrews, How I Won The War with John Lennon, The Games, Hello And Goodbye, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (as the White Rabbit).

He first appeared on Broadway in 1967 with Black Comedy for which he won the Theatre Award for the ‘Most Out- standing Performance’ of that year. It was during this run that Gene Kelly chose him to co-star with Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau in Hello Dolly! His return to the British stage in No Sex Please, We’re British was followed by the BBC’S most popular television series, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.

During this same year, 1974, the TV Times readers voted Michael ‘Funniest Man on Television’, the Sun newspaper The Television Actor of the Year’; he was also awarded the Silver Rat Award as ‘Showbusiness Personality of the Year’ by the Water Rats and the Silver Heart by the Variety Club for his performance in Billy. In 1978 he played in Same Time Next Year at the Prince of Wales Theatre, followed by a new series of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em for which he received the funniest Man on Television’ award for 1978 from the BBC. He appeared in the opening plays of the 1978 Play For Today season in a double bill, Private View and Audience, followed by the hit comedy series Chalk and Cheese for Thames Television.

He went to Hollywood last year to play a star ‘ role in Walt Disney’s Condorman.  

For Barnum at the London Palladium he received the Society of West End Theatre Award as ‘Best Actor in a Musical’.

Sarah Brightman was born in 1960. Her   theatrical debut was at the age of thirteen in I and Albert at the Piccadilly Theatre. Subsequently she joined Hot Gossip, steering them to the top of the charts with her record “I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper”.  In 1981 she played in Cats as a member of the original cast. In 1982 she premiered Charles Strouse’s opera for children Nightingale at the Buxton Festival. She repeated the role of Nightingale in London at the  Lyric Hammersmith. Subsequently she appeared in The Pirates of Penzance at Drury Lane and performed Song and Dancefor BBC-TV. In 1985 she premiered Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem in New York and London for which she was cited as ‘Best New Classical Artist’ in the Grammy Awards; played the role of Valencienne in The Merry Widow for the New Sadler’s Wells Opera, and performed a tribute to Jessie Mathews in the 1985 Royal Variety Performance.

In May 1986 she premiered Kenneth Macmillan’s choreographed version of Requiem for the American Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

She has just completed a recording of folk songs by Benjamin Britten for the HMV Angel label.

A native Arkansan but ‘naturalized’ Texan at heart, Steve Barton started his theatrical career at the age of 14 playing the role of Barnaby Tucker in a community theatre production of Hello Dolly! As a multi- scholarship recipient of The University of Texas at Austin Department of Drama,   where he studied with such notables as R. Iden Payne, Igor Youskevitch, and Francis Hodge, he appeared in over thirty productions in roles such as the Bastard in King John, Prince Henri de Conde in The Devils, Nick in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  Leading Man in Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and MacHeath in The Threepenny Opera, among others.

A leading member of Ballet Austin for three seasons, he created roles in Eugene Slavin’s Shadowland, dancing opposite his soon-to-become wife, Denny Berry, Helios, Cherkeska, Youskevitch’s La Fille Mal Gardee,  and Classical Symphony. Engaged as a soloist at Stadttheater St. Gallen, Switzerland where he later served as Assistant de Ballettmeisters, he choreographed productions such as Der Goldene Hahn and Die Drei Musketiere, and danced leading roles in Ronald Ashton’s Harlekin, Streifzuege, and Beethoven Concerto.

At Stadttheater Bern, under the direction of Wolfgang Zoener, he was seen as Gabey in On The Town,  Riff in West Side Story, Jesus in Godspell, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, and E1 Gallo in The Fantasticks. As a visiting guest artist, he played Curly in Oklahoma for William Hammerstein in Berlin, Riff in West Side Story for the Bregenzer Festspiele and the Volksoper Wien, Peter and Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar for Theater an der Wien in Vienna, and Magaldi in the Harold Prince production of Evita at the Deutsches Theater in Munich.

He has directed and choreographed Guys and Dolls for the Hildesheimer Stadttheater, and choreographed West Side Story for the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern and the ballet Zergliederung Einer Frau for the Stadttheater Bern. He has been seen in the European Premiere productions of Camelotplaying Lancelot at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, La Cage Aux Folles, playing Munkustrap in Cats and serving as Dance Captain for Gillian Lynne at Theater an der Wien in Vienna. For Helmut Baumann and Juerg Burth at Theater des Westens Berlin he appeared in their productions of Guys and Dolls, Jesus Christ Superstar the Kurt Weill Revue, and most recently, Company. Numerous television appearances include Die Verflixte Sieben with Rudi Carrell, Der Grosse Preis and Mein Haus with Angelika Milster for West   Deutscher Rundfunk. For Polydor he has recorded the Original German Cast Album of Cats and the titles Alles,  Ich Will Heut’ Nacht and We’ve Got Tonight with Angelika Milster.

The Phantom of the Opera marks Steve Barton’s West End debut.

John Savident’s work in the theatre includes seasons at Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh Festival, Bristol, Birmingham and Chichester.

He appeared in the British premiere of Sweet Bird Of Youth. His many roles include Shylock in The Merchant Of Venice (Far East tour), The Government Inspector (Sheffield Crucible), Clifford William’s production of She Stoops To Conquer (tour), The Card (Queens), The Portage To San Cristobal of A.P.H. (Mermaid), See How They Run (tour), and The Beggars Opera (tour).

For Prospect at The Old Vic:- Ivanov, The Lady’s Not For Burning, Twelfth Night, The Trial Of Queen Caroline.

For The National Theatre at The Old Vic:- Trelawney Of The Wells, Royal Hunt Of The Sun, Armstrong’s Last Goodnight.

National Theatre on the South Bank: – The Beggar’s Opera, Jean Seberg, Saint Joan, Mandragola, Animal Farm, A Little Hotel On The Side, Coriolanus, Mrs. Warren’s Profession and his one-man show Jerome K. Jerome. He appeared at Windsor Castle, before Her Majesty the Queen, in a special performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice musical Cricket.

T.V. appearances includes:- The Professionals, Two’s Company, The Chinese Detective, Clapperclaw, Woodhouse Playhouse, Blake’s Seven, Juliet Bravo, Moving Pictures, The Various Ends of Mrs. F.’s Friends, The Mystery Of The Missing Schoolgirls, Yes, Minister, The Cleopatras, Jane In The Desert, This Office Life, The Bill, Stranger Than Fiction, Fresh Fields, Never The Twain, Chance ln A Million, David Copperfield, Pyrates and The
Marlowe Inquest.

Films include:- Clockwork Orange, Before Winter Comes, Trial By Combat, The Wicked Lady and Little Dorrit.

He collects theatrical memorabilia.

David Firth read English at Sussex University and studied singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He started his professional career with the RSC and spent three seasons with them playing in Stratford, London, the USA and Europe. In 1970 in his first musical 1776 at the Albery Theatre he was nominated Most Promising Actor in the Plays and Players Awards of that year for his performance as the Courier. This was followed by spells of rep in Leicester and Coventry, where amongst other roles he played Orlando and Mercutio.

He joined the National Theatre in 1973 and parts there included Yasha in Michael Blakemore’s production of The Cherry Orchard and Lucio in Measure For Measure, directed by Jonathan Miller. A year at the Queens Theatre followed playing Attilio in Zefferelli’s production of Saturday Sunday Monday. After the Trevor Griffiths play AIl Good Men at the Young Vic, he was in the Jonathan Miller Shakespeare season at Greenwich, playing Parolles in Alls Well and repeating his Lucio in Measure. He has twice played Nicholas Nickleby in the Sherrill/Brahms Nickleby and Me at Stratford East and Chichester and spent a year in Side By Side By Sondheim at the Wyndhams and The Garrick.

Other musicals have included, Gigi at Leicester Haymarket Wonderland at the Kings Head and the revues Happy as a Sandbag (Leicester) and Betjemania which played for a season in New York. He spent a season with the Old Vic Company playing in the double bill Padlock and Miss In Her Teensand played Tasman in the Charles Marowitz version of Hedda Gabler at The Roundhouse.

Other West End appearances have been in The Chairman at the Globe in 1976 and the Jonathan Miller Hamlet at the Warehouse and The Piccadilly in 1982. In 1983 he twice appeared at the Adelphi: as Arthur Miller in Marilyn and Jack idle in Poppy. His next West End appearance was as Algy in the benignly disastrous musical version of The Importance Of Being Ernest which made a brief visit to the Ambassadors Theatre.

He has recently appeared in both of the highly successful adaptations of Gilbert and Sullivan by Ned Sherrin and Alistair Beaton on the South Bank; The Ratepayers Iolanthe transferring for a season to the Phoenix Theatre.

He has made numerous television appearances in productions as diverse as Troilus and Cressida to Yes Minster. He is currently to be seen in the LWT series Drummonds. He also writes for Television, but last year completed his first stage musical, with John Owen Edwards, Canary Blunt which played two successful seasons at the Latchmore Theatre, with an album shortly to be released on TEM records.

Rosemary studied at The Royal Academy of Music and the London Opera Centre. She appeared in Pantomime at The Player’s Theatre and in the London production of The Magic Flute. She sang the role of Marie Regnault in Taverner’s Thevese at Covent Garden and played Despina in Cosi Fan Tuttefor Sir Geraint Evans’ Masterclass on BBC TV 2. She played Cunegonde in Bernstein’s Candide at the 1981 Edinburgh Festival and then at The Birmingham Repertory Theatre. This was followed by Nickleby And Me at The Chichester Festival Theatre and Side By Side By Sondheim at the Manchester Library Theatre. She went back to New York to sing in the English musical Pudding Lane. She toured Wales singing for the Welsh National Opera in Dear Ivor, a show about the life and works of Ivor Novello. She played Janet in The Rocky Horror Show at The Nottingham Playhouse and returned there to play Maria in West Side Story.

On BBC 2 she appeared in Jonathan Miller’s production of The Beggar’s Opera and is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio’s Friday Night Is Music Night, Among Your Souvenirs, Melodies For Youand others. At The Wexford Festival she played Marionetta in Wolf-Ferrari’s opera The Cunning Widow. At the Theatre Royal, Nottingham she appeared in The Gondoliers and played Hortense in The Boyfriend at Bromley followed by Manchester, Toronto, The Old Vic and Albery Theatre in the West End. In 1985 she appeared in Arabella and Akhnaton at The Coliseum, London.

In the Autumn of 1985 she played Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte for BBC TV directed again by Jonathan Miller and Princess Yum-Yum in The Metropolitan Mikado for Ned Sherrin at The Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank. She recently played Nell Gwynne in a Channel 4 film, starring Timothy West as the diarist John Evlyn.

John Aron began his professional career as a singer and dancer on Australian Television. He then joined the Australian Opera to play Alfredo in Die Fledermaus and remained with the company for five years, during which time he sang more than twenty roles.

On arriving in the United Kingdom he worked with Scottish Opera and then toured in Three lvor Novello revivals: Glamorous Night, Perchance To Dream and Kings Rhapsody. Other musicals include Waltz Dream, Pickwick and The King And I. In the West End John has appeared in Cole, Thomas And The King (at Her Majesty’s), Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Call Me Madam. He created the role of Pirelli in Hal Prince’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd at Drury Lane and was most recently seen in Gigi at the Lyric. John is still very much in demand in his native Australia and has just returned from there where he appeared in productions of Carmen and La Belle Helene with the Queensland Lyric Opera.

David was born in Glasgow and was educated in Watford. He then went to study at the Royal College of Music where he won several prizes and awards. After leaving college David toured extensively including Holland and Switzerland where he was a member of the Zurich Opera Factory.

Upon returning to England David joined The New Sadler’s Wells Opera appearing in Count Of Luxembourg and Grand Duchess Of Gerolstein. David has appeared in a number of musicals including Perchance To Dream at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter and The Dancing Years at The Wolsey Theatre, lpswich.

David’s recent West End appearances include Look to The Rainbow at the Apollo Theatre and Gigi at the Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. He has also provided off- stage vocals for both Cats and Starlight Express. He is very much in demand as a concert performer and has appeared with the Melachrino Strings and Orchestra as their guest soloist on a number of occasions.

Janet trained at Bush Davies School where she obtained Gold Medallist LAMDA Drama Award and Hons. Advanced tap which stood her in good stead for the engagement she had before joining Phantom of the Opera which was 42nd Street at Drury Lane. She also has played Ann in Half a Sixpence and appeared in many ballets with the Genee Ballet Co, including Gretel in Hansel and Gretel. Janet appeared in the Nik Kershaw video Dancing Girls and A Proper Little Nooryeff(Dewdrop) for Central Television.

David Jackson was born in Liverpool and trained at Lamda. He began his career at The Old Vic and was in rep, at Ipswich, Farnham, Chesterfield, Liverpool and Manchester.

David’s first West End appearance was as P.C. Nash in Sound of Murder at the Aldwych. Recently he has played Lazat Wolf in Fiddler on the Roof at the Apollo, Victoria, David Jackson has appeared in numerous television shows and might be best known as D.C. Braithwaite in Z Cars or as Gan in Blake’s 7. David’s favourite film role was Danny Moran in Breakout.

James Paterson has a B.A. in Textile Design and taught An before joining Scottish Opera in 1974. His roles for Scottish Opera include Papageno, Beckmesser, Ping, The Count in Cappriccio, Demetrius, Starveling, Tarquinius, Benoit and Alcindoro, Fiorello, Cascada, Motel and Zoltan Karpathy.

He designed The Marriage Of Figaro for Perth Festival ’86, has directed excerpts of Don Giovanni and Don Pasquale for the RSAMD Opera Course and played Leporelio for Opera ’80 in the 1985/86 tour.

Andrew Golder was born in Devon and studied at the Royal College of Music with Redvers Llewellyn, Alisdair Grahame and Gordon Stewart. He won an Edward Heath Scholarship in 1978 for further study. His performances included Carmina Burana by Carl Orff and Britten’s War Requiem. He was selected for Master Classes with Dame Janet Baker and with Sir Geraint Evans. At the very beginning of his professional career he sang the Five Mysticasl Songs by Vaughan Williams, at St. John’s, Smith Square, and created the role of David in the world premiere of Alan Detweiler’s opera King Saul. Andrew was the baritone soloist for Ballet Rambert on their 1979 tour of The Tempest, music by Ame Nordheim, choreographed by Glen Tetley, and has worked in the UK and abroad with the English Bach Festival and the Ambrosian Singers. He has performed a varied repertoire of oratorio with major choral societies.

Andrew Golder’s versatility is displayed through his extensive work in London’s West End, where he has performed roles in Sonclheim’s Sweeney Todd and Joseph Papp’s Pirates of Penzance, both at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He records in the studio for television, radio and film sound and with Sudden Singers, his vocal ensemble, makes radio commercials. He has been invited to Scandinavia to record a programme of Sondheim songs for radio. Recently there has been a period of study of operatic roles at the Royal Opera House with Raimund Herincx.

Recent appearances have been at Chichester and Petworth Festivals and a Purcell Room recital in January 1986 re- viewed favourably in The Times. Andrew Golder particularly   enjoys English Song and contemporary scores to which he is well suited with his high-ranging baritone. Future engagements include a Wigmore Hall recital in 1987/8.

Janet Howd began her career in opera singing for the Northern Sinfonia’s Opera ln Miniature series and has since sung roles as diverse as Constanza in Mozart’s II Seraglo; Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte; The Governess in Britten’s The Turn Of The Screw;  Erisbe in Cavalli’s L’Ormundo;  and Betsy in Kurt Weil’s Das Kleine Mahoganny.

For South West Music Theatre she created the role of The Countess in the Causley/McNeff ballad-opera Aucassin And Nicolette on tour at The King’s Head and for Radio 4.  Janet is often heard in drama on Radio 4 and recently devised and recorded Love’s Old Sweet Song, a series on the Edwardian ballad.  Janet has performed in repertory theatre productions around the country receiving critical acclaim for her role as Grassini, Napoleon’s favourite chanteuse, in The Northcott Theatre production of The Dynasts by Thomas Hardy. For Nottingham Playhouse she has performed as Mrs Anderssen in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music; Mary Ellis in Deav Ivor;  and a very unusual Inez in The Gondoliers.

She has recently recorded The Pleasure Gardens Of England for the Cornel Music Group and as an accomplished recitalist often delights audiences with her dramatised programme From Gluck To Gershwin and her programmes of Lieder in translation – the translations used being her own. Last year Janet founded The International Symposium of Concert Song and hopes to be able to find time and resources to repeat this successful venture in 1988.

Peggy spent many years as Principal Mezzo with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company,  singing the roles of Iolanthe, PittiSing, Phoebe. Tess, Mad Margaret, Lady Angels. etc., in the Gilbert & Sullivan operas, playing all over Britain and Denmark and six tours of America and Canada.

Television credits include guest artiste on the Mantovani Show Of The Week,  roles in The Sweeney, Mitch, Hazel, Bless Me Father several episodes of Grange Hill. TV plays include Aubrey Beardsley, Billy.

Films include No Longer Alone, The Mikado, Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother. Roles in West End musicals in Dad’s Army, Evita, Liza of Lambeth,    The Point by Harry Nilsson, Beethoven’s Tenth with Peter Ustinov, and Oliver! in lpswich. Peggy has made many training films, and over 30 television commercials for this country, and several Holland, for anything from cat food to kitchen carpets.   Peggy lives in a 300 year old cottage in Hertfordshire, with husband Roy, two dogs, and an aviary containing 100 birds (at the last count).

Trained at Arts Educational during which time she appeared with the Festival Ballet in the Nutcracker and later danced at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and at the Aldeburgh Festival in Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice. She studied singing at the Guildhall School of Music with Marret Lensky and then at the Royal College of Music with Marion Studholme where she obtained her diploma in singing and singing-teaching and was also awarded several prizes.

Patricia Richards was born in Cleveland Ohio. She began studying the piano at age six. She received her Bachelor of Music from the College of Wooster in Ohio. For some reason she then worked as a systems analyst for Ohio Bell Telephone. After Ma Bell came two years as an announcer and producer for WCLV-FM (Cleveland) a sort of American version of Radio 3 with commercials, of course. She then went back to making music, rather than ‘playing it’. and studies for her Master’s degree at Castman School of Music in Rochester, New York during which time she won the Metropolitan Opera District Auditions. In 1974 came a Francis Toye Scholarship to study at the Opera School at the Royal College of Music. She joined Glyndebourne Festival Opera as a chorister and understudy in 1976. After three seasons there, interspersed with various recitals and concerts the muse abandoned her for a while and she became personal secretary to an international tax consultant who liked music enough to overlook a less than thorough grounding in shorthand.

A chance meeting with the captain at a cricket match on Ham Common led to marriage and children. In 1985 Patty took up nowhere near she left off and joined the company of David Merrick’s 42nd Street at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Her hobbies are cartooning and working towards a handicap in golf (a ridiculous game she swore she’d never play).

Jill Washington studied at the Royal Academy of Music. On leaving the Academy Jill joined the D’Oyly Carte and sang the roles of Yum-Yum, Mabel and Rose Maybud from the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire. ln 1983 after studying at the National Opera Studio Jill joined Glyndebourne Festival Opera returning for the 1984 Festival. Other engagements have included Gretel in Hansel and Gretel for Dublin Grand Opera and the Bloomsbury Theatre, Angele in The Count of Luxembourg for New Sadler’s Wells Opera,  Lauretta in Lecoq’s Dr. Miracle at the Camden Festival and the girl in The Emperor of Atlantis at the Imperial War Museum. During the 1985/6 season Jill has sung in productions of The Mikado at the Jerusalem Festival, Novello: A Chance To Dream for Welsh National Opera on tour and Orpheus in the Underworld at Chichester. Television appearances include the highly successful Top C’s and Tiaras for Channel Four.

Born in Leicester and began studying ballet at 12 years of age, Trained at the Rambert School then joined Emma Dance Company, Leicestershire, directed by Gideon Avrahami. In 1981, began working with Spiral, a company based in Liverpool, Toured around Merseyside with pieces by Robert North, Janet Smith and Jane Dudley. A year later she returned to London to join Vienna Festival Ballet for their tour of Nutcracker. After the tour, was invited by Vyvyanne Lorrayne to join her company Ballet lmperiale. Toured America with Paquita, Giselle and Scottish Dances. Also danced in Vyvyanne Lorrayne and Pasi Niemenen’s production of Sleeping Beauty, touring Europe also with Nutcrackerand Swan Lake. In April 1985, went to dance with Bat Dor Dance Company in Tel Aviv. Israel. During the winter of 1985, returned to V.F.B. to dance Odette/Odile in Swan Lake for their European tour.

Lynn Jezzard was born in Ramsgate, Kent and trained at the Arts Educational Schools, Tring and London. She started her professional career in Ballet International, then moving to the Northern Ballet Theatre as a Principal Dancer where she danced many of the leading classical roles including Giselle and Swanhilda in Copelia, also creating the role of Alice in Alice ln Wonderland. Her television appearances include A Chance To Sit Down for BBC television and the major series Bluebell also for the BBC. This is Lynn’s first West End appearance.

Nicola, born 1962 in Kent, started ballet classes at the age of three and trained professionally for two years at the Rambert School of Ballet immediately followed by three years as soloist with the Royal Ballet de Wallonie in Belgium where she performed various roles in many classical ballets such as Les Sylphides and Coppelia.  On returning to London she has appeared in several videos and television programmes including ITV’s recent production of Fire and Ice with Torville and Dean. Last year she also appeared in On Your Toes at the Palace Theatre.

Patricia was born in London and at the age of 16 was principal dancer with the Glyndebourne Opera, after which she appeared as Fairy Godmother at the London Palladium. She then joined the Royal Danish Ballet for two years returning to become a member of London Festival Ballet as a senior soloist and then transferring to The Scottish Ballet as a senior principal. Patricia has danced most of the leading roles in the classical repertoire including Odette/Odile in Swan Lake and the title role inGiselle. She made the transition into commercial theatre as the Ballet Leader in the musical On Your Toes where she also understudied Natalie Makarova in the leading role.

Naomi Tate, (nee Sorkin), one of America’s leading classical and dramatic dancers, began her career at the age of fourteen. Her father, Leonard Sorkin, the distinguished violinist, was the creator of the Chicago-based Fine Arts String Quartet.

Still in her early teens she was invited to join The American Ballet Theatre, distinguishing herself as one of their leading soloists, performing worldwide. Naomi left the American Ballet Theatre to star in The Eliot Feld Ballet. She has performed her own solo concert in Chicago. New York, London and Munich. She danced in the debut season of the New World Ballet receiving critical acclaim in the American premiere of Lyn Seymour’s Rashomom. Naomi’s collaboration with Lyn Seymour led her to recommend Naomi to Lindsay Kemp. Subsequently she created the role of Ballerina for Naomi in his Nijinsky, which toured Italy and was performed at Sadler’s Wells. Following these performances, Naomi starred in Joseph Papp’s production Swan Lake Minnesota which premiered at the National Film Theatre in 1986. Naomi recently made her acting debut in the American play Never Never Landin London. She is married to English actor Peter Tate.

Born in Tunbridge Wells where she started dancing at an early age with Dorothy Comber. At the age of 10 she went away to Elmhurst Ballet School where she trained for six years and at 15 was awarded the Adelaide Genee silver medal. Danced with the National Ballet of Portugal for one year before joining the London City Ballet where she has danced as a soloist for six years. touring around Britain, Europe and Scandinavia.

Dinah Jones trained at the Arts Educational School prior to joining the Ballet International company. When the company disbanded a year later she went to the Scottish Opera to dance in The Seraglioand The Bartered Bride, and to tour Scotland in a dance educational programme. Returning to London she appeared in several other operas at the Royal Opera House before joining London City Ballet. Extending her career into the musical theatre she began with a tour and West End season of Oklahoma! when she played the role of The Child. Since then she has worked in a variety of TV and films including ‘Allo, ‘Allo, Illusions and The Magic of Dance. Last year she was in the hit musical On Your Toes.