Phil Willmott - Director

Phil Willmott is a multi-award winning director, artistic director, playwright, composer, librettist, teacher, dramaturg, arts journalist… and occasional actor.

He is the most commissioned musical Theatre writer/composer in the UK and Britain’s foremost director of Greek drama, especially the plays of Euripides.

He has worked in theatres across the world on everything from the classics, musicals and family shows to cabaret and cutting edge new writing.

AWARDS

He is a recipient of a TMA Award for outstanding direction of a musical, a Peter Brook Award for his out door classical productions and family shows, whatsonstage award nominations for best regional and Off West End productions, a broadwayworld nomination for Best Musical in the UK, a Brooks Atkinson/Royal Court award in New York for playwriting and four Spirit of Broadway awards.

POSITIONS

He is founding Artistic Director of his own multi-award winning theatre company THE STEAM INDUSTRY incorporating The Finborough Theatre (under the Artistic Directorship of Neil NcPherson) and the London's annual Free Theatre Festival at the open-air "Scoop" amphitheatre on the South Bank He was an Associate Artist of London's acclaimed B.A.C (Battersea Arts Centre) for ten years. He is a former Associate Director of the YVONNE ARNAUD THEATRE in Guildford and THE KING'S HEAD THEATRE, London's senior Off West End venue, He headed graduate writer/director training at London's ARTS EDUCATIONAL SCHOOL where he has also been co-director of the U.K’s leading degree course in Musical Theatre and it's Head of Acting.

LONDON THEATRE DIRECTING

In the West End he directed the tenth anniversary cast of Fame (The Aldwych Theatre) Treasure Island (The Mermaid Theatre) Fucking Men, Naked Boys Singing 2009 and Nunsense (The Arts Theatre) Dirty White Boy and Falling Stars (Trafalgar Studios) The Love Thing (Leicester Square Theatre) A Midsummer Nights Dream ( Dubai) Once Upon a Time in Atlantic City (U.S.) Blowing Whistles (Croydon Warehouse Theatre and Sound Theatre, Leicester Square) You Don't Kiss (Stratford Circus) The DVD recording of rock musical Poe at the Abbey Road Studios and Liberace’s Suit and I Love You You’re Perfect, Now Change (Jermyn Street)

For his own company, The Steam Industry, award winning productions of new writing have included The Fundraisers, Fucking Men, Watch Out for Mr Stork, Venetian Heat, Born Bad and The Oedipus Table, and classics such as The Note Book of Trigorin (Tennessee William’s adaptation of The Seagull) Crime and Punishment, The Grapes of Wrath, Trelawny of the “Wells” , Loyalties and Country Magic – adapted from Pinero’s The Enchanted Cottage (all at the Finborough Theatre) and Don Juan in Love, Toad Hall, Medea, Blood Wedding, Helen of Troy, Jason and the Argonauts, Disney's Jungle Book, Petite Rouge, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Cyclops, Children of Hercules, Treasure Island, Oedipus, Agamemnon, Androcles and the Lion, and The London Nativity at the Scoop.

His other notable Steam Industry productions include Joe DiPietro’s play Fucking Men which moved from the Finborough Theatre for a box office record breaking run Off West End at The Kings Head before transferring to the West End for a successful limited run at the Arts Theatre and subsequent season at the Lowery Theatre in Manchester, Victor/Victoria, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (The Bridewell), Measure for Measure (Riverside Studios). Ring Round the Moon (King’s Head), The Winter's Tale (The Courtyard Theatre) Titus Andronicus, Germaine Greer’s Lysistrata, Murdered Sleep, Inherit the Wind, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers , The Sound of Music, The King and I, Calamity Jane and Sweet Charity (all at BAC where he was an associate artist) South Pacific, Joe Orton's Funeral Games and his own musical Dick Daredevil and play Venom (The Drill Hall) Joe Orton's Crimes of Passion and his own plays Stealing the Scene, Succulence and Mermaid Sandwich and radical Shakespeare adaptations: The Wax King (from Henry VI parts 1, 2 & 3 ) Iago (from Othello) and Illyria (from Twelfth Night) at The Man in The Moon.

REGIONAL THEATRE DIRECTING

For Liverpool's Everyman and Playhouse theatres he has directed Much Ado About Nothing, Billy Liar, Athol Fugard's Master Harold and the boys & his own musicals Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi (Commissioned as a centre piece to Liverpool’s year as European City of Culture. Winner: TMA Award “outstanding production of a musical” Whatsonestage award nomination “best Regional Production”) & Around the World in Eighty Days (Liverpool Playhouse, UK tour and German tour).

Elsewhere regionally he has directed Rent (Olympia, Dublin) Pal Joey (The New Woolsey Theatre, Ipswich & Nottingham Playhouse) Beautiful and Damned (The Yvonne Arnauld Theatre, Guildford) Angels in America and Kiss of the Spider Woman (Sheffield Crucible)

FAMILY SHOWS

Pantomime includes two productions of Leslie Joseph in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Richmond Theatre and Theatre Royal, Newcastle for Kudos) Sleeping Beauty (Greenwich Theatre) His own versions of Snow White starring Toyah Wilcox, Richard O'Brian, Warwick Davies and Suzanne Shaw (Milton Keynes Theatre for Ambassador's Theatre Group) Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin and Puss in Boots (The Corn Exchange, Newbury) and Dick Whittington for Oxford Playhouse.

CABARET, CONCERT AND EVENT DIRECTING

He has directed cabaret and concert tours of Four Poofs and A Piano , Nonsense - Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen’s collaboration with composer Colin Riley (The Royal Festival Hall) and he devised and directed Ugly Bugs Ball with the BBC Big Band for the Olympic Launch. His community play Don Juan in Kingston launched the Rose Theatre in Kingston with a cast of nearly 200, he has directed on board entertainment for Swan Hellenic's Minerva Cruise Ships and staged The London International Film Awards. In

TEACHING AND NEW WRITING DEVELOPMENT

He has led new writing development projects at Soho Theatre and The National Theatre Studio, lectured at Goldsmith's College, RADA and the Brit School and directed students in The Seven Ages of Sondheim, Nicholas Nickleby, Petite Rouge, Sherlock Holmes - The Early Years and Jesus Christ Superstar (Arts Ed) Romeo and Juliet (Central School of Speech and Drama) Dear Anyone (Guildford Conservatoire) Napoli Millionaria, Three Men on a Horse and Backstage (Rose Bruford) The Taming of the Shrew, Howard Barker’s The Possibilities and First Love (The Court Training Company)

PLAYWRITING, COMPOSITION AND JOURNALISM

Published and widely performed musicals include the multi-award winning Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi (and the American version Once Upon a Time in Atlantic City – recipient of four Spirit of Broadway Awards including Best Score and Best Lyrics) The Dick Barton Special Agent trilogy, Around the World in Eighty Days, Uncle Ebenezer- A Christmas Carol, Femme Fatale, Stupid Cupid (Gay Sweatshop) & Treasure Island

Plays including Venom (off West End at The Drill Hall), Stealing the Scene & Mermaid Sandwich (both London Fringe and BBC R4) Succulence (The Royal Court in New York), The Trouble with Listening (Soho Theatre Company).

Adaptations include Lysistrata, with Germaine Greer (BAC) Monk Lewis’s The Castle Spectre (Croydon Warehouse) Gorky’s The Lower Depths (The Finborough) Treasure Island, Euripides The Cyclops, Euripides Helen of Troy and The London Nativity - adapted from the Medieval Mystery texts (The Scoop) and The Master’s Boy (A gay appropriation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie)


Past Directing Credits include -

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui – The Bridewell
"Phil Willmott proves why he is one of the most versatile, best and amazingly prolific directors around with this revival. He makes better stage pictures than almost anyone around” THE GUARDIAN

The Adventures of Jason and the Argonauts - Open Air on the South Bank
“A rambunctious family musical.. a romp through mythology” THE TIMES

Angels in America - Sheffield Crucible
“A tough, moving, harrowing production” John Peter SUNDAY TIMES

Around the World in Eighty Days - Liverpool Playhouse and national tour
“Irresistibly Amusing. Tunes by the writer-director echo the style of Old Broadway”. INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Androcles and the Lion -
“Attention grabbing family entertainment. Unforgettable” TIME OUT

Agamemnon - Open Air on the South Bank
“Intensely powerful" THE TIMES

BAC Christmas shows 1995 to 2000 – BAC
Willmott is as talented and resourceful as he is ambitious." TIME OUT

Billy Liar – Liverpool Playhouse
“A triumph” THE GUARDIAN

The Caucasian Chalk Circle - Open Air on the South Bank
“Absolutely Fantastic” – THE TIMES

Country Magic (adapted from Pinero’s The Enchanted Cottage)
“The latest of this excellent theatre's periodic revivals of lost plays” - THE TIMES

Crime and Punishment - The Finborough
“Rodney Ackland's classic 1946 adaptation of Dostoyevsky's dark epic, has not been staged in over 50 years. Director Phil Willmott conjures up a St Petersburg fraught with tension” THE EVENING STANDARD

Cyclops! - Open Air on the South Bank
“Very Funny” - METRO

Fame (10th Anniversary Cast) – Aldwych Theatre, West End.

Fucking Man – The Finborough, Kings Head & Arts Theatre Number One Critics Choice – The Evening Standard

Germaine Greer’s Lysistrata - BAC
“I loved it… fast, broad, silly and profound” INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY.

Kiss of the Spiderman - Sheffield Crucible

The London Nativity 2004 and 2006 - Open Air on the South Bank
“Don’t miss this” – TIME OUT

The Lower Depths- The Finborough
“A serious, stimulating and timely revival” THE INDEPENDENT

Loyalties – The Finborough
“Phil Willmott’s excellent revival” Michael Billington THE GUARDIAN

Liberace’s Suit – Jermyn Street
“Phil Willmott’s masterly production” – DAILY EXPRESS

Master Harold… and the boys - Liverpool Everyman
“Phil Willmott’s outstanding Production” - RADIO MERSEYSIDE

Measure for Measure - The Riverside Studios
"This is nothing less than a production to cherish" EVENING STANDARD

Medea (In a new translation by Stella Dufffy) – Open Air on the South Bank
“Siobhan O’Kelly’s compelling performance” THE STAGE

A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Dubai
CRITICS CHOICE “Yes, Shakespeare really is that good” - TIME OUT

Murdered Sleep (Youth Theatre) - BAC

Much Ado About Nothing - Liverpool Playhouse
9/10 LIVERPOOL ECHO

Naked Boys Singing 2009 – The Arts Theatre
“Funny Moving and Bizarre” British Theatre Guide

Oedipus - Open Air on the South Bank
“A major revival” THE GUARDIAN

Pal Joey - Nottingham Playhouse

Rent – The Olympia Theatre, Dublin

Shakespeare’s Henry VIII – The Bridewell
‘Henry VIII as we’ve never seen it before: pacey, atmospheric and modern with a thrilling edge... A breath of fresh air’ EVENING STANDARD

Titus Andronicus – BAC (commended The Evening Standard Theatre Awards)
“This beautifully acted production has a real eye for the dramatic ironies of this impossible play” THE GUARDIAN

Treasure Island - The Mermaid Theatre

Trelawny of the Wells – The Finborough
A Minor Miracle – THE NEW STATESMAN

Victor Victoria – The Bridewell
Phil Willmott is unequalled as regards intimate musical stagings – FINANCIAL TIMES