Creative Team

Director | Choreographer | Lyrics | Associate Director | Assistant Director | Assistant Choreographer | Lighting Designer | Sound Designer

Harold Prince – Director
Harold Prince has directed and/or produced more than 50 musicals, plays and operas. He has been responsible for some of the greatest theatrical successes of all time, including The Pyjama Game, Damn Yankees, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof and A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum. Mr. Prince directed the premiere productions of Cabaret, Company, Follies, Candide, Pacific Overtures, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Evita, The Phantom Of The Opera and Parade. Among the plays he has directed are The Great God Brown, The Visit, End Of The World, Play Memory and his own play, Grandchild Of Kings. His opera productions have been seen at The Chicago Lyric, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Vienna Staatsoper and the Theater Colon in Buenos Aires. He served as a trustee for the New York Public Library and on the National Council of the Arts of the NEA. Recipient of a National Medal of Arts for the year 2000 from President Clinton for a career spanning more than 40 years, in which "he changed the nature of the American musical." The recipient of twenty Tony Awards, he was a 1994 Kennedy Center Honoree.

Gillian Lynne – Choreographer
Gillian was a leading soloist with Sadler’s Wells Ballet, the star dancer at the Palladium, played opposite Errol Flynn in the movies and danced with all the greats on TV. She became instrumental in the development of jazz dance in Britain and her distinctive style - a fusion of classical and jazz - led to her groundbreaking work on Cats, which was recognised with a new category of Olivier Award, specially created for her to acknowledge Outstanding Achievement of the Year in a Musical. Gillian’s fifty-plus Broadway and West End shows include Tonight at Eight, Once Upon a Time, The Match Girls, Tomfoolery, Jeeves Takes Charge, Cabaret, The Roar of the Greasepaint, Pickwick, How Now Dow Jones, Collages, The Ambassador, The Card, Phil The Fluter, Hans Christian Andersen, The Yeoman of the Guard, My Fair Lady, Songbook, Dick Whittington and The Phantom of the Opera. For the Royal Shakespeare Company: The Boyfriend, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy of Errors, The Way of the World, As You Like It, Once in a Lifetime and The Secret Garden. Gillian’s opera productions include The Trojans, The Midsummer Marriage, The Flying Dutchman, Parsifal and Bluebeard. Among Gillian’s ballets are Lippizaner, The Brontes and Journey for the Bolshoi. On television, Gillian has directed The Various Ends of Mrs F’s Friends, Easy Money, The Look of Love, The Morte d’Arthur, which won the Samuel G Engel Award in America and A Simple Man, which won the 1987 BAFTA. She staged many of The Muppet Shows for ATV and her 11 feature films include Half a Sixpence, Man of La Mancha and Yentl. She was awarded the Austrian Silver Order of Merit for her production of Cats in Vienna, a Moliere award for Cats in Paris and in 2001 she was honoured by the Royal Academy of Dance with the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award. Her latest production is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium. Gillian was awarded the CBE in 1997.

Charles Hart – Lyrics
Charles Hart has been writing music and lyrics professionally since 1986, when he was invited to provide the text for The Phantom of the Opera. With Don Black he provided lyrics for another Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Aspects of Love, in addition to writing the music and lyrics for a number of major television themes. He is the recipient of two Ivor Novello Awards and has twice been nominated for a Tony Award. Richard Stilgoe - Additional lyrics Richard Stilgoe’s cricket career has taken him from Adelaide to Aberdeen. He has taken wickets at 7000 feet on the Equator, and below sea level in Holland. Sadly, England’s blinkered selection policy has prevented him from representing his company in his chosen sport. In his spare time he writes lyrics (Cats, Starlight Express, The Phantom of the Opera) and whole musicals (Bodywork, Brilliant the Dinosaur). He has won the New York Radio Festival gold award, two Monte Carlo prizes and the Prix Italia – a feat unmatched in broadcasting.

Arthur Masella – Associate Director
Arthur Masella has directed Harold Prince’s production of The Phantom of the Opera in Stockholm, Hamburg, Sydney, Amsterdam, Manchester, Basel, Antwerp and Mexico City. He has also directed the musicals Ghostdance, The Music Man, Your Anne, Company and the operas Casanova, Cavalleria Rusticana, Of Mice and Men, I Pagliacci, La Cenerentola, La Bohème, Rappaccini’s Daughter, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Regina and the Sorceror at opera companies throughout the United States. He received his early training with Harold Prince working on a dozen Broadway and Opera productions including Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Evita, Candide, Willy Stark, and Merrily We Roll Along, He has directed a number of plays including Resurrecting Lenin, Custer’s Luck and his future projects include the new musical about Casanova and directing the New York première of a new play entitled Byrd’s Boy. He is the co-founder and has served as Associate Chairman of the Musical Theatre Writing program at NYU Tisch School for the Arts.

Rainer Fried – Assistant Director
Rainer Fried has assisted Arthur Masella in mounting numerous productions of The Phantom of the Opera in Antwerp, Mexico City, Copenhagen, Madrid and Stuttgart. Prior to this he served as the Artistic Director in Germany for Stella’s productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Das Phantom Der Oper (Hamburg) and the Cameron Mackintosh production of Miss Saigon (Stuttgart). Prior to his work for Stella Productions, Rainer served as the Assistant Director for numerous productions at the Ulm Theatre, the renowned Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, and the theatre in Kiel where he also directed numerous productions. As a freelance director, Rainer has directed both musicals and straight plays, including The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum, Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley and Stella by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. His credits also include Little Women, a new musical that he recently directed in London. Rainer travels extensively but lives primarily in London, UK.

Patricia Merrin – Associate Choreographer
Patricia has spent most of her career in classical ballet. She started dancing at the age of four, and had her first job in pantomime at fifteen. At seventeen she played the Fairy Godmother opposite Cliff Richard at the London Palladium. At eighteen she spent two years with The Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, then returned to London to join The London Festival Ballet (English National Ballet). Within a year she was promoted to leading soloist, and danced many soloist and principal roles including: Swanilda in Copelia, Lead girl in Graduation Ball, Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, Zobeide in Scherazade and many more. She then joined The Scottish Ballet as a Leading Principal dancer, dancing most of the leading roles in the classical repertoire including: Swan Lake Giselle, Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. Patricia has also guested with many leading ballet companies. With her love of Musical Theatre she started taking singing lessons and then made the transition into Musical Theatre as the Ballet Leader in the musical ‘On Your Toes’, where she also understudied Natalia Makarova in the leading role. Patricia was an original member of the London cast of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ as dancer, dance- captain, understudy to Madame Giry (acting singing role) and then went on to be assistant choreographer and assistant resident director. She was also the resident director on the UK tour. She is now a freelance choreographer, and has been the associate choreographer on many productions of The Phantom of the Opera worldwide. She also teaches Musical Theatre classes and is an assessor for Trinity College London & Council for Dance Education and Training.

Andrew Bridge – Lighting Designer
Andrew Bridge has won three Tony awards for his lighting designs: Fosse (also Ovations award, Los Angeles); Sunset Boulevard (also Ovations award, Los Angeles) and for The Phantom of the Opera (also Drama Desk and Outer Critics’ awards, New York; Dora Mavor award, Canada, and Los Angeles Critics’ award). The Phantom of the Opera has now been seen in Britain, USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Andrew Bridge’s designs can currently be seen at the Siegfried and Roy spectacular at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas and at Disneyland’s Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in France. Other West End credits include the musicals Sunset Boulevard (and USA and tour, Canada, Australia, Germany); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (and UK tour, USA and tour, Canada, Australia, Germany); Five Guys Named Moe (and USA, Australia, SE. Asia and UK tour); Aspects of Love (and Broadway, Drama Desk award nomination, Canada and Australia); Time; Oliver! (and Broadway); Torvill and Dean (world tour); Billy Bishop goes to War; Tomfoolery; Little Me; Blondel; The Boy Friend; The Hunting of the Snark; Heathcliff and the operas La Bohème, Carmen, Madam Butterfly and Tosca at the Royal Albert Hall, London. He lit the new musical Saturday Night Fever in London (also Broadway and Australia) and Fosse in North America, on Broadway and London. Andrew Bridge has been Lighting Designer for concert artists: Julie Andrews, Shirley Bassey, Bing Crosby and Tommy Steele. In London he was, for twelve years, exclusive lighting consultant for the design company Imagination where he applied his talents to international presentations, industrial theatre and architectural projects. He was responsible for the spectacular floodlighting of the headquarters for Lloyds of London (National Lighting award). Andrew Bridge lives in London with his wife Sue and children Oliver, Alex and Tessa.

Martin Levan – Sound Designer
After 10 years as a recording engineer and record producer, Martin Levan began his theatrical career in 1982 when he supervised the sound for Song & Dance in London. Since then Martin has been responsible for designing the sound for many worldwide productions including Cats, Starlight Express, The Phantom of the Opera, Little Shop of Horrors, Carrie, The Baker’s Wife, The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber concerts, Requiem, Aspects of Love, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Show Boat, Sunset Boulevard, Whistle Down the Wind and Lautrec. Martin’s awards include: the NAACP Theatre award for Best Sound Director for The Phantom of the Opera; LA Drama Critics’ Circle award for Best Sound Design for Sunset Boulevard; the Jessie Richardson Theatre award for Outstanding Design Team Achievement for Show Boat. Martin’s recordings include the original cast albums for many of the above productions including the original Broadway album of Cats, which won him a Grammy award. Martin and his wife Karen live in Buckinghamshire and in Wales where Martin enjoys spending time in his private recording studio.