Welcome to E&T Season William Robert Allenby Bass-baritone celebrated 40 years on stage in 2020, since his debut as Kurt in 'the Sound of Music' with the Northern Theatre Company, at the Hull New Theatre, in 1980.
His career has taken him around the world in a variety of musical styles from Puccini through to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Rogers and Hammerstein. William was recently awarded Associateship (ARAM) in the Royal Academy of Music 2020 honours list for a significant contribution to the music profession.
William's considerable vocal and comedic talents have taken him to major opera houses in many leading comic and dramatic roles, garnering universal critical acclaim. He has appeared at the Royal Opera Covent Garden, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, and Opera Holland Park, to name but a few.
Following his days as a juvenile lead with the Northern Theatre Company in musicals and variety shows, William's major break-through came when he was engaged as a soloist for BBC Radio 2 in 1989. He has since appeared many times as a star singer on 'Friday Night is Music Night' in a variety of broadcasts of musicals and operetta and in international tours of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' with Westend International.
William has also achieved considerable success in over 400 performances of his extremely popular one-man shows, 'An Enchanted Evening of Song' and 'The Music of the Night' in theatres around the UK and as a headline act aboard many of the luxury cruise lines in the US and Europe.
I worked with Will on Luxury Cruise Liners and we have enjoyed a spot together in my first produced show in a theatre in 2005 when a character of mine named Jilly Pepper bravely duetted with this master of vocals, you can hear this later in this show.
Although Eyes & Teeth is not purely music based, each guest is always linked to Variety in some way and Wills love for the art of Comedy and Variety goes deep and you hear this in his work as well as what he is bringing at Chichester University passing it on to students of Cabaret and Variety. He’s paying it forward, so sit back and enjoy the work of the one and only Will Allenby