LOOKING GOOD DEAD STAGE PLAY
The thrilling Roy Grace series from multi-million No.1 best-selling author Peter James returns with the world premiere stage production of Looking Good Dead, starring award-winning actor and EastEnders icon, Adam Woodyatt and star of stage and screen Laurie Brett .
No good deed goes unpunished…hours after picking up a USB memory stick, left behind by another passenger on a train seat, Tom Bryce, (Adam Woodyatt) inadvertently becomes a witness to a vicious murder. Reporting the crime to the police has disastrous consequences, placing him and his family in grave danger. When Detective Superintendent Roy Grace becomes involved, he has his own demons to contend with, while he tries to crack the case in time to save the Bryce family’s lives.
Adapted by award winning writer Shaun McKenna, Looking Good Dead follows the huge stage success of The Perfect Murder and Dead Simple and will keep you on the edge of your seat until the chilling final moments!
Don’t miss your chance to see the world premiere tour of Peter James’ gripping new play.
ADAM WOODYATT As TOM BRYCE
I started acting when I was about nine years old, at first in commercials and then in Oliver! as one of Fagin’s Gang at the Albery Theatre (now Noel Coward). My next role was ‘Ragamuffin” in Tom Stoppard’s On the Razzle at the National Theatre and also on tour in Edinburgh and Bristol.
My first experience of working in television came as ‘Shiner’ in The Baker Street Boys and shortly afterwards ‘Dave Firkettle’ in The Witches and the Grinnygog.
Having left school in the summer of 1984, I went and got a “proper job” – In a Butchers Shop in Mid Wales but it didn’t last long as the phone rang and I was asked to go back down for an audition for a new twice weekly drama, titled ‘East 8’. It was the second time I’d been asked, as previously I couldn’t make it as the train wouldn’t get me there in time. As such I weighed up if I could afford to go – in the form of lost wages and train fares etc… Fortunately for me, I went and got it!!
East 8 became EastEnders and now over 36 years later I have enjoyed many wonderful and different storylines.
In my spare time I enjoy cycling, fishing and cooking – not at the same time obviously.
Thank you for coming to see Looking Good Dead.
LAURIE BRETT As KELLIE BRYCE
Laurie first came to the public’s attention for her iconic role as ‘Jane Beale’ in Eastenders, a role she played on and off for almost thirteen years. She went on to play ‘Christine’ in Waterloo Road, for which she was nominated for a Scottish BAFTA in 2014. More recently she starred opposite David Tennant in Channel 4’s Deadwater Fell as well as in Traces opposite Martin Compston. The series was recently picked up on BBC One. Laurie is currently filming a new regular for the series, Shetland for ITV.
A brilliant stage performer with fantastic vocal range, Laurie has starred in Les Miserable directed by Trevor Nunn and The Rocky Horror Picture Show on the West End as well as a recent turn as as ‘Anita’ in Band of Gold directed by Kay Mellor.
HARRY LONG As ROY GRACE
Theatre includes The Crucible, Blithe Spirit, North and South (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), I’m Not Running (National Theatre), The Big Corner, The Winters Tale, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Secret Garden, An Enemy of the People and The Family Way (Octagon Theatre, Bolton), Private Lives (The New Vic and Octagon Theatre), This Land (Salisbury Playhouse and Pentabus), Holy Mackerel (Eastern Angles), Fatal Attraction (Theatre Royal, Haymarket), The Story Giant, Aisles Apart, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Smugglers (Shanty Theatre), An Inspector Calls (English Theatre, Frankfurt), The Importance of Being Earnest (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Broadway Theatre), The Little Dressmaker (Union Theatre), Hamlet (RSC).
Television includes Casualty, Gentleman Jack, Father Brown, Lark Rise to Candleford, One Summer, The Hunt for Tony Blair (BBC), Captive (Netflix), Doc Martin (ITV).
Film includes Boxing Day (Boxing Day Productions), Gold (Bollywood feature – Eros International), A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life (Forward Motion Pictures).
IAN HOUGHTON As JONAS KENT
Theatre includes The Wider Earth at The Natural History Museum, Armagh/Ambulance Man in the UK tour of This House, Dr. Artinian/Reporter in the UK tour of The Best Man, Edmund Tilney, the Master of Revels, in Hampton Court Palace’s Elizabethan Christmas; one-man show Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus; Mr Xavier in Reserves (Criterion Theatre); God The Father in Back To Eden, Duncan Thompson in Dent (Arcola Theatre), Sergeant Allan/Soldat Manfred in War Horse (New London Theatre), Accrington in This House (Garrick Theatre); Boeing Boeing on tour; The Fastest Clock in the Universe at the Old Red Lion; Unrestless for Old Vic New Voices; What’s Wrong with Angry? at the King’s Head; Moonlight and Magnolias at Hertford Theatre; Woman in Mind and Oliver! at the Gordon Craig Theatre; Decade at Theatre503; Art, Gagarin Way, Journey’s End, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, The Government Inspector, Incorruptible, Absurd Person Singular and Noises Off for The Company of Players; and The Audience and Yes, Prime Minister at the Gielgud.
TV includes Harley and the Davidsons, Eastenders, Mr. Selfridge, Call the Midwife, The Great Outdoors, Waking the Dead, MI High and Moving Wallpaper.
Film includes This Is Not Happening, The Mirror, RocknRolla and Breaking and Entering
LEON STEWART As GLENN BRANSON
Trained at LAMDA.
Theatre includes The House On Cold Hill (National Tour) Nell Gwynn (Shakespeare’s Globe and Tour); Not Moses (Arts Theatre); Catalina (Oval House); Still I Pray (St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Barbican); The Colour of Justice (The National Theatre and Tour); Work Life (Toucan Theatre); Goodnight Desdemona Good Morning Juliet (Toucan Theatre)
Television includes Vera (ITV), Endeavour (ITV), Victoria (ITV), Little Miss Jocelyn (BBC), Proof (RTE), The Bill (ITV), The Colour Of Justice (BBC).
Film includes The Princess Switch 3.
GEMMA STROYAN As BELLA MOY
Gemma is an actress, writer and voice over artist from Edinburgh. She trained at Arts Educational Schools after studying English Literature at the University of Glasgow.
Theatre includes DC Bella Moy/Understudy Cleo in Not Dead Enough (UK Tour), Understudy Ashley Harper in Dead Simple (UK Tour, performed the run of Glasgow), Deviser/performer in the tour of Woven Bones (Cap-a-pie), Emilia in Othello (Riverside Studios, Off West End Nomination for Best Supporting Actress), The Wicked Queen in Snow White (Spillers Pantomimes), Olivia in Twelfth Night (with the London Symphony Orchestra), Rosalind in As You Like It and Mrs Cheveley in An Ideal Husband (with Butterfly Theatre Company).
Screen credits include The Nurse in Repression (Accento Films), Reporter in Taggart (STV), Sciron in Scottish Bafta Winning Last Commanders (CBBC), Lauren in Yo Diary! (CBBC), ‘stand-in’ Claire in the Series 4 Readthrough for Outlander (Starz), Herself in ‘Prey’ Spoken Word – The Social Presents (BBC Scotland), Woman in Slimfast Commercial, Mother in Scottish Power Commercial.
Voice over credits include originating the voice of Sciron in Last Commanders (Series 1 and 2) for CBBC, Female Adventurer in award winning game Divinity: Original Sin 2, Several STV commercials including; STV Weather, Stoats, Visit Blackpool, Flamingoland, Skills Development Scotland, Impact Summit 2021.
Radio includes Visit Scotland, Co-op and Scot Blood.
Writing credits include Prey for BBC The Social and BBC Scotland (2019-2020), The Jam Diaries at Summerhall in Edinburgh with Thrive Theatre (2016), and Gemma is currently developing a new piece of work with director Becky Hope-Palmer, looking at the relatable intricacies of dealing with grief.
She is delighted to be back in the theatre with Looking Good Dead, her third Peter James play on tour.
LUKE WARD-WILKINSON As MAX BRYCE
Luke has been working as an actor from a young age, starting on The Secret of Eel Island aged 10 and going on to play Evan in the first four series of ITV’s Wild at Heart and the lead Simon Doonan on BBC’s Beautiful People playing Olivia Colman’s son.
Theatre includes Ralph in the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre UK Tour of Lord of the Flies, Edward II in Marlowe’s Edward II (Tristan Bates Theatre), King Duncan in Macbeth (Greenwich Theatre), Jangles in Sleeping Beauty (Twickenham Exchange Theatre), Aladdin in Aladdin (Bushy Arena), Cupid in Sleeping Beauty (Royal Opera House).
Film includes Daniel in Limit of the Land, Danny in Love Does Grow on Trees, Robert in Cheerful Weather for the Wedding.
Other television includes Owen Woodward in BBC’s Luther, Alex Kennedy in Doctors, Ensign Beauclere in Sharpe’s Peril.
Luke is also a musician and singer.
MYLO MCDONALD As MICK
Mylo recently graduated from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He is thrilled to be making his professional stage debut in Looking Good Dead.
Theatre includes Adam in How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Phillipe in The Speculator (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Jasper in Function (National Youth Theatre).
NATALIE BOAKYE As JANIE
Theatre includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Show Must Go Online), Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare-Hamlet (Leicester Square Theatre), Delicacy (The Space Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC Dell/Camden Fringe), Lost In Mozart (Edinburgh Fringe Festival/ Tabernacle Theatre), Twelfth Night (Lost Theatre)
Training: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Natalie has recently been filming for a web series, #Honesty.
LEE PECK As UNDERSTUDY
Lee trained at East 15 Acting School on both the 1 Year Foundation and 3 Year Acting Course.
Theatre includes Jack Stapleton in The Hound of The Baskervilles (Illyria – UK Tour); Edward Malone in The Lost World (Illyria – UK Tour); Horatio in Hamlet (The Festival Players – Equity UK/Europe Tour); Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Young Shakespeare Company); Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (Young Shakespeare Company); Malcolm/Angus/3rd Apparition in Macbeth (Classical Radio Drama); Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island (Cambridge Touring Theatre); Dennis in Loot (OSO Arts); Jack in Access All Areas, (Soho Theatre Studio); Westy in The Scour (Cambridge Junction Theatre); Captain Hook in Peter Pan (Chequer Mead Theatre); Abanazar in Aladdin (Corn Hall Theatre, Diss) and The Viscount in Beauty and The Beast (Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham-by-Sea)
Film includes Stephen in Sacrifice (New Wave Motion Pictures); Mike in To Love Somebody (BR Productions); Aaron in Seven Devils (BR Productions); Joey Jackson in Face Value (Frame on Frame).
Lee also owns and plays a 72 bass Accordion. Before training as an actor he achieved a 2nd Dan black belt in Shotokan Karate.
ARMANI WATT As UNDERSTUDY
Armani is from Nottingham and trained at East 15.
This is his first professional theatre job, and he is delighted to be making his stage debut with Josh Andrews Productions.
REBECCA EASTHAM – STANDBY UNDERSTUDY
COLM GLEESON – STANDBY UNDERSTUDY
PETER JAMES – NOVELIST
Named by WHSmith as the ‘best crime author of all time’, Peter James is known for his fast-paced and gripping stories that thrust regular people into extraordinary situations. He has proven himself to be one of the world’s most successful writers, delivering number one bestsellers time and time again. His Superintendent Roy Grace books have been translated into 37 languages with worldwide sales of over 21 million copies with 18 number one Sunday Times Bestsellers, including the latest Roy Grace novel, Left You Dead, which came out in May 2021.
Grace, the adaptation of the Roy Grace novels, premiered on ITV in March 2021 to widespread critical acclaim, and with 8.8m viewers making it instantly one of the most successful TV dramas of 2021. A second series commissioned, which will broadcast in 2022. The series stars John Simm as Roy Grace and Richie Campbell as Glenn Branson. Peter is an executive producer on the series.
Before writing novels full-time, Peter worked as producer and/or writer on over 25 films as well as creating television shows for Channel 4 and ITV. He admits the low point of his film making career was the comedy, Spanish Fly, starring Terry-Thomas and Leslie Phillips, which he co-wrote and produced and was described by the critic, Barry Norman as, “The least funny British funny film ever made”. His high point was the BAFTA-nominated A Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons. Three of his novels, Prophecy, Alchemist and Host have also been filmed for television and ITV television produced the documentary, Babes In The Woods , hosted by Sir Trevor Macdonald ,which was inspired by the non-fiction book of the same title that Peter co-wrote with former Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett.
Whilst still working in the film industry Peter began writing novels, the first of which, Dead Letter Drop, was published in the UK in 1981. he made history when his 11th book, Host, was released on two floppy disks, making it the world’s first electronic novel. There is a copy in the British Science Museum.
Four of Peter James’s stories have previously been adapted into highly successful stage plays:, The Perfect Murder, Dead Simple, Not Dead Enough and The House On Cold Hill – and now Looking Good Dead!
Peter pursues many interests in his relaxation time, including his extensive charity work. A self-confessed “petrol head”, Peter races classic cars at circuits around the country and has been a regular at the Goodwood Revival for several years. His enthusiasm remains undimmed after a surviving a horrendous high speed crash at Brands Hatch in 2013, although his publishers and his fans might prefer he took up a somewhat safer past-time – bowls, perhaps?
In addition to his latest Roy Grace novel, Left You Dead, his latest standalone I Follow You is now out in paperback. He has also recently published a QuickReads novella, Wish You Were Dead, which sees Roy Grace and his family going on the holiday from hell…
SHAUN MCKENNA – STAGE ADAPTOR
Looking Good Dead is the fifth of Shaun’s stage adaptations of a Peter James novel, following The House on Cold Hill, The Perfect Murder, Dead Simple and Not Dead Enough. A sixth is in development.
He is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and lyricist. In 2021 his original thriller Rocky Road was nominated for the new OnComm award, created by the Offies for outstanding theatre work streamed during lockdown. Shaun was one of the core writers on the long running Radio Four series Home Front which won an Outstanding Contribution to Radio Audio Award in 2019. His 2012 stage version of Ladies In Lavender won five BroadwayWorldUK awards including Best Regional Play. He was Olivier-nominated and won a Dora Mavor Moore award for his 2006-8 stage version of The Lord of the Rings in Toronto and London. His first episode of the long running series Heartbeat won a Royal Television Society Best Drama award in 2005 and his musical Heidi was nominated for the Prix Walo in Switerland in 2008.
Forthcoming theatre projects include The Forsytes, written with Lin Coghlan, and an English version of a Mexican comedy Thinking Too Loud. Past plays include Ruling Passions, To Serve Them All My Days and How Green Was My Valley.
Extensive audio credits, mostly for Radio 4 and now available on Audible, include Eleanor Rising, an ongoing series about the extraordinary adventures of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the reinvention (with Lin Coghlan) of five Arnold Bennett novels in China Towns and nine John Galsworthy novels in The Forsytes. These followed The Complete Smiley (with Robert Forrest) starring Simon Russell Beale. Other BBC radio credits include To Serve Them All My Days, East of Eden, Meeting Jack, The Cry of the Owl, Marnie, Brother Dusty Feet and Me And Little Boots, a comedy about Caligula’s horse.
Forthcoming musical theatre projects include Are You As Nervous As I Am? in London, She Loves You (with the songs of Lennon & McCartney) in Scandinavia, the Bollywood extravaganza Anurakti touring internationally and, beginning in the US, Heatwave, which tells the story of the legendary choreographer Jack Cole, the man who invented jazz dance and choreographed all Marilyn Monroe’s film numbers. Earlier West End, Edinburgh and international musicals include Maddie, La Cava, Lautrec, Only You Can Save Mankind, Murder Mystery Musical, Last Dance, the Heidi trilogy and The Return of Peter Pan.
TV and film include The Crooked Man, Like Father Like Son, Great West End Theatres, three series of Heartbeat, Doctors and in development, Agent 160 and Oscar’s Boys.
Last year Shaun published Maddie and Us, the story of his first musical and its seven-year rollercoaster journey to the West End, which topped the Amazon showbusiness charts in May 2020.
Find out more on www.shaunmckenna.me.
JONATHAN O’BOYLE – DIRECTOR
Jonathan trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Directing credits include Hair (Hope Mill Theatre/The Vaults/UK & European Tours. WhatsOnStage Award for Best Off-West End Production); A Guide for the Homesick, Rasheeda Speaking (Trafalgar Studios); The Last Five Years, Dear Brutus (Southwark Playhouse); The View Upstairs (Soho Theatre); Rain Man (Bill Kenwright Ltd/UK Tour); Aspects of Love, Pippin (Hope Mill Theatre/Southwark Playhouse); Cruel Intentions (Palais du Variété Spiegeltent/Bill Kenwright Ltd); This House (Headlong/UK Tour, co-directed with Jeremy Herrin); The Astonishing Times of Timothy Cratchit (Hope Mill Theatre); Proud (Turbine Theatre); Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Cadogan Hall); Peter Pan (Park Theatre); Four Play, Sense of an Ending (Theatre503); Bash Latterday Plays (Old Red Lion/Trafalgar Studios); The Surplus, All The Ways To Say Goodbye (Young Vic); The Wedding Singer, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Season’s Greetings (Arts Ed).
Associate Director credits include: An American In Paris (Dominion Theatre); The Judas Kiss (Brooklyn Academy of Music/Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto); The Scottsboro Boys (Young Vic).
MICHAEL HOLT – DESIGNER
An established and successful designer for drama, opera and ballet Michael has collaborated with leading arts companies around the world.
West End credits include the long-running West End success The Woman in Black (Fortune Theatre), Absurd Person Singular (Whitehall Theatre), The Glory of the Garden (Duke of York’s Theatre), Rough Justice (Apollo Theatre) and June Moon (Vaudeville Theatre). He designed Julius Caesar (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and the highly successful centennial touring production of Charley’s Aunt.
Michael continues his long association with playwright Alan Ayckbourn at his theatre in Scarborough. His numerous designs for this author/director include the 40th Anniversary production of Joking Apart, Better Off Dead, Hero’s Welcome, Confusions, Roundelay, The Boy Who Fell Into A Book, Absurd Person Singular, Intimate Exchanges, The Safari Party, What Every Woman Knows, Taking Steps, Way Upstream, Man of the Moment and the much praised Othello with Michael Gambon.
International credits include Woman in Black, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and SIngapore; Ayckbourn’s Hero’s Welcome, Confusions, Intimate Exchanges and Season’s Greetings, New York, and many productions for Den Nationale Scene, Bergen, the Alley Theatre, Texas and the English Speaking Theatre in Vienna.
Opera productions include Vaughan Williams’ opera The Pilgrims Progress (the Royal Opera House), Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd for the Brisbane Festival, Australia; collaborations with the Royal Opera House, Copenhagen, the Avignon Festival, France and the Knokke Opera Festival, Belgium.
Michael has over thirty ballet designs to his credit including The Sleeping Beauty, Quartet and Romeo and Juliet for Northern Ballet; and Madame Butterfly for the Hong Kong Ballet company.
Michael has long associations with repertory companies and independent producers across the UK and regularly collaborates with the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, the Mill at Sonning, Oldham Coliseum and Birmingham Rep, to name just a few.
Michael has also written a number of books on stage and costume design and has published a book on the plays of Alan Ayckbourn.
JASON TAYLOR – LIGHTING DESIGNER
Jason was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Lighting Design for Journey’s End on Broadway.
Credits include: Band of Gold, House on Cold Hill, How the Other Half Loves, Waiting For God, Henceforward, Not Dead Enough, Tom Hero’s Welcome/Confusions, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (UK Tour); A Cold Supper Behind Harrods (Original Theatre); Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood and Babes in the Wood (Nottingham Playhouse); Daytona, Afraid of the Dark, Our Boys, Journey’s End (West End); Annie Get Your Gun (ATG/UK Tour); Still Alice (& UK Tour), By Jeeves, Where is Peter Rabbit (Theatre Royal Haymarket/Old Laundry); Noises Off (Nottingham/Northern Stage/Southampton); The Yalta Game, The Dumb Waiter, The Heiress, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Gate Dublin); Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain, Relatively Speaking, Kafka’s Dick, A Steady Rain, Pygmalion, Single Spies (& UK Tour), The Rivals (& West End), The Good Soldier (Theatre Royal Bath); Mrs Pat, Top Girls (& Out of Joint), Entertaining Angels (Chichester); The Girl Next Door, Stepping Out, Season’s Greetings, Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present, Better Off Dead, Joking Apart, The 39 Steps, The 39 Steps, Joking Apart (Stephen Joseph Theatre); The Threepenny Opera, The Winter’s Tale, An Enemy of the People, The Ancient Secret of Youth and The Five Tibetans (Bolton Octagon); Di and Viv and Rose, A Brief History of Women, Taking Steps, Little Voice Henceforward, The World Goes Round, The National Joke, Neville’s Island, The Boy Who Fell Into a Book, Confusions (Scarborough); Communicating Doors, The Lyons, Charley’s Aunt (Menier Chocolate Factory); Anything Goes, Jekyll and Hyde, Billy Elliott, Evita (Copenhagen); Memories of Musicals, Top Hat, West Side Story (Kilworth House); Rita, Sue & Bob Too, A View from Islington North, This May Hurt a Bit (Out of Joint); Di and Viv and Rose (Hampstead).
MAX PAPPENHEIM – COMPOSER AND SOUND DESIGNER
Theatre includes The Night of the Iguana (West End); Assembly, The Way of the World (Donmar); The Children (Royal Court/Broadway); Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre);Dry Powder, Sex with Strangers, Labyrinth (Hampstead); Ophelias Zimmer (Schaubühne, Berlin/Royal Court); Crooked Dances (Royal Shakespeare Company); One Night in Miami (Nottingham Playhouse); Hogarth’s Progress (Rose Theatre Kingston); Waiting for Godot (Sheffield Crucible); The Ridiculous Darkness (Gate Theatre); Amsterdam, Humble Boy, Blue/Heart, The Distance (Orange Tree Theatre); The Gaul (Hull Truck); Cookies (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Jane Wenham (Out of Joint); My Eyes Went Dark (Traverse/59E59); A Kettle of Fish (Yard Theatre); CommonWealth (Almeida); Creve Coeur (Print Room); Cuzco, Wink (Theatre503); Secret Life of Humans, Switzerland, Spamalot, The Glass Menagerie (English Theatre of Frankfurt); The Cardinal, Kiki’s Delivery Service (Southwark Playhouse); Mrs Lowry and Son (Trafalgar Studios); Martine, Black Jesus, Somersaults(Finborough); My Cousin Rachel, The Habit of Art, Monogamy, Teddy, Toast, Fabric, Invincible (National Tours).
Online includes Barnes’ People, The Haunting of Alice Bowles (Original Theatre); 15 Heroines (Digital Theatre).
Opera includes Miranda (Opéra Comique, Paris); Scraww (Trebah Gardens); Vixen (Vaults/International Tour); Carmen: Remastered (ROH/Barbican).
Radio includes Home Front (BBC Radio 4). Associate Artist of The Faction and Silent Opera.