Ludwig: Unfinished Business | Preview

MIKE HATCHARD (CO-WRITER/PERFORMER) - showed early promise when he was a joint winner of the Bournemouth Music Festival Composer’s Competition aged 11. By 14 he secured a residency on the Costa Dorada. He took a music degree in Colchester and a postgrad at the Royal College of Music where he studied composition under Philip Cannon and piano under Peter Wallfisch. He redeemed his performing career by joining the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. In his early twenties he toured America and Europe accompanying Cleo Laine on piano and became Matt Monro’s youngest ever musical director. Subsequently he worked with artists as varied as Maxine Daniels, Johnny Van Derrick, Salena Jones, Tina May and David Essex. Touring with Freddy Starr and becoming musical director to Pamela Stephenson he took an interest in comedy and performed his own shows on the circuit as ‘Marvin Hanglider’ which led to co-writing songs with Frankie Howerd and Spike Milligan. He performed hundreds of concerts with Herbie Flowers including the Southbank and sell-out concerts at the Edinburgh Festival. Mike has written three musicals including the Mayor Of Casterbridge (Harry Secombe Centre, Sutton and George Square Theatre, Edinburgh), an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel which is being revived for inclusion in this year’s Wordfest Festival in Shoreham this September. A helpless (but harmless) eccentric he celebrated his sixtieth birthday by cycling 1400 miles towing an electric piano from Land’s End to John O’Groats raising money for Children in Need and last year appeared on the TV show playing the violin upside-down. In spite of all this compulsive versatility Mike is still obsessive about playing the piano, often practicing up to eight hours in a day on his beloved reconditioned century old Steinway Grand, and always setting new musical goals for himself.

Guy Masterson Director Biography

Is a UCLA & LAMDA trained actor, director, writer and theatre producer of 40 years. A 32 year veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe, his company, Theatre Tours International has presented over 150 predominantly new works, and associated with several of its biggest hits including 12 Angry Men (2003); One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest (2004) with Christian Slater and The Odd Couple (2005) with Bill Bailey.

He produced & directed the Olivier Award winning Morecambe (2009), The Shark Is Broken (2019) which transferred to the West End in 2021 and then Broadway in 2023. He also performed 11 solo works, most notably Under Milk Wood, Animal Farm, Shylock and A Christmas Carol in over 5000 performances globally since 1991. He received The Stage Best Actor Award at EdFringe 2001 for Fern Hill & Other Dylan Thomas, and has received a further 4 nominations for his solo work. He has also directed many other award-winning solos including Justin Butcher’s Scaramouche Jones, Rebecca Vaughan’s Austen’s Women, Pip Utton’s Adolf and Peter Tate’s Picasso: Le Monstre Sacré all of which continue to tour after many years.He is married to Brigitta for 27 years, and father to Indigo and Tallulah.