INSPIRED Benefit Concert to Play Freedom Bar, 5 October

Bobby Cronin and NEXT UK bring the hit NYC Inspired Benefit Concert Series to London with INSPIRED UK: A Benefit Concert for Manchester Dog's Home, on SUNDAY 5th OCTOBER at 7:30pm at Freedom Bar in Soho.

Produced, created and hosted by award-winning composer/writer Bobby Cronin, INSPIRED is a benefit concert series for animal rescue organizations across the country that plays every two to three months, with a rotating line-up of some of today's exciting musical theatre writers in a casual and intimate setting as they sit behind the piano and, unlike traditional concerts of their material, perform songs by other writers that have inspired their work. The INSPIRED series has showcased over 30 writers, raised funds for seven American animal rescue organizations, and hopes to spread the word about the 2.7 million adoptable animals that are euthanized each year in America and the tens of thousands of adoptable animals euthanized yearly in the UK.

INSPIRED UK will benefit Manchester Dog's Home, which recently suffered a horrible fire, killing over 40 dogs and displacing over 250 dogs. Manchester & District Home for Lost Dogs was founded in 1893 by a group of Manchester Businessmen who were concerned about the large number of stray dogs roaming the City. The leading members of the group included Mr. Megson a printer and stationer, (who's firm is still very active) and Mr. Alfred Nixon a leading Chartered Accountant in Manchester, it was his son and partners who continued to play a leading part in the administration of the Home until shortly after the last war in 1949. Over the years the City of Manchester has grown around Manchester Dogs' Home and it is now very much an inner city rescue centre. To off set the inner city environment of our Manchester Home we regenerated a run down site that is now know as Cheshire Dogs' Home. In 1999 we purchased a former run down boarding kennels, this has become the flagship of the two homes and a Centre of Excellence. The site is 11.5 acres in total with a Specialist Care Unit for dogs that provides intense care for the dogs that need it the most, pregnant bitches, nursing mums and dogs that do not adjust well to the traditional kennel environment at Manchester Dogs' Home. We take in and care for over 7,000 dogs every year, many of these dogs are never reclaimed by their owners and require a great degree of emotional and physical support during their stay with us. In addition to the Specialist Care Unit at our Cheshire Home, we also utilise a wide range of behavioural and mentally stimulating activities at both Homes to ensure each dog receives personal care and attention. Once the dogs are fit and healthy they are made available for adoption, we are always looking for caring permanent and foster homes for our dogs and often have over 250 dogs that are waiting to find that perfect family.http://www.dogshome.net

The line up for the October 5th 7:30pm concert & conversation features a wide array of UK Musical Theatre writers including:

TORI ALLEN-MARTIN is a singer, actor, writer and producer. She set up her multi-award nominated company Interval Productions in 2009 and has produced five musicals under that banner, four of them them being entirely new pieces. Streets (The Cockpit/Hackney Empire) and Another Way (The Cockpit), both featuring a book co-written by Tori were nominated for a total of eight awards in 2014 (Offies, West End Frame, Broadway World), including Best New Musical for both shows. Tori also found herself nominated alongside Sarah Henley in the 'Most Promising Playwright/s' category. Most recently Tori was in South Africa and Mali, working with Idris Elba on his album miMandela, which she features on and will be released November 24th 2014. Tori's own entirely self-funded EP, featuring brand new original material she has written, will also be released later this year. Other Theatre Credits Include: Christmas in New York (Palace Theatres- Manchester/West End), HAIR - Tribe/Cover Dionne/Cover, Abie baby (European Tour), Vocalist - Streets (The Cockpit/Hackney Empire), Lauren - After The Turn (The Courtyard), Mimi - Rent (The Cockpit). Recording Credits Include: MiMandela (Idris Elba), After The Turn - The Ep, Equally - The Ep, West End Switched Off: Volume 1, Lance Horne - First Things Last. Writing Credits include: Streets (The Cockpit/Hackney Empire), Another Way (The Cockpit) and Equally: Book and Lyrics (The Cockpit).

MARK ASPINALL Theatre includes: as MD: Titanic (Southwark Playhouse), The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice(Hull Truck); Grimm Tales (Library Theatre, Manchester); Mack & Mabel (Southwark Playhouse); City Of Angels(RAM); Cinderella, Robin Hood, Sleeping Beauty (Newbury Corn Exchange); A Christmas Carol (King's Head); Calamity Jane (Upstairs At The Gatehouse); And The World Goes Round, West Side Story (GSA); The Rosen Street Protest (LAMDA); Into The Woods, Chicago (Urdang Academy); FRESHER (Pleasance, Edinburgh). As Assistant MD: City of Angels (Donmar Warehouse) The Pajama Game (Shaftesbury) The Boy Friend (Her Majesty's); Crazy For You (London Palladium); Naked Boys Singing (Arts & Charing Cross); Nunsense (Arts); Promises Promises(RAM). Mark also played Keyboard 1 on Stephen Ward (Aldwych). Composition for theatre includes: Hansel & Gretel (Simply Theatre) FRESHER (MTM:UK Award for Best New Musical 2010); Proof (Stage Electrics Best Sound Award 2008); Someone Who'll Watch Over Me (Cockpit); Metamorphosis (Lost); The Bear Who Paints(Arden Award, Edinburgh Fringe). Pianist credits include: Tick, Tick...Boom (Duchess); Songs For A New World, Legacy Falls (New Players).

JAKE BRUNGER & PIPPA CLEARY met at Bristol University, where they were studying Drama and Music respectively. Their stage musical adaptation of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ opens in March 2015 at Leicester Curve. Their musicals together include: Jet Set Go! (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Theatre 503 and Jermyn Street Theatre; licensed by Josef Weinberger Ltd), The Great British Soap Opera (Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Jermyn Street Theatre) and Red Riding Hood (Singapore Repertory Theatre). They also wrote the music and lyrics for the 2013 Rose Theatre Kingston Christmas show The Snow Gorilla, a song for A Song Cycle for Soho at Soho Theatre and the opening song for the 2014 West End Bares. In 2013 Pippa won the Arts Foundation Fellowship for Musical Theatre Composition. They are currently writing a new musical called Prodigy for National Youth Music Theatre, which opens in August 2015. For more information, please visit www.brungerandcleary.co.uk or follow Jake and Pippa on Twitter @jakeandpippa

BOBBY CRONIN is an award-winning composer/writer whose current projects include: Sunset City with bookwriter Wade Dooley (2013 Running Deer Theatre Lab, 2014 Goodspeed Mercer Project, 2014 The Pitch at Finger Lakes Theatre); The Concrete Jungle with co-bookwriter Crystal Skillman, which was commissioned in 2012 for London's esteemed ArtsEd School (President: Andrew Lloyd Webber) and opened in London June 2012. Welcome To My Life (W2ML) currently under a Broadway option; ''Til Death Do Us Part (2012 Alec Baldwin Fellowship Winner, UK's S&S Award Finalist). Daybreak which won the 2011 New Jersey Playwrights Contest and premiered in Wayne, NJ & London's Tristan Bates Theatre June 2012. Currently writing Mary & Max with Crystal Skillman and Stafford Arima, Alone In The US, commissioned by CAP21 with Terry Berliner which was also seen at Marymount Manhattan College where it won "Best Musical" - it will also be produced in 2015 at New York Film Academy this January and The University of Cumbria in February. He wrote the score to the short musical film "Walk the Walk" for NYFA, where he is also on faculty and currently writing a techno-rock-opera film noir. He wrote the score for the webseries "Settling Up" which just finished filming in NYC. Other: York NEO 10 Fellow, 54 Below, Lincoln Center New Songbook Series, Birdland, Symphony Space, London's The Players Theatre & St. James Theatre, and more. "Reach The Sky: Live at The Beechman" and "The Concrete Jungle International Studio Cast Recording" both on iTunes. Yale graduate, Member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild, and MMD (UK). @bobbycronin or www.bobbycronin.com

SCOTT MORGAN staged his first musical when he was 19, which then after several productions and rewrites later, opened in London last year as 'Geek!' where it ran for a month at the Tristan Bates Theatre, becoming their second biggest selling show ever; it is currently undergoing more rewrites before it opens in NYC later next year. In April this year, Scott staged a concert in Essex, where he lives featuring several West End singers performing his work including songs from 'Geek!', stand alone cabaret songs and snippets from his new show 'Strange People' which begins workshopping this month. 'Strange People' is staged as a 'television' documentary and follows the lives of 3 people with bizarre compulsions and traits and chronicles the aftermath of their instant celebrity status. Scott is now trying his hand at something new: writing a family show with a happy ending and not a swear word in sight..! One of the songs from said show, 'The Life I Never Planned' was premiered at NEXT UK's debut show last month.

EAMONN O'DWYER trained at the Royal Academy of Music and has worked as a musician in theatres all over the world. As a composer he has written original music for The Glass Menagerie (Chipping Norton Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Stockholm English Speaking Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Barakura Festival Theatre, Japan); The Massacre (Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds); Liquorice & Smokerings (New Wolsey, Ipswich); and Frankenstein (Dorset Corset Theatre Company). He is a frequent musical collaborator at Sir Peter Hall's Rose Theatre in Kingston, where he has written scores for Our Town, A Christmas Carol, Hamlet, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Arabian Nights and Alice in Wonderland. His original musical The House of Mirrors & Hearts won the Musical Theatre Matters Award for Best New Musical Score at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010. The show later transferred to the Arcola Theatre and was recently recorded for Perfect Pitch, featuring Charlotte Wakefield, Helen Hobson & Lauren Samuels. His most recent appearance in the West End was in the National Theatre's multi- award-winning production of War Horse, in which Eamonn played the role of the Song Man from 2009-2011. 3 times Stiles & Drewe finalist, he's just written a gypsy jazz score for Around The World in 80 Days which is about to start touring. He's working on a new musical adaptation of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe for the Rose in Kingston this Christmas. http://www.eamonnodwyer.com

LAURA KAYE THOMSON has an MA from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and although a performer, she is also a musical theatre songwriter. Having met NEXT co-founder Alicia Krakauer at Mountview, she heard about the idea of bringing NEXT to the UK and jumped on board as Artistic Assistant to help produce such a brilliant project. Now adding Inspired to her producing credits, she is now a fully-fledged expert in box offices, websites and promo videos. Sort of...

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