Ian McKellen, John Bishop and Mel Giedroyc to Star in MOTHER GOOSE in the West End

Ambassador Theatre Group Productions has announced a UK and Ireland Tour of the pantomime MOTHER GOOSE. The first of its kind to tour the county and play all the way to Easter! Mother Goose will open at Theatre Royal Brighton on Saturday 3 December 2022 and tickets are on sale now at ATGTickets.com/Brighton.

Starring Ian McKellen as Mother Goose, John Bishop as Vic Goose and Mel Giedroyc as the Goose, the show will play at the Theatre Royal Brighton from 3 - 11 December 2022, before a season at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End (15 December 2022 - 29 January 2023) and subsequent UK and Ireland tour.

This very special pantomime is written by Jonathan Harvey (Coronation Street, Gimme Gimme Gimme) and directed by award-winning director Cal McCrystal. Set and Costume design is by Liz Ascroft, Choreography by Lizzi Gee, Lighting design by Prema Mehta, Sound design by Ben Harrison and Puppet Design and Creation by Chris Barlow. Casting is by Anne Vosser and the Production Manager is Ben Arkell.

The show will also star Oscar Conlon-Morrey as Jack, Simbi Akande as Jill, Sharon Ballard as Good Fairy Encanta and Karen Mavundukure as Evil Fairy Malignia. The cast also includes Adam Brown, Gabriel Fleary, Richard Leeming and Genevieve Nicole. Further casting to be announced soon.

Mother Goose (McKellen) and her husband Vic (Bishop) run an Animal Sanctuary for waifs and strays and live a wholesome life inside an abandoned Debenhams. But when a goose (Giedroyc) flies in, will fame and fortune get the better of them?! Will Ma's feathers be seriously ruffled? Will Pa tell everyone to get stuffed?! And is their fair life about to turn fowl? Get ready for fairies with hefty vocal chords, puppets with tap dance qualifications and impeccably constructed mayhem that will quack up the whole family. This hilarious family-friendly mother of all pantos is the ultimate theatrical feast full of fun, farce and more than a couple of surprises that will make you honk out loud.

Mother Goose is produced by Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions, Hunter Arnold, Seaview, Wessex Grove, Richard Winkler & Dawn Smalberg, Caiola Productions and George Waud for Groove International.

Ian McKellen

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: 2nd Comic Policeman ALADDIN (Ipswich Arts Theatre 1962); SCENT OF FLOWERS (Duke of York's 1964); Widow Twankey ALADDIN (Old Vic 2004, 2005); KING LEAR (Duke of York's 2018). FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: Richard III; Gods & Monsters; Lord of the Rings; X-Men; Beauty & the Beast. TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE: Coronation Street; Extras; Vicious.

John Bishop

TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE: Doctor Who, The Accused, Fearless, John & Joe Bishop: Life After Deaf, The John Bishop Show, John Bishop's Ireland, John Bishop's Belugas. THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: John Bishop: Right Here, Right Now Tour (Arena & Theatre Tour 2022). John Bishop: Winging It Tour (Arena & Theatre Tour 2019). John Bishop: Supersonic Tour (Arena & Theatre Tour 2015). John Bishop: Rollercoaster Tour (Arena & Theatre Tour 2012). FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: Route Irish, Funny Cow.

Mel Giedroyc

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: Company (Gielgud); Much Ado About Nothing (Rose); Luce (Southwark Playhouse); New Boy (Trafalgar Studios); Eurobeat (Novello and UK tour); Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith); Jack and the Beanstalk (Barbican). FILM AND TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE: The Great British Bake Off (BAFTA Award Winner); Light Lunch; Unforgivable; Handmade: Britain's Best Woodworker; Hitmen; How To Build A Girl; Horrible Histories; Letterbox; Let it Shine; Pitch Battle; Spies of Warsaw; Sorry, I've Got No Head; Miranda; Mel and Sue Show; Strictly Come Dancing Xmas Special.

Simbi Akande

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: The Great British Bake Off - The Musical (Cheltenham Everyman); The Prince of Egypt, A Christmas Carol (Dominion); The Light in the Piazza (Royal Festival Hall and LA Opera); Violet (Charing Cross); Putting It Together (Hope Mill); Company (Aberdeen Arts Centre); Fiddler on the Roof (Chichester Festival); Ghost (UK tour); Show Boat (Gillian Lynne). WORKSHOP CREDITS INCLUDE: Cable Street - A Musical Riot (Old Diorama Arts Centre); Heel (Jerwood Space); From Page to Stage (Southwark Playhouse); F**ked in Marrakech (BEAM).

Sharon Ballard

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: Jungle Rumble (Fortune); One Night Of Tina (European tour); Quiz (Noel Coward); Sleeping Beauty (Hackney Empire); A&E (Lost); A Hard Working Bus, Clocks and Teapots (RADA Studios); Peter Pan (New Wimbledon); Dick Whittington (Wycombe Swan); Blues Brothers (UK and European tour); Buddy Holly (Arena tour); Cinderella (Cardiff New); In Bed (Questors); All Bobs Women (Arts); Godspell (UK No 1 tour), Discotivity (Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Festival); Solid Gold Soul (European tour). FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: Me Before You; Delicious. TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE: Pennyworth S2; The Feed; Delicious S3; Good Omens S1; Trauma; The Royals; Sherlock; EastEnders; Watch What I Do; The Inquizateam; Hero Patrol. RECORDING CREDITS INCLUDE: Ready, Steady, Go!(Teletubbies 25th Anniversary). TRAINING INCLUDES: National Conservatoire for Performing Arts; BRIT School for Performing Arts.

Adam Brown

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: The Perfect Wife, Health and Stacey (UK tour; Plested & Brown); Hot Pursuit (International tour; Plested & Brown); Saxon Court (Southwark Playhouse). FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: The Hobbit Trilogy; Pirates of the Caribbean; Limehouse Golem; Stanleyville.

Oscar Conlon-Morrey

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: Only Fools and Horses (Haymarket Theatre Royal); Cinderella: A Socially Distanced Ball, Adult Panto (Turbine); The Fall, Anthony Munday (Shakespeare's Globe); The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); Nativity! The Musical (No. 1 UK tour); Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (Kilworth House); The Toxic Avenger (Southwark Playhouse). FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: A Killer Party; Cinderella: A Socially Distanced Ball; First Date; The Toxic Avenger the Musical.

Gabriel Fleary

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: Scousetrap (Liverpool Royal Court); Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith); Don Quixote (Garrick and RSC); Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (York Shakespeare's Rose); A Soldier's Tale (PACS); Romeo and Juliet (Birmingham Rep); Dr Faustus, The Alchemist (RSC); Othello (National); The Exonerated (New Players); The Changeling (ETT; Ian Charleson Commendation Award); Our Country's Good (Liverpool Playhouse); The Merchant of Venice (Creation Theatre Company); Troilus and Cressida (Cheek by Jowl); Company (Bristol Old Vic) FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: Stella; Charismata; Red Tails; The Sky In Bloom; Run Fat Boy Run; St Trinian's. TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE; Missing; Ashes to Ashes, Holby City.

Richard Leeming

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: Wendy and Peter Pan (Leeds Playhouse); Romeo and Juliet (Regent's Park Open Air); One Man Two Guvnors (Ipswich New Wolsey and Southampton Nuffield); Twelfth Night (Flute); Iolanthe (London Coliseum); Doctor Faustus, Don Quixote, The Alchemist (RSC); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Squerryes Court); Black Sheep (Soho); Anna Karenina (Oxford Pegasus and Royal Court). FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: Teen Spirit; Dumbo; Napoleon. TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE: Doctors; Shakespeare Live; Harlots. TRAINING: Oxford School of Drama; Ecole Phillipe Gaulier.

Karen Mavundukure

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: The Color Purple (Leicester Curve, Bristol Hippodrome and UK tour); The Aretha Franklin Tour (UK tour); The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber (Leicester Curve and Bristol Hippodrome). FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: Matilda.

Genevieve Nicole

THEATRE CREDITS: Magic Goes Wrong (Apollo); Pippin (Charing Cross); Zorro, An Evening with Stephen Schwartz (Hope Mill); One Woman Show "My Gift To You" (The Crazy Coqs and The Big Smoke Festival at The Other Palace); A Spark of Creation (Park); Hairspray, The Producers, Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas (UK tour); Pippin (Hope Mill and Southwark Playhouse); Chicago (UK tour, RCCL and Marina Bay Sands Singapore); The Golden Age of Dance (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Guys and Dolls (Savoy and Phoenix); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Savoy); A Chorus Line (London Palladium); Monty Python's Spamalot (Palace); The Rat Pack (Scandinavia); Chicago (Kuala Lumpur). TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE: Dr Seuss The Grinch Musical Live; Sunday Night at The Palladium; Tonight at the London Palladium; Olivier Awards at The Royal Opera House.

CREATIVE

Jonathan Harvey | Author

Jonathan started his career winning The Liverpool Playhouse / National Girobank Young Writers Award 1987 for his play The Cherry Blossom Tree aged 18, and the Rank Xerox/Royal Court Young Writers Festival the following year for his play Mohair. THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: Wildfire (Royal Court) Beautiful Thing (Bush, Donmar Warehouse and Duke of York's; John Whiting Award); Babies (Royal Court; George Devine Award, Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright); Boom Bang a Bang (Bush); Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club (ETT, Donmar Warehouse and Criterion; Manchester Evening News Award for Best New Play); Swan Song, Out In The Open (Hampstead); Hushabye Mountain (ETT, Hampstead); Guiding Star, Tomorrow I'll Be Happy(National); Canary (Liverpool Playhouse and Hampstead); Corrie! (Lowry; Manchester Evening News Award for Best Live Entertainment); Mr Tuesday (Kings Head); Our Lady of Blundellsands (Liverpool Everyman). Jonathan wrote the musicals Closer To Heaven and Musik with Pet Shop Boys. His musical Dusty toured the UK in 2018.

FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: Beautiful Thing (London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival Award for Best Film); Paris Film Festival Award for Best Film; Fort Lauderdale Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay).

Jonathan created and wrote the BAFTA nominated sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme (BBC) and Beautiful People (Banff TV Festival Award for Best Comedy). He also wrote the BAFTA nominated children's series Best Friends, based on the novel by Jacqueline Wilson. He is currently on the writing team of Coronation Street and has written over 200 episodes. He has written several one off comedy dramas for ITV including Panto! (co-written with John Bishop), Birthday Girl and Von Trapped! Jonathan won the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Continuing Drama in 2109 for his episode about the aftermath of Aidan's suicide, also the British Soap Award for Best Episode and the British Soap Award for Best Scene for Gail's monologue. The monologue was also nominated for a BAFTA for TV Moment of the Year. TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE: Call The Midwife; Britannia High; Shameless; Rev; Lilies; At Home With The Braithwaites; Murder Most Horrid - Dinner At Tiffany's; The Catherine Tate Show; Tracey Ullman's Show.

RADIO CREDITS INCLUDE: Take That, Lennon and Sid and three series of the sitcom What Does The K Stand For?. NOVELS INCLUDE: All She Wants, The Confusion of Karen Carpenter, The Girl Who Just Appeared, The Secrets We Keep, The History of Us and The Years She Stole (Pan Macmillan).

Jonathan is a director of Moodswings, a Manchester based charity which helps people recover from mood problems and the severe emotional distress they can cause. He is also a patron of Sahir House, an HIV charity in Liverpool.

Cal McCrystal | Director

Cal was born in Belfast. Working for many years as an actor, he trained at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and at École Philippe Gaulier. He was Comedy Director for The National Theatre's award-winning West End and Broadway hit, One Man, Two Guvnors, and Don Quixote for the Royal Shakespeare Company which transferred from Stratford-upon-Avon to the Garrick Theatre in the West End. He directed the English National Opera productions of Iolanthe in 2018 and HMS Pinafore in 2021 - both shows earned Olivier nominations and broke box office records at the London Coliseum. He directed Drama At Inish in 2019 at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin, the critically acclaimed Le Comte Ory for Garsington Opera in 2021 and Il Mondo della Luna for English Touring Opera, which was nominated for a Manchester Theatre Award.

CIRCUS CREDITS INCLUDE: Comedy Direction on Cirque du Soleil's Varekai (World tour) and Zumanity which ran in Las Vegas for 17 years. He returned to Vegas in 2018 and 2019 to create resident shows, Opium at the Cosmopolitan and Atomic Saloon Show at the Venetian. Since 2012 Cal has been director of Giffords Circus, creating a new show for them each year. He regularly directs in British repertory theatres and has created countless international touring shows for comedy troupes such as Spymonkey, Peepolykus, The Mighty Boosh (Perrier Award winner) and the multi award-winning Garry Starr. Cal works recurrently as a Comedy Consultant for the film industry.

FILM CREDITS INCLUDES: The Dictator, The World's End, Man Up, The Nice Guys, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Matilda, Cats, Dora And The Lost City Of Gold, Wonka, Paddington and Paddington 2 (in which he also appears as Sir Geoffrey Wilcott).

TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE: Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Inside No. 9, MTV Europe Video Awards, and Comedy Cuts.

Liz Ascroft | Set & Costume Designer

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: The Homecoming (Bath Theatre Royal); Only Fools And Horses (Haymarket Theatre Royal); Early Doors (UK tour); Reasons To Be Cheerful (Graeae UK tour); The House Of Bernarda Alba (Royal Exchange and Graeae); Fawlty Towers (Australian tour); The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice, On The Shore Of The Wide World (Royal Exchange and National); Two Gentlemen Of Verona (RSC and National tour); Faith Healer, Yalta Game, Afterplay (Sydney Festival); A Kind of Alaska & One For The Road (St Martin's and Lincoln Centre, New York; The Pinter Festival). OPERA CREDITS INCLUDE: The Carmelites (Grange Park Opera); Porgy And Bess (Royal Danish Opera); Lucia Di Lammermoor (Scottish Opera, Houston Grand Opera Texas, La Fenice Venice and Sydney Opera House).

Lizzi Gee | Choreographer

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: A Christmas Carol (Old Vic, Broadway, San Francisco, Melbourne and US tour); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Old Vic and NT Live); Little Shop of Horrors (Regents Park Open Air); Twelfth Night, Vernon God Little (Young Vic); Jack Absolute Flies Again, A Pacifist Guide to the War on Cancer, Rocket to the Moon, National Theatre Gala's (National); Present Laughter, Running Wild, A Christmas Carol, Beauty and the Beast, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Goodnight Mr Tom (Chichester Festival); The Madness of George III, An Ideal Husband, Frost/Nixon, The Miser, Upstart Crow, The Man in The White Suit, Love Story, Daddy Cool, The Girls, Onassis, The Jungle Book, Annie Get Your Gun, All Male H.M.S. Pinafore; All Male Pirates of Penzance, Sunshine on Leith (Regional and West End). OPERA CREDITS INCLUDE: HMS Pinafore, The Merry Widow, Iolanthe (ENO); Porgy and Bess (Grange Park Opera); Hansel and Gretel (Regents Park Open Air and ENO), The Gods of The Game (Grange Park Opera and Sky Arts). FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: The Grinch; Pride; Tap; Tic; Dance with Me (Old Vic).

Ben Harrison | Sound Designer

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: Bugsy Malone, 9 to 5, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Hairspray, Rock of Ages, Club Tropicana, Dr Dolittle, Fame, The Railway Children, The Wedding Singer, The Million Dollar Quartet, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Return To The Forbidden Planet, Happy Days The Musical, Carnaby Street, High Society, Blood Brothers, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jekyll & Hyde, Tommy, Save The Last Dance For Me, The Boy Friend, Half A Sixpence, The Roy Orbison Story, This Is Elvis, Laughter In The Rain (UK tour); Cabaret, Scrooge, Soul Sister, Dreamboats & Petticoats and The Country Girl (West End and UK tour); Starlight Express and Evita (International tours); Whistle Down The Wind (UK & American tours); Dancing In The Streets (West End and International tours); Great British Bake Off The Musical (Cheltenham Everyman); Mame (Hope Mill); The Stick Maker Tales (Wales National); The Wizard of Oz & Into The Woods (Leeds Playhouse); Bugsy Malone (Hammersmith Lyric); Five Guys Named Moe (Festival Square and Marble Arch), Little Shop of Horrors, A Little Night Music and The Beggar's Opera (Chester Storyhouse), Hedda Gabler (Northampton Royal); The Prodigals (Coventry Belgrade and Edinburgh Fringe); The King & I and Hairspray (Leicester Curve and UK tour); Obama The Mamba (Leicester Curve and The Lowry); Simply Cinderella, The Pillowman, Hot Stuff, Gypsy, Hello Dolly!, Oliver, Piaf, Sweeney Todd, Chicago and The Sound of Music (Leicester Curve). Between 2002 and 2007 Ben was Head of Sound at Leicester's Haymarket Theatre where he designed; West Side Story, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Macbeth, An Illustrious Corpse, Beautiful Thing, The Fortune Club, East, Divine, The Bogus Woman (also Adelaide and New York), The Good Woman of Schezuan, Pacific Overtures, The Happy Prince and The Wizard of Oz.

Christopher Barlow Puppets and Creatures | Puppet Designer

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: Alice in Wonderland (Australia Broadway Haus); Spirited Away (Japan tour); The Snow Queen (Park); Oi Frog and Friends Live (UK tour); Sleeping Beauty (PHA); The Three Musketeers, The Twits, George's Marvellous Medicine, James and Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, Babe the Sheep Pig, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Robin Hood (Wizard Theatre and UK tour; Resident Designer and Builder for Illyria Touring Theatre); The Wind in the Willows (Wizard Theatre and UK tour); Rumculls and Ragwater (The River People and Cutty Sark); Peter Pan (The Point); Strawberries and Steam (The Berry); Heaven on Earth (Millennium Fx and Arena). FILM AND TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE: Sex Unzipped; Feeling Better; Andor; Dr Who; Worzel Gummidge; Yonderland; Benidorm; Zapped; The Truthful Phone (Talk to the Hand). ADVERT CREDITS INCLUDE: Eco Egg, Eevee Mattresses; Iwoca; Tum Tums; Pepsi Max; Foxy Bingo; KAYAK; Skittles; Esso China; Nike; Old Spice; Clash of Clans; Future Play; The Slaughter House Rules. OTHER CREDITS INCLUDE: Koos (Character Designer and Artworker; TED and Roompot Resorts); The Maho Group Mascots (St Maartens Resorts); King Kong (Madame Tussauds); Polar Bears (Merling Shangahir); SEED Music Video; Duplo Land (Legoland Windsor); Mythica (Legoland Mythica).

Anne Vosser CDG | Casting Director

THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: Barnum, Scrooge (Dominion); Aspects of Love, Copacabana (Prince of Wales); Fiddler on the Roof (London Palladium); Doctor Dolittle, Summer Holiday (Apollo Hammersmith); Cages (Riverside Studios); Identical, Strictly Ballroom, We Will Rock You, Bat Out Of Hell, Betty Blue Eyes, Guys and Dolls, Saturday Night Fever, Fatal Attraction, Abigail's Party, Strangers On A Train, Flare Path (UK tour); 9 To 5: The Musical (Savoy and UK tour); The Grinning Man (Trafalgar Studios and UK tour); Carousel, Half A Sixpence, Guys and Dolls, Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cats (Kilworth House); The Life, Afterglow (Southwark Playhouse); The Last Tango (Phoenix); Dance Til Dawn (Aldwych); Loserville (Garrick); Zorro (Charing Cross); Taboo (Venue and Brixton Clubhouse); Fame (Peacock); Raising Martha, Some Girls (Park); The Old Vic New Voices Festival (Old Vic); The Mentalists, Barking in Essex (Wyndham's); What The Butler Saw (Vaudeville); Stones In His Pockets (Duke of York's). TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE: How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria; Any Dream Will Do; I'd Do Anything; Over the Rainbow; Superstar; Wonderland Special (Take That); I Dream.

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