Chris Bush (playwright)

Chris Bush
Born 3 July 1986 (1986-07-03) (age 31)
Sheffield, England
Occupation Playwright, artistic director

Chris Bush (born 3 July 1986) is an award-winning[1] British playwright and artistic director.

Overview

Bush was born in Sheffield, England. She studied at the University of York and currently resides in London.

She is best known for her 2007 work TONY! The Blair Musical, which enjoyed sell-out runs and critical acclaim[2] at the York Theatre Royal and Edinburgh Fringe before transferring to the Pleasance Islington as winner of the inaugural Sunday Times NSDF Award[3] for a successful off West-End run. Its sequel, Tony of Arabia, debuted at the Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh in 2008, running in rep with the original show.

In 2012 Bush made her full-length debut as a writer/performer with The Loves I Haven't Known,[4] a musical comedy performed with regular composing partner Ian McCluskey.

Bush has been an Artist in Residence for the Oxford Playhouse and Sheffield Theatres, and a member of the Orange Tree Theatre Writers' Collective.[5] She has won both the Perfect Pitch Award and Kevin Spacey Foundation Artist of Choice Award for Musical Theatre.[6] [7]

Selected stage works

Political views

Despite lampooning him on stage, Bush described Tony Blair as "a decent man who made some bad decisions", and stated that she had "come to ridicule beautiful Blair not vilify him".[8] Some have argued that Bush is not critical enough of New Labour. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Dominic Cavendish claimed that "the country is angrier than [Tony, The Blair Musical] allows".[9] Contrarily, Paul Lowman of The Press (York) has praised Bush's even-handedness, stating that her greatest strength is her ability to "camouflage complex issues in a vastly entertaining, glossy, media friendly package."[10]

Bush has stated that she is proud of her British heritage, and is a supporter of immigration to the country. On a 2009 episode of Come Dine With Me she stated that "what makes [her] really proud of Britain [is] the number of people who want to be here".[11]

Trivia

In November 2009, Bush appeared on an episode of the Channel 4 reality television programme Come Dine With Me. Bush placed joint first and received £500 of the £1000 prize, which according to her equated to a "year's wages in the theatre".[11]

References

  1. ↑ Brit Writers' Awards: 2011 Winners Archived 16 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ Daisy Bowie-Sell: The Daily Telegraph
  3. ↑ NSDF: Edinburgh Award
  4. ↑ The Stage: The Loves I Haven't Known Archived 16 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ BBC News: Singing out the Blair years
  9. ↑ Dominic Cavendish: The Daily Telegraph
  10. ↑ Paul Lowman: The Press
  11. 1 2 Dine With Me: Series 8, Episode 17
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