Barry James

After training at the GSA, Barry worked with the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Company for two years and the NT for six-and-a-half years, playing principal parts in many productions, notably The Merchant of Venice with Laurence Olivier, A Woman Killed with Kindness and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

More recently, principal roles at the National Theatre in The Rivals, Love for Love, The Threepenny Opera and The American Clock.

Regional theatre includes: Love Off the Shelf (Nuffield, Southampton), the Maltby/Shire revue Closer Than Ever (European premiere), The Baker in Sondheim's Into the Woods (Library Theatre, Manchester) and, recently, Salad Days (tour). In 1994 he appeared as Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd for which he received an Olivier Award nomination), followed by a long run as Ladislav Sipos in She Loves Me, gaining another Olivier Award nomination. He also played Mr Bumble in Oliver!  and Cogsworth in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. In 2000, Barry returned to Les Misérables as Thénardier and then played Amos Hart in Chicago alongside Denise Van Outen. He completed another run as Thénardier at the Palace in 2005-06. Barry returned to Little Shop of Horrors, this time as Mr Mushnik (Menier Chocolate Factory and West End). He most recently played Herr Schultz in Rufus Norris's production of Cabaret.