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Bernard J. Taylor
Bernard J. Taylor is a writer and composer known for his musicals and stage plays. His works have been produced globally and translated into German, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, Spanish, and Italian.
Born and educated in Cape Town, South Africa, Taylor is a descendant of John Taylor, a pioneer British missionary to southern Africa. In 1969, he relocated to England, where he resided until 1998. Following a year in Australia, he settled in the United States and now resides in San Antonio, Texas.
Taylor has composed numerous musicals.
Taylor's first musical show was Neighbors And Lovers (1987), self-produced at the Oast Theatre, Tonbridge, England. However, Taylor decided to abandon it in favour of creating a musical based on a universally known story.
Taylor selected Emily Brontë's classic Wuthering Heights, composing the music. A concept album was released in 1991 with a cast of West End musical stars including a former "Phantom Of The Opera" Dave Willetts, as Heathcliff, Lesley Garrett (Cathy Earnshaw), Bonnie Langford (Isabella Linton), Clive Carter (Hindley Earnshaw), Sharon Campbell (Ellen "Nelly" Dean) and James Staddon (Edgar Linton). It had its world premier at the Madison Theatre, Illinois, in 1993 and has since been performed in the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Poland and Romania.
Meanwhile, Taylor turned his attention to something entirely different. The show (originally entitled Success! and renamed in 2009) was a backstage musical, loosely based on Faust, and set in New York. Peppered with parody and pastiche, with additional lyrics by Vivian Wadham, its typical, and often cynical, view of the ups and downs of show business was accompanied by a jazzy and sometimes tender score, with Claire Moore, Lon Satton, Kathryn Evans, Jessica Martin and Maurice Clarke forming the CD cast. The musical was revamped in 2006 and retitled "Make Me a Musical". The new version was first staged in San Antonio. You can see excerpts from this production on Youtube:
By the time Success! made its debut at the Civic Theatre, Rotherham, in September 1995, Taylor had returned to the classics, in the form of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice. With Claire Moore as Elizabeth Bennett and Peter Karrie in the role of Darcy, the concept album also featured Gay Soper, Janet Mooney, James Staddon and Christopher Biggins as Mr. Collins. Stand-out tracks, according to the Virgin Encyclopedia of Film and Stage Music (VEFSM), were considered to be "Through The Eyes Of A Child" "Good Breeding" and "Thank God They're Married". Pride And Prejudice was introduced to US audiences, complete with five new songs, by the Public Theatre Company of Peoria, Illinois, in January 1995. Taylor's musical interpretation of the Austen novel was considered to be closer to its source than the 1959 Broadway version (see VEFSM), First Impressions (Austen's original title for the book), which starred Hermione Gingold. By 2012 there had been more than 30 productions of the show worldwide in the US, UK, Germany, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Brazil and the USA. You can see scenes from the world premiere production at the Madison Theatre in Peoria, Illinois, on Youtube:
This production, (with additional lyrics by Eric Vickers), included numbers such as "Wild Talk Of Vampires", "And Sheep Shall Not Safely Graze", "Worms Feed On My Brains" "Ship Of The Dead" "Blasphemy" and "Somewhere At The Edges Of Creation". Once again, the album cast was led by Claire Moore (singer) (as Mina) and Peter Karrie (as Nosferatu), supported by Mario Frangoulis, former pop star Mark Wynter, Barry James, Annalene Beechey and Simon Burke. The world premiere was staged at the Madison Theatre, Peoria, Illinois, in September 1995, and the show had its first European performances a month later in Eastbourne. The work has been translated into German, Spanish and Hungarian. Derek Berlin won an excellence award from the Alamo Theater Arts Council for his performance in the title role in a production in San Antonio in 2015. You can see an introduction on Youtube: (from the world premiere production in Peoria, Illinois)
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Bernard J. Taylor
Bernard J. Taylor is a writer and composer known for his musicals and stage plays. His works have been produced globally and translated into German, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, Spanish, and Italian.
Born and educated in Cape Town, South Africa, Taylor is a descendant of John Taylor, a pioneer British missionary to southern Africa. In 1969, he relocated to England, where he resided until 1998. Following a year in Australia, he settled in the United States and now resides in San Antonio, Texas.
Taylor has composed numerous musicals.
Taylor's first musical show was Neighbors And Lovers (1987), self-produced at the Oast Theatre, Tonbridge, England. However, Taylor decided to abandon it in favour of creating a musical based on a universally known story.
Taylor selected Emily Brontë's classic Wuthering Heights, composing the music. A concept album was released in 1991 with a cast of West End musical stars including a former "Phantom Of The Opera" Dave Willetts, as Heathcliff, Lesley Garrett (Cathy Earnshaw), Bonnie Langford (Isabella Linton), Clive Carter (Hindley Earnshaw), Sharon Campbell (Ellen "Nelly" Dean) and James Staddon (Edgar Linton). It had its world premier at the Madison Theatre, Illinois, in 1993 and has since been performed in the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Poland and Romania.
Meanwhile, Taylor turned his attention to something entirely different. The show (originally entitled Success! and renamed in 2009) was a backstage musical, loosely based on Faust, and set in New York. Peppered with parody and pastiche, with additional lyrics by Vivian Wadham, its typical, and often cynical, view of the ups and downs of show business was accompanied by a jazzy and sometimes tender score, with Claire Moore, Lon Satton, Kathryn Evans, Jessica Martin and Maurice Clarke forming the CD cast. The musical was revamped in 2006 and retitled "Make Me a Musical". The new version was first staged in San Antonio. You can see excerpts from this production on Youtube:
By the time Success! made its debut at the Civic Theatre, Rotherham, in September 1995, Taylor had returned to the classics, in the form of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice. With Claire Moore as Elizabeth Bennett and Peter Karrie in the role of Darcy, the concept album also featured Gay Soper, Janet Mooney, James Staddon and Christopher Biggins as Mr. Collins. Stand-out tracks, according to the Virgin Encyclopedia of Film and Stage Music (VEFSM), were considered to be "Through The Eyes Of A Child" "Good Breeding" and "Thank God They're Married". Pride And Prejudice was introduced to US audiences, complete with five new songs, by the Public Theatre Company of Peoria, Illinois, in January 1995. Taylor's musical interpretation of the Austen novel was considered to be closer to its source than the 1959 Broadway version (see VEFSM), First Impressions (Austen's original title for the book), which starred Hermione Gingold. By 2012 there had been more than 30 productions of the show worldwide in the US, UK, Germany, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Brazil and the USA. You can see scenes from the world premiere production at the Madison Theatre in Peoria, Illinois, on Youtube:
This production, (with additional lyrics by Eric Vickers), included numbers such as "Wild Talk Of Vampires", "And Sheep Shall Not Safely Graze", "Worms Feed On My Brains" "Ship Of The Dead" "Blasphemy" and "Somewhere At The Edges Of Creation". Once again, the album cast was led by Claire Moore (singer) (as Mina) and Peter Karrie (as Nosferatu), supported by Mario Frangoulis, former pop star Mark Wynter, Barry James, Annalene Beechey and Simon Burke. The world premiere was staged at the Madison Theatre, Peoria, Illinois, in September 1995, and the show had its first European performances a month later in Eastbourne. The work has been translated into German, Spanish and Hungarian. Derek Berlin won an excellence award from the Alamo Theater Arts Council for his performance in the title role in a production in San Antonio in 2015. You can see an introduction on Youtube: (from the world premiere production in Peoria, Illinois)