A full range of 42nd Street masterclasses. In your school. With Graeme Henderson

Graeme Henderson and Catherine Zeta-Jones

Royal Variety Show 2017

GRAEME HENDERSON  "Mr 42nd Street"

Officially declared "Mr 42nd Street" by leading man Tom Lister at a packed house on the last night of the recent West End run at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, GRAEME HENDERSON has been in 5 professional versions of 42nd Street - three West End runs and two national tours - and has performed the show thousands of times. His life-long association with 42nd Street began in 1984 as ensemble member in the original David Merrick production in London and he then went on to play the leading role of 'Billy Lawlor' opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones in 1988. In 1990 he rejoined the cast for the 2nd London run of the show at the Dominion Theatre as 'Andy Lee'. He has also re-staged and appeared in two sell-out UK tours as 'Andy Lee' and from 2017 to 2019 reprised that role in the biggest and most spectacular version of the show there has ever been - again at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

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He is  a renowned dancer, choreographer, teacher and actor of many years experience. 

He studied dance at the Barbara Woff and Elliott-Clarke schools in Liverpool - his home town - and then rhythm tap in London and New York.  
 

Choreography includes an international tour of "Singin In The Rain" for UK productions where he re-created the original film choreography live on stage and he was Resident Choreographer for Jenny Arnold in the highly successful and controversial 'Jerry Springer The Opera' at the National Theatre and the Cambridge Theatre. He also created a huge choral acapela tap for Barry Mishon's 42nd Street Charity Gala at the London Palladium.

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Also at the Palladium in 2017 he lead the 42nd Street company in the famous 'Audition' opening number for the Royal Variety Show in front of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Earlier this year he made two television appearances as a featured dancer in 'Sanditon' for ITV and 'Belgravia' for the BBC. He was also the tapping 'feet' of Ricky Gervais in the 'Muppets Most Wanted' movie!

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His passion has always been combining dance - and tap dance in particular - with drama. He has worked all over the country as an actor and played leading roles at the National Theatre. His one-man show - co-written with Robert Butler - was an Edinburgh Fringe award winner and has been commissioned by Granada Television to be turned into a film.

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He is currently in talks with a leading West End producer and creatives about a revolutionary new tap show called "Artie, Gwen and Lance - A Tale Told in Tap". It is an update of the Camelot story set in the 1940's conceived by Andrew Blackie and co-written with Graeme and is an ambitious attempt to tell - for the first time - a complete story entirely through tap-dance live on stage.

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Graeme has taught for most of the leading dance colleges: Laine Theatre Arts, Bird College, Urdang Academy, Arts Educational, Italia Conti, Cambridge Bodywork and Stella Mann College. He has also lectured extensively for the IDTA, BATD, ADA, ISTD among many others and is an honorary member of the IDTA, BATD and ADA. He has won three Carl Alan awards - his most recent being in 2018 for 'Outstanding Services To Dance'.