Beauty and the Beast - Barry James

BARRY JAMES
(Cogsworth/Voice of Prologue Narrator)
After completing his training at GSA, Barry went on to work with the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Company for two years, then straight on to the National Theatre 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, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and many others. He has enjoyed long runs in the West End in Sancho Panza, Billy, as Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar, and as Murphy in Windy City. He has also appeared in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Theatre Royal York, and the world première of Take Eight for the Royal Exchange Manchester.

More recently, Barry played principal roles at the National Theatre in productions of The Rivals, Love for Love, The Threepenny Opera, and The American Clock. In the West End he has starred as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors at the Comedy Theatre; as Mendel in March of the Falsettos at the Albery Theatre; Thenardier (the Innkeeper) in Les Misérables at the Palace Theatre - a role he played for over 3 years - and as Otto Kringelein in Grand Hotel at the Dominion Theatre.

Other regional theatre work includes Love off the Shelf at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, the European première of the Maltby/Shire Revue Closer Than Ever and the Baker in Sondheim's Into the Woods, both for the Library Theatre, Manchester, and the recent national tour of Salad Days.

Films and television have included the Thriller series, "Porridge", "The Merchant of Venice", directed by Jonathan Miller, "Shake Hands Forever" (an Inspector Wexford mystery for TVS), and as Claudius in the LWT Special "Further up Pompeii" with Frankie Howerd. Recordings include the recent version of My Fair Lady, and Thenardier on the Grammy Award winning Symphonic Les Misérables.

In 1994 he appeared as Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd at the Royal National Theatre, for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award, and he completed a long run playing Ladislav Sipos in She Loves Me at the Savoy Theatre, for which he was again nominated for an Olivier Award. Prior to joining Disney's Beauty and The Beast, he was playing Mr Bumble in Oliver! at the Palladium.