Barry James (Herr Schultz)

After completing his training at the 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 '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 premiere 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 Miserables" 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 premiere of the Maltby/Shire Revue "Closer Than Ever", '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 Miserables".

In 1994 he appeared as 'Beadle Bamford' in "Sweeney Todd" at the Royal National Theatre, for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award. Following this 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. He also played 'Mr Bumble' in "Oliver!" at the Palladium and 'Cogsworth' in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" at the Dominion.

In 2000, Barry returned to ‘Les Miserables’ as Thenadier at the Palace Theatre then went onto play the role of Amos Hart in ‘Chicago’, alongside Denise Van Outen. Hecompleted another run as Thenadier at the Palace (2005-6).

Barry was most recently at The Ambassador Theatre where he returned to Little Shop of Horrors in the role of Mr. Mushnik.