Musical comedy double act to appear at Theatre Royal next month

Kit Hesketh-Harvey and James McConnel are set to appear at the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds next month with their musical-comedy cabaret double act.

Hesketh-Harvey is a veteran of Radio 4’s “Just A Minute” and James McConnel writes and performs original comedy cabaret songs, on any subject, ranging from Jeremy Corbyn to Wet Wipes.

Their set has lots of audience participation which even includes a personalised song tailored to every venue they appear at.

As well as regular appearances at festivals and theatres up and down the country, they have played for London’s five-star hotels, much of the FTSE 100 Share index, three prime ministers and members of the Royal Family.

Hesketh-Harvey studied at Oxford under Stephen Sondheim and has produced arts documentaries at BBC TV Music and Arts, written screenplays for shows such as “Full Throttle” and “The Vicar of Dibley”.

In 1982, he began working at the Comedy Store with “Kit and the Widow”, a two-man musical satire for which he wrote the songs.

They were thrice nominated in the West End for Olivier Awards.

He also presents TV and radio programmes on antiques, cabaret, chanson and domestic architecture and is a regular panellist on Radio 4’s “Just A Minute”.

His hobbies include riding, surfing, and painting almost as badly as he plays the piano.

James McConnel has written the scores for over 150 television documentaries and dramas, including the Emmy Award-winning “Ten Days To D-Day”, he also wrote and presented the Channel 4 documentary “What Made Mozart Tic”, which explored the possibility that the great composer may have had Tourette’s Syndrome.

Returning to England after a post-college gap year James met Kit, who, as luck would have it, was searching for a composer to collaborate with him on an adaptation of the Virginia Woolf novel, “Orlando”, for the musical stage, which went on to win the 1988 Vivian Ellis Prize for young theatrical writers.

The pair are at the Theatre Royal on Friday, May 17.

Tickets are on sale at the Box Office, call 01284 769505, book online at www.theatreroyal.org/shows/kit-mcconnel/ or visit the theatre in person.