Peter Quilter

Peter Quilter is a West End and Broadway playwright whose plays have been translated into 27 languages and performed in over 40 countries. His shows have been performed in major theatres in cities across six continents, including London, Cape Town, Rome, Prague, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, Chicago, Madrid, Sydney and New York. He is best known for his Broadway play "End of the Rainbow" and his West End comedy "Glorious!" He has twice been nominated for the Olivier Award (Best New Comedy and Best New Play) and his Broadway debut was nominated for 3 Tony Awards.

Quilter was born in Colchester, England and is an honours graduate of Leeds University. He began his writing career from his home in Greenwich, London where he lived for 14 years before emigrating to the Canary Islands.

He started his career as a television presenter on BBC TV. He was a presenter of the Children's BBC programme "Playdays" and also appeared as an actor on a number of TV series including "London's Burning". His first play was an all-female comedy Respecting Your Piers and he followed this with a musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost which played a number one tour of the UK starring Ron Moody.

In 1999, Peter made his West End debut with a comedy about the pop industry, BoyBand the Musical. The show played a summer season at the Gielgud Theatre and later enjoyed success in South Africa, Denmark, Poland, and on a 60-venue tour of the Netherlands. It is currently playing open ended runs at the Divadlo Nova Scena in Bratislava, the Parnu Endla Teater in Estonia and recently had its Asian premiere in Tokyo Japan.

In 2005, Quilter had a bigger international hit with End of the Rainbow, a musical drama about the final months in the life of Judy Garland. It premiered at the Sydney Opera House in Australia (winning Caroline O'Connor two Best Actress awards) and also had an award-winning run at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival. The following year, Joop van den Ende presented a new Dutch production which played a seven-month tour of the Netherlands culminating in performances at the Royal Theatre Carre in Amsterdam. The show then enjoyed runs in the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland and New Zealand. A new UK production opened in February 2010 at the Royal Theatre in Northampton, directed by Terry Johnson, designed by William Dudley and starring Tracie Bennett. The show transferred to London's West End on 16 November, playing at the Trafalgar Studios – a 400-seat theatre at the corner of Trafalgar Square. The show opened to great critical acclaim and was featured on the front cover of The Times newspaper. The play ended its six-month run in May 2011. The show received nominations for 4 Laurence Olivier Awards – Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound and Best New Play.

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