Grease The Musical - Terry Parsons

Terry Parsons

Set Designer

Terry has had success with three major productions in Copenhagen recently – Mary Poppins and Les Misérables at Det NY Theater, and Treasure Island for the Folketeatret. His many other credits in Denmark include his stunning designs for Disney’s Beauty And The Beast, The King and I, High School Musical, Showboat, Be Bop A Lula and a concert version of Grease. Not long ago he designed his first ballet - Jane Eyre - in London.

Terry has designed thirty-seven productions in London’s West End, among them were Where’s Charley?, The Pirates Of Penzance at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, Silly Cow with Dawn French, Gasping with Hugh Laurie and Two Into One with Donald Sinden and Michael Williams. He also designed the major musical productions South Pacific, Sweet Charity, Some Like It Hot, Charlie Girl and Singin’ In The Rain at the Palladium.  His other credits range from Shakespeare, Sheridan and Congreve to Orton, Ionesco and Durrenmatt, most notably a critically acclaimed production of J. B. Priestley’s When We Are Married with Timothy West, Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge. Terry also re-created designs for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End presentation of the play Daisy Pulls It Off as well as working on Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge with Topol, and Priestley’s Time And The Conways at The Old Vic with Joan Plowright.

Well-known for his pantomime designs - among them lavish versions of Cinderella for Stanley Baxter and Mother Goose for Danny La Rue - Terry has recently been responsible over a 5-year period for designing a portfolio of major new star-studded productions for the Ambassador Theatre Group’s theatres. These include Peter Pan at Wimbledon starring Henry Winkler, Cinderella starring Mickey Rooney, Snow White starring Ross Kemp, Peter Pan starring Bonnie Langford, and most recently, in Christmas 2010, Dick Whittington starring Barbara Windsor at the Bristol Hippodrome.

Terry has been Head of Design at three major theatres: the Theatre Royal Plymouth, the Haymarket Leicester and the Belgrade Coventry and his extensive regional credits include, at Chichester, Miranda with Penelope Keith and Underneath The Arches which transferred to the West End; at Liverpool No Trams To Lime Street; at Southampton The Surprise Party with Peter Duncan, Matthew Kelly and Ruth Madoc; Kay Mellor’s A Passionate Woman; Shady Business and the world premiere of Richard Harris’s A Foot In The Door at Sonning.

Terry’s string of international credits include: the European Premieres of Edward Albee’s The Goat and the award winning Proof. On Broadway he created Sian Phillips’ stunning concert costumes for her appearance as Dietrich in Marlene; designed Fame in Scandinavia; Grease in Paris; Chicago in Athens, as well as Romeo And Juliet, Blithe Spirit, Move Over Mrs Markham and Sailor Beware in Denmark and Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Out of Order, Arsenic and Old Lace, Visiting Mr Greene and Romantic Comedy in Vienna. He has worked in Canada, Australia and Japan, Hong Kong, the Middle and Far East, as well as designing productions for several major cruise lines including the QE2.  Possibly the most unusual of his overseas assignments was his creation in Dubai of a magical fairy-tale Arabian Nights setting in the desert for three thousand guests - the ‘ultimate’ birthday party for one of the world’s wealthiest sheikhs!