Ian McLarnon was born in Belfast and has been an actor for fourteen years. West End credits include: Forever Plaid (Apollo Theatre), Les Misérables (Palace Theatre), Fiddler on the Roof (London Palladium) and Stephen Sondheim’s Passion (Queen’s Theatre). He continued his association with the composer in the Chicago Shakespeare Company’s production of Pacific Overtures at the Donmar Warehouse and more recently played Louis/Billy Webster in the award-winning production of Sunday in the Park With George at the Menier Chocolate Factory and in the West End at the Wyndham’s.
In 2001 Ian spent a year with the Royal National Theatre playing roles in Peter Gill’s production of Luther and in Trevor Nunn’s productions of Vanburgh’s The Relapse and South Pacific. Other London credits include Joe Marriot in Cavalcade (Sadler’s Wells), Sholto Brent in The Young Idea (Lillian Bayliss), Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pandarus’s servant in Troilus and Cressida and George Atkins in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (all at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and Alt in Pains of Youth (RNT Studio). Repertory roles include: Tamino in The Magic Flute (New Vic, Stoke), Nanki-Poo in The Mikado (Stephen Joseph, Scarborough), Perks in The Railway Children (Charter Theatre, Preston), and Lurvy in Charlotte’s Web (Watermill, Newbury). TV credits include: Rev Ashley Gething in Casualty and the role of Mr Smythe in A Christmas Carol for American television.
Ian is also an experienced cabaret and concert performer both with his collaborator and friend Annette Yeo (www.asonginmyheart.co.uk) and as a solo artist, appearing in Riverdance (London and Geneva) and Magical Rhythms (Holland and Belgium). He has recorded two CDs, both available on the Dress Circle label (www.dresscircle.co.uk) Most recently, Ian appeared in Musical of Musicals, the Musical at the Sound Theatre and the King’s Head, London, created the role of Steve Jones in Promised Land, a new opera for the Canterbury Festival and has just completed filming on the new Tim Burton film of Sweeney Todd for< Warner Brothers.