On Thursday 12 June 2008 Iris Theatre and St Paul's Covent Garden presented its first evening of Cabaret in what we hope will be a continuing tradition.

An audience of over 100 enjoyed the creativity and talent of Chris Hamilton joined by guests Katie Rowley Jones (Wicked, Grease) Holly Penfield ( New York and London Cabaret star) and Shimi Goodman (Chicago, Dirty Dancing, Salt and Honey)

Click to see the PR material and programme.

Chris Hamilton was born in Wales and began playing the piano at the age of four. After winning several national competitions, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, London. Whilst studying Law at Oxford University, Chris developed a passion for singing and theatre which he continued to pursue in his spare time while working as a lawyer in the City. When he was seconded to New York and found himself moonlighting in the piano bars of Manhattan, he decided to concentrate fully on performing and studied musical theatre at Guildford School of Acting. Since graduating seven years ago, he has appeared in several shows including “The Yeoman of the Guard” at the Royal Opera House, a play about Noel Coward which was specially written for him and has appeared in the comedy sketch show, News Revue.

Last year Chris was invited to perform his one man show at the well known cabaret venue Don't Tell Mama in New York and his six performances garnered rave reviews. Critics described him as “the real deal” and “a total showman”.

Chris is also a keen composer and his first musical, “Over The Threshold”, for which he wrote the music, lyrics and book, was staged in London in 2006. Songs from his musical have been performed in cabaret and concert in London and the US and most recently at an awards ceremony in London before a prestigious audience including Lord Lloyd Webber. Music from “Over The Threshold” can be heard at www.myspace.com/chrishamiltonmyspace.

During his studies he won the Musical Theatre Award 2001 and was a prize winner at the Surrey Male Singer Competition. Shimi's West End debut wasunderstudying and playingAkaash, the lead role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of Bombay Dreams (Apollo Victoria). He then moved on to understudy and play Mary Sunshine opposite Brooke Shields in Chicago (Adelphi)andmost recently Robbie Gould in Dirty Dancing (Aldwych).

Original cast recordings include Dirty Dancingand Over the Thresholdby Chris Hamilton where he sang with Tony award winner Frances Ruffelle. Shimi is currently rehearsing the lead partfor the world premiere ofthe English version of Salt and Honey the Musical -in Concert which opens in Jerusalempriortoa world tour.
Shimi was born in Tel Aviv, where he played the part of Don Jose in Carmen -a Rock Opera on the stage and later on in the film version. After serving in the Israeli army he moved to England to study at the Guildford School of Acting where he received a BA in Musical Theatre Studies and graduated with distinction in 2002.

Holly began her career singing Burt Bacharach songs at a topless nightclub in San Francisco's North beach district, and even then her act had a high camp content girls wearing nothing but veils, a laSalome, danced around Penfield as she sang The Look of Love. Moving to Los Angeles, she secured two major record contracts, recording three albums of her own songs, with a song reaching the Top 100 American charts. Her first producer was record producer Mike Chapman "Love Is a Battlefield".

In addition to performing across Europe, Holly made her New York debut last winter at the cabaret epicenter Don't Tell Mama, where cabaret doyenne Julie Wilson liked Holly's show so much she saw it twice. After winning new fans in New York, Holly returned to London to headline a benefit at The Savoy where 250 fans attended a dinner and a two hour concert.Holly's UK debut was at the 1992 Edinburgh Fringe with her original and critically acclaimed show "Fragile Human Monster", which was recorded as a CD. Penfield also promoted her Canadian-released album, "Parts of My Privacy".

Katie Rowley Jones has most recently been seen playing the role of Nessarose in the original London cast of Wicked. Having gained a degree in Law from the University of Nottingham, Katie trained in Musical Theatre at the Guildford School of Acting.

Shortly after graduating she made her professional debut playing the role of Swallow in Whistle Down the Wind(UK tour). Other credits include Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast(UK tour), Janet in the 30th Anniversary production of the Rocky Horror Show(Queen's Theatre and UK tour) and Sandy in Grease for EC1 International (Larnaca open air Theatre, Cyprus).