Biog

Mark Bell

Mark is best known for directing The Play That Goes Wrong (2015 Olivier Award Winner for Best New Comedy, 2015 Broadway World UK Award Winner for Best New Play & 2014 WhatsOnStage Award Winner for Best New Comedy).  Mark took the show from tiny pub Theatre The Old Red Lion in Islington to the West End and various UK No.1 Tours and then all the way to Broadway where it was produced by JJ Abrams, his first ever Theatre production.  While TPTGW was running at The Lyceum Theater in NYC, Mark won the 2017 Broadway World Award for Best Direction of a Play and the show itself picked up 2 more Best New Play Awards from Broadway World and Broadway.com.  The show in New York is now at at New World Stages and other replica shows are running worldwide including in Italy, Budapest and Mexico.  It remains open at The Duchess Theatre in the West End where it has been for the last 9 years.

Mark also directed the West End hit The Comedy About a Bank Robbery which was nominated for an Olivier Award and ran at The Criterion in the West End for over 4 years.

Mark’s latest show Cluedo 2, will tour the UK from February 2024.  The original, Cluedo - a new comedy based on the 1985 film Clue - toured the UK from January to July 2022.  The ensemble show proved a big hit with audiences and it is hoped that is will continue elsewhere in the near future.

Other directing includes:

Windfall (Southwark Playhouse),Cluedo (UK national tour),Horse Country (Wilton’s Music Hall, Assembly Rooms Edinburgh Festival, Adelaide Featival & touring), Sirens Man and Crabs (Unity Theatre Liverpool & touring), The Tenants (Winterfest NYC), La Obra que Salle Mal (Theatro Helenico, Mexico City), Che Disastro di Commedia (Theatro Greco, Rome  and touring ), Waiting For Waiting For Godot, (St James Theatre, off West End), Ma Este Megbukunk (Central Szinhaz, Budapest), Blue Blood by Anna Jordan (Hammersmith Riverside), The Revengers Tragedy (RCSSD, London), The Snowfall (Etcetera, London), The Master & Margarita, Pieces, Cheap Thrills and Classic Cuts (East 15),  A Servant to Two Masters, Scapin (CMU, Pittsburgh), The Snowfall (Etcetera), Breathing Corpses, Comedians, Marat/Sade, The Crucible, Agamemnon, Antigone and The Bacchae (LAMDA),  Flea Circus, George and the Dragon and Fiddlesticks (Garlic Theatre).

Comedy Director, Uncle Vanya (St James), The Titanic Orchestra (Edinburgh Festival) – both starring John Hannah.

Trained at Ecole Internationale de Theatre, Jacques Lecoq, Mark was co-Artistic Director of Liquid Theatre.   Liquid shows as actor and co-director include If You Were Mine (ACW), Feeding Time (BAC, 3 separate runs), Endgame (BAC) and Crave (BAC & Touring).

Mark taught at LAMDA for over 10 years developing work on Clown, Bouffon, Melodrama  and Chorus.  He was head of 2nd year for 5 years.  Mark has also taught at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Mountview, East 15, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh USA and Cours Florent in Paris.

Currently, Mark has 2 new musicals in development and is working on Alice in Sunderland based on the graphic novel by Bryan Talbot.  He is also set to direct his first feature film, From Me To You, for Gold Circle Films. www.markbell.info