LUKE BATEMAN
Composer & Musician
Reviews:
...a bouncy, upbeat and thoroughly hummable score by Luke Bateman...Laurel Graeber, New York Times on Mr Popper's Penguins at the New Victory Theatre, 42nd Street, Manhattan
“a staggering performance and an excellent production” **** The Spy in the Stalls on The Fabulist Fox Sister
...sets a completely new standard in children’s theatre. ***** The Stage on Oi Frog & Friends
...full of excellent tunes by Luke Bateman **** Ben Dowell, The Radio Times on Mr Popper's Penguins
The Sorrows of Satan is wickedly clever and dripping with fine wit. Bateman and Conley make an epic writing duo and audience members spend the show either laughing or gasping at how clever the piece is. If selling my soul to the devil means more work by Bateman and Conley, then I could be tempted…***** Lucy Beirne, Musical Theatre Review
On the evidence of this score, I defy any audience not to place Bateman and Conley at the very forefront of new musical theatre writing talent in this country. **** Julian Eaves, Britishtheatre.com on The Sorrows of Satan
...sparkling, witty, light as a soufflé, and rather cleverer than it initially looks....Bateman offers a terrific variety of musical pastiches as the show-within-the-show gets brutally rewritten. Conley's endlessly elegant, inventive and often very funny lyrics are some of the finest I've heard outside Sondheim...production is pure class **** - Alun Hood, Whatsonstage on The Sorrows of Satan
The score was intelligent and laced with humour that was befitting to the plot, creating catchy songs that I simply couldn’t listen to without a smile on my face. **** Jessica Smith, Theatresoutheast.com on H.R.Haitch
The songs by Luke Bateman are funny, original and are seamlessly weaved into the production. The actors are accompanied in song by a talented pianist (Oli George Rew) who is on set for the duration. There are so many great songs but to name a few stand outs … Tomorrow – Who Knows?, Bertie’s Love Song and Just Try Stopping Me. **** Angela East, Spyinthestalls.com on H.R.Haitch
...a soundtrack from composer Luke Bateman that ticks like a time bomb... Ed Nightingale, Exeunt Magazine on Dark Tourism.
An extra bonus to The Nightingales is the productions occasional musical interludes from an acapella rendition of All I Have To Do Is Dream to a choreographed talent show disco rendition of You Raise Me Up. Entertainment South Wales on The Nightingales
Composers Luke Bateman and Richy Hughes succeed in turning the story into a musical, with a string of witty 1950s-influenced songs adding extra theatrical magic to an increasingly zany narrative that celebrates the triumph of imagination over conformity. **** Roger Foss, The Stage on Mr Popper's Penguins
Composer Luke Bateman and lyricist Richy Hughes give each number a sunny Sherman Brothers-esque bounce, most evident in the only-ever-so-naughty ‘I’ve Got the Chills for You’. But, like the Shermans, they are also adept at plucking the heartstrings, as in the touching ‘I’m Still Here’. **** Chris Bartlett, Musical Theatre Review on Mr Popper's Penguins
Luke Bateman who plays one of these creatures also performs his own attractive score in which water phone and Tibetan music bowl add startling shimmers of the uncanny. **** Paul Taylor, The Independent on St John's Night
'With elements of Brechtian alienation the characters use songs to tell us their real thoughts: they are cleverly written by Katy Darby using a range of styles, and all played live on a piano by her musical partner Luke Bateman, who, Svengali like, allows us to witness their motivations' ****Dave Jordon, Whatsonstage on All I Want for Christmas
Awards and Nominations:
Stiles and Drew Song Award Finalist 2023 with 'Henry'
Lawrence Olivier Award Nomination for Best Family Show 2020 (Oi Frog & Friends)
OnComm Commendation Award 2020 (The Fabulist Fox Sister)
Stiles and Drew Song Award Shortlist 2015
Iris Theatre Xmas Factor Audience Choice Award Winner for 'The Christmas Table' 2014
Perfect Pitch Award Shortlist 2013
Iris Theatre Xmas Factor Audience Choice Award Winner for 'Christmas Swapping' 2013
Iris Theatre Work in Process Blind Date Award Winner for 'My Sexual' 2012
Mercury Musical Developments (MMD) Sounds of England Award Double Winners for 'Lord Byron's Mistress' and 'Bachelor Boys' 2010
