Dave Willetts

In October 2014, he appeared as Father God in 'Love Beyond' at SSE Wembley Arena. Then in 2015, he appeared in 'Pure Imagination' at the St James Theatre, London in a musical based on the work by Leslie Bricusse. In 2017, he appeared as the White Rabbit in Wonderland, a new musical by Frank Wildhorn also starring Wendi Peters and Kerry Ellis.

Willetts has recorded several albums, mostly collections of songs from musicals. Including 'Once in a Lifetime', released just before his 60th birthday. He has performed on albums alongside Lesley Garrett, Clive Rowe and Claire Moore amongst others. Including appeared on 'Music And Songs From Aspects of Love/Phantom of the Opera' in 2008.

In 2007, Dave played the role of 'Julian Marsh' in a UK Tour of 42nd Street. He returned to the role in 2012, when the show again toured the UK. He played Max in a scaled-down production of Sunset Boulevard at the Comedy Theatre (now The Harold Pinter), directed by Craig Revel Horwood in September 2008. For which he was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical.

In 2004, he appeared in the West End production of Ragtime alongside Maria Friedman. In December of the same year he appeared in Aladdin in Bromley. He has played the starring role of 'Adam Pontipee' in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in the West End (2006). and the national tour in 2002. He then played the role of 'Emile de Becque' in a UK touring production of Rogers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, which toured the UK until July 2008.

Director Trevor Nunn put Willetts into the chorus of the original London production of Les Misérables and within a year he was understudy to Colm Wilkinson in the lead role of Jean Valjean, which Willetts eventually took over when Wilkinson left in 1986 to join the Broadway company. In 1987, when Michael Crawford departed London for the US premier of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, Willetts succeeded him at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End. He subsequently played the role of the Phantom in Manchester, on the UK tour to critical acclaim, winning an Evening News Theatre Award. In 1990, he was given his first opportunity to originate a role when he appeared opposite Petula Clark in Someone Like You, a musical for which she had composed the score.

He has a wife Lyn (originally from Warwickshire,) a former nursery nurse and teacher. They married in 1972. He has 2 daughters called Kerry and Leanne (born in Pontypool, ), and 3 grandsons, including Rafferty and Kit. They live in Baginton, near Coventry.

Dave Willetts (born 24 June 1952 in Birmingham) is an English singer and actor known for having leading roles in West End musicals.

Born in Marston Green, Birmingham, in 1952 and then brought up in Acocks Green. He first went to Cottesbrooke Infants primary school and later to Sheldon Heath Comprehensive (now known as King Edward VI Sheldon Heath Academy). His father worked at Rover. He has completed a Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme programme. After leaving school at 16, he joined Girling Brakes as an apprentice, in Cwmbran, Wales. He then moved to another Girlings plant in Pontypool, with his then girlfriend Lyn. One night he went out with workmates to see “No, No Nanette” by the New Venture Players, an amateur drama group based in Newport. based at the Dolman Theatre. Despite rarely ever visiting a theatre, impressed by the play, he became interested in amateur dramatics. He auditioned for the New Venture Players next production, added finally landed a role. After 10 years in South Wales, he returned to Birmingham to take up a managerial post. He then worked as a quality manager for British Leyland, an engineering company producing components for the automotive industry in the Midlands.sheridan engineering But he also joined the Leamington and Warwick Operatic society to later star in “Music Man”. He then played 'Charlie Gordon' in amateur production of Charles Strouse musical, Flowers for Algernon, at the Priory Theatre in Kenilworth. Peter McGarry, the theatre critic of the Coventry Evening Telegraph gave him a rave review of his performance.