Jazz trumpeter Chris Storr returned to the RSC last weekend for Swingin' the Dream, 40 years after first appearing on our stage as a child actor.

Forty years after performing in our 1981 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, musician Chris Storr explored the same play with us this weekend as the trumpeter for our online concert.

Just a child at the time, Chris made his RSC debut as the Changeling Boy in the show featuring Juliet Stevenson as Titania. Audience members may remember his rendition of the song ‘You Spotted Snakes’ from the production. Over 2,000 people watched his return to the play on Saturday 9 January, when he played jazz trumpet in our work-in-progress concert of the lost 1939 Broadway musical, Swingin’ the Dream.

Chris Storr on trumpet in 2021, and in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1981.
Left: Chris on trumpet, with Mebrakh Haughton-Johnson on clarinet, for Swingin' the Dream. Right: As Changeling Boy in 1981, with Juliet Stevenson.

You may also have seen Chris playing trumpet in Artistic Director Gregory Doran’s 2013 production of Richard II, which featured David Tennant in the title role. Outside of the RSC, Chris has played with a range of musicians, from Amy Winehouse to Jools Holland, performed as the trumpet player for the Strictly Come Dancing tour, and was part of the on-screen calypso band in the film Paddington 2.

If you missed Swingin' the Dream, tickets are now back on sale so that you can watch the performance up until 7pm, Saturday 16 January.

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