Victoria Hamilton-Barritt

Victoria Hamilton-Barritt is a British actress and singer known primarily for her roles in leading musical theatre productions. Most recently she played the role of 'Alex Owens' in the West End production of Flashdance alongside Matt Willis at the Shaftesbury Theatre

Background

Victoria Hamilton-Barritt was born in London at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and studied at Central School of Ballet and the Urdang Academy, London. She comes from a musical and artistic background; her father was a singer in London's Soho scene in the sixties, her mother an aspiring dancer, and her two uncles (on her mother's side) were musicians in rock and jazz bands of the seventies. They both worked the music scene of some of London's biggest gig venues such as Ronnie Scott's.

Musical theatre

Upon graduating in 2001, Hamilton-Barritt was cast in the musical Oh What a Night! playing the role of 'Cat' for the 2001 UK tour, continuing with the show in Hamburg, Germany from January to June 2002. She finished off the tour with a one-month residency at The Sporting Club in Monte Carlo where she also understudied Sheila Ferguson in the role of 'Roxy Rochelle'. In 2002, Hamilton-Barritt played the role of 'Connie' in the Saturday Night Fever Scandinavian Arena Tour.

Hamilton-Barritt's West End debut in came in 2003 with Mamma Mia!, where she understudied the role of 'Lisa'. She then returned to Saturday Night Fever in the original cast 2004 UK tour, this time playing the leading role of 'Stephanie Mungano'. From September 2004 to September 2005 she returned to the West End to play the leading role of 'Carmen Diaz' in Fame at the Aldwych Theatre. Hamilton-Barritt played the role of 'Anita' in the 2006 International Tour of West Side Story visiting Germany, Japan and Thailand. In 2007 she performed the role of 'Maria' understudying the leading role of 'Susan' in the first production of Desperately Seeking Susan the musical at the Novello Theatre in the West End.

From June 2008 until May 2009, Hamilton-Barritt starred in the UK tour of Flashdance the Musical, playing the lead role of 'Alex'. A new musical based on the 1983 film Flashdance, she starred alongside Noel Sullivan, Bernie Nolan and Bruno Langley. Later in 2009, Hamilton-Barritt went on tour with Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) performing songs from his musical Moonshadow. She provided backing vocals for the well-known artist in venues up and down the UK and Ireland, finishing the tour at the Royal Albert Hall. In January 2010, she played "Rizzo" in Grease at the Piccadilly Theatre, alongside Noel Sullivan and Toby Anstis. From September 2010 until January 2011, she starred as Alex Owens in the original West End production of Flashdance.^[1] The cast of the show were originally given year-long contracts, however the production closed early in January 2011. Victoria Hamilton-Barritt was Nominated for a WhatsOnStage Award in 2011 as Best Actress in a Musical and was up against six other actresses for this award all who had higher profiles than her own.She was quoted in an Interview for What's On Stage explaining she was just grateful and amazed to have received enough votes to get nominated amongst very talented women.

In 2013 she appeared in A Chorus Line at the London Palladium as Diana. Victoria played the role of Daniela in Lin Manuel Miranda's In The Heights. The show won rave reviews opening at the Southwark Playhouse in London. Little than one year later, the show was reworked and opened at The Kings Cross Theatre, where it still delights audiences today.

Currently she is performing in the UK premiere of Murder Ballad at the Arts Theatre as the Narrator.

Film

In 2009 Hamilton-Barritt appeared in a small role in A Bunch of Amateurs, starring Burt Reynolds, in which she played a Hollywood Director’s Assistant.^[2] Victoria also appeared in a BBC special of A Tale Of Two Cities which was narrated by Michael York.

References

External links

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