James Yeoburn

James Yeoburn (born 30 December 1989) is an English producer and entrepreneur.

He is the founder of international theatre production company United Theatrical

Yeoburn was born in Exeter, Devon and grew up on the Harefield Estate outside the village of Lympstone.

James is one of two sons of retired competition swimming coach and sales director Michael Yeo, and Patricia Yeo (née Akin), a property manager and daughter of RAF flight lieutenant the late John Akin.

James has one brother and three half- brothers.

From an early age, James worked under the mentorship of Maurice Marshal MBE at the Northcott Theatre, working in the technical department for visiting and in house productions

Yeoburn is a graduate of Exeter College, Leeds Conservatoire and the London School of Musical Theatre.

A series of events were planned throughout July and August 2011 some that took place at the shop and others around London.

The series concluded with a West End concert of peers, featuring a cast of 50 and an orchestra of 32, that took place at Her Majesty's Theatre on 14 August 2011.

Yeoburn and Price assembled an international cast including: Jonathan Ansell, Rosemary Ashe, Julie Atherton, Samantha Barks, Tracie Bennett, Graham Bickley, Simon Bowman, Daniel Boys, Rebecca Caine, Bertie Carvel, Kim Criswell, Alex Gaumond, Ellen Greene, Ramin Karimloo, Robyn North, Lara Pulver, Peter Polycarpou, Joanna Riding, Frances Ruffelle and Hannah Waddingham.

The concert reunited the members of the original London casts of the musicals Miss Saigon, Witches of Eastwick, Parade (musical) and Avenue Q.

In 2012 Yeoburn along with long-term friend, composer and producer Stuart Matthew Price, founded United Theatrical.

The pair had worked a year earlier on a concert to celebrate the contribution to the industry made by Dress Circle (Theatre Shop), a theatrical shop in London's Covent Garden selling original cast albums, musical scores and memorabilia.

The shop which had been supporting the industry for 33 years before its closure was facing financial difficulty.

In 2013 theatre critic Mark Shenton announced that James would be behind the London debut concerts for Broadway composer and lyricist Andrew Lippa, at the newly built St James Theatre, London.

In the same season appeared off-Broadway composing duo Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk who gave concerts of their work with performances from a cast including Rachel Tucker.

In 2014 Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk returned to the St James Theatre, London under Yeoburn and Price's stewardship with further concerts headlined by Michael Arden called One (More) Night in London.

Yeoburn and producing partner Price developed and produced a new production by American composer Scott Evan Davis in 2014 entitled Picture Perfect, starring Lucie Jones.

Jones later pulled out of the production owing to scheduling conflicts, and was replaced by Charlotte Wakefield.

Speculation about the production preceded its official announcement with reports from Whatsonstage that Yeoburn and co-producers Price and Katy Lipson were bringing the Broadway Musical to London in a premiere at London's St James Theatre, as early as 2014.

Yeoburn and producing producers appointed Matthew White to direct the production as early as 2014, after Yeoburn and he worked together in 2013 at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London, England.

Yeoburn is the producer on a new title about the life of American civil-rights activist Rosa Parks.

The musical, which is being developed with a cast including Cornell S John and Cat Simmons, is being prepared for a full-scale production having received interest from both sides of the Atlantic.

In 2015 Yeoburn produced One of Those, by British playwright Tom Ward-Thomas which opened at the Tristan Bates Theatre in London's Covent Garden to critical acclaim.

The play which featured a cast of five including Martin Ball, Louise Bangay and Ward-Thomas himself ran for four weeks.

The production is set to tour the UK.

Ward-Thomas is the brother of British country music duo Ward Thomas (band).

It was announced on 30 March 2016 that a new adaptation, entitled The Gold Room would be developed by Yeoburn based on the life of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton.

The musical is written by multi-platinum and Grammy Award nominated recording artist Michael Feinstein and Warner Brown, writer of Walking with Dinosaurs.

The London development workshop features a cast including British actor Jamie Muscato and Broadway actress Melissa Errico.

Covent Garden Productions are reported to share the option.

On 5 September 2016 it was announced that Yeoburn would act as above title producer on the UK premier of the Broadway musical The Addams Family Musical.

The production opened in Edinburgh, Scotland on 20 April 2016.

In a press statement released on 8 August 2016 he commented:

On 28 June 2016, Yeoburn and United Theatrical launched the London Musical Theatre Orchestra; a professional orchestra dedicated the advancement of musical theatre for the benefit of the public with Yeoburn acting as the Organisations first Executive Director London Musical Theatre Orchestra is the world's first professional orchestra dedicated to Musical Theatre.

In June 2016 Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's State Fair and Alan Menken's A Christmas Carol were announced as the organisations first concerts.

Three time Olivier Award winner Robert Lindsay and Carrie Hope Fletcher were announced to headline LMTO's production of A Christmas Carol on 25 November 2016.

On 20 December 2017, the launch of the A Spoonful of Sherman UK/Ireland tour premiered at the EM Forester Theatre in Tonbridge, Kent on 14 February 2018.

The tour played in 25 cities across the UK and Ireland and was produced by Yeoburn through his company United Theatrical alongside previous Spoonful producers Kat Portman Smith and Robert J. Sherman of MusicWorld (UK) Ltd. Cast members for the tour included Sophie-Louise Dann, Mark Read, Glen Facey, Jenna Innes and Ben Stock.

In February of 2017 it was announced that the organisation would present Jason Robert Brown's Broadway musical Honeymoon In Vegas, as a UK premiere, at the London Palladium.