Background
David Firth (born David Coleman) was born in Bedford on 15 March 1945.
David Firth (born David Coleman) was born in Bedford on 15 March 1945.
He was educated at Bedford Modern School, the University of Sussex and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Firth was with the Royal Shakespeare Company (1967-1970), the Royal National Theatre (1973) and part of the original cast of the Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty"s Theatre, 1986). During his stage career, Firth was in the cast of King Lear (Old Vic, 1988), The Hunting of the Snark (1991), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Barbican Theatre, 1992), Jubilee (Barbican Theatre, 1992), Assassins (Donmar 1992), Knickerbocker Holiday (Barbican, 1993), Follies (Brighton, 1993), Forty Years On (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 1994), Love Life (Barbican Theatre, 1995), Passion (Queens, 1996), The Fix (Donmar 1997), Die Fledermaus (Arts, 1998), On A Clear Day (Barbican Theatre, 1998), Good Grief (Yvonne Arnaud, 1998), HMS Pinafore (Royal Festival Hall, 1999), Susanna"s Secret (Drill Hall, 1999), Jubilee (Her Majesty"s and British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 3, 1999), Der Kuhandel (Barbican and British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 3, 2000), Journey"s End (Drill Hall, 2000), Cenerentola (Music Theatre London, 2001), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Lyric, 2001), Relatively Speaking (Secombe Theatre Sutton, 2002), Our Song (tour, 2003), Coward and Others (2004), The Manitoba Who. (Orange Tree Richmond, 2005), The Shell Seekers (tour, 2006), Yellow Lincolnshire (Oval House, 2007), Park Avenue (Lilian Bayliss Theatre, 2008), Dirty Dancing (Aldwych Theatre, 2008), and Phantom of the Opera (Royal Albert Hall, 2011).
Alongside his stage career, Firth has performed in a number of films and television series, and is credited as a writer on The Return of Shelley, and Sorry, I"m A Stranger Here Myself.
Firth was a member of the original cast of Phantom of the Opera with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman.