Career
He is best known for playing the role of Joey Boswell in Bread from 1989 until 1991, taking over from Peter Howitt, who played him from 1986 until 1989. Bickley trained at The Liverpool Theatre School. He has performed in the West End since 1981 in productions including They"re Playing Our Song, The Pirates of Penzance, and as principal lead in Jukebox, Which Witch, Maddie, The Pajama Game (Best Actor nomination, Toronto), Les Misérables, Metropolis, Mission Saigon, Sunset Boulevard (playing opposite Petula Clark), and Ragtime (nominated for the Laurence Olivier and The Whatsonstage Award for Best Actor in a Musical).
Regional productions include Sleuth, Number Trams to Lime Street (Best Actor nomination, Manchester), the United Kingdom première of I Love You, You"re Perfect, Now Change and the world première of Black Goes With Everything.
Revues include Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris and lieutenant"s Better With a Band. On the concert platform, Bickley has performed with orchestras throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and South America including The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, The London Symphony, The City of London Sinfonia, The National Symphony, The Northern Sinfonia, The Royal Scottish National, The Hallé, The City of Birmingham Symphony, The RTÉ Concert, The Gothenburg Symphony, The Iceland Symphony and The São Paulo Symphony.
With conductor Carl Davis, Bickley performed a series of concerts with The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, The Hallé, The City of Birmingham Symphony, the Bergen Philharmonic in Norway and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has appeared in concert performances of Leonard Bernstein’s Wonderful Town playing the role of The Wreck with The Rotterdam Philharmonic, and Guys and Dolls, playing Nathan Detroit with The Vienna Konzerthaus, both conducted by Wayne Marshall.
Bickley has also appeared in concert arena productions of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita.
Bickley regularly appears with the British Broadcasting Corporation Concert Orchestra. His concerts include Guys and Dolls, playing Nathan Detroit, On The Town, playing Chip, and a new musical version of Peter Pan, all at The Royal Festival Hall and recorded for broadcast on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio. Other live concert performances for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio include Bitter Sweet, Radio Rhapsody, and Big Band Special with the British Broadcasting Corporation Big Band, and many appearances as guest vocalist on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 2’s Friday Night is Music Night.
In 2000, Bickley made his début at the British Broadcasting Corporation Promenade Concerts at The Royal Albert Hall, performing in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and a 70th birthday tribute for Stephen Sondheim.
Foreign Grange Park Opera, Bickley has completed two seasons: Billy Crocker in Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, and Robert Baker in Leonard Bernstein’s Wonderful Town. He was a guest artist for a gala concert in Leeds with Lesley Garrett and the Opera North Orchestra, and with orchestrator Martin Koch, he produced a concert to celebrate the work of Nelson Riddle, with The British Broadcasting Corporation Concert Orchestra and transmitted live on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 2.
Throughout 2005-2006 Bickley undertook a national tour of Cole Porter’s High Society playing the role of C.K. Dexter Haven, culminating in a season at The Shaftesbury Theatre in the West End. His concert engagements in 2007 included Good Thing Going, a celebration of the music of Stephen Sondheim at Cadogan Hall, and The Best of Broadway, two concerts at The Royal Albert Hall, both with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
He also performed in several gala concerts celebrating the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein, and was a special guest for Barbara Cook"s 80th birthday concert at The London Coliseum: Barbara Cook and Friends.
He is a director of The Theatre Royal Drury Lane Theatrical Fund, founded in 1766.
