WRITERS
Jonny Smith (Lyrics) and Dom Hartley (Music) should have teamed up at school, but Jonny was too busy playing football while Dom was unsuccessfuly learning to sequence a Roland synth and form his first band.
A few years later, stumbling across each other (literally) in Lourdes France, they started work on their first musical, VISION. Following several popular amateur productions, the show took to the stage at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2002, with the biggest cast in town that year. VISION enjoyed another successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2015. The show then travelled to Nigeria, playing at the National Theatre for a week of sell-out performances, followed by many other UK productions.
CRUNCH The Musical took the duo in a new direction. They had been working on an office-based musical and, when the 2008 Credit Crunch hit, they were in pole-position with a dark comedy and satirical songs that immediately resonated with the turbulent times.
CRUNCH featured on the front page of the Financial Times and on national TV and radio across Europe. The musical also gained attention in the National Press and on radio stations across the US.
When Covid hit they had a lot to say, culminating in London performances of Scotch Egg The Musical that saw two successful runs. The show saw many sell out nights and the duo have plans for a return once the virus has settled.
Dom is a musician and co-founder of the UK’s most successful party band 29 Fingers with Ivan McCormick of U2 and Killing Bono fame. Following a misspent youth entertaining on the keys in Val d'lsère, he tried to mend his ways in radio and TV journalism and is now working as a video producer and multimedia consultant in London.
Jonny's path is the opposite. He swapped a high-flying legal career for the classroom where he’s currently teaching dystopian fiction to teenagers. He has written several novels and short stories (including the popular legal thriller, Invisible) all of which are available on Amazon, at the Jonny Dixon-Smith author page.