Dave Willetts (born 24 June 1952) is an English singer and actor known for having leading roles in West End musicals.
His West End credits include leading roles in The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Ragtime, Les Misérables, Sunset Boulevard and Aspects of Love.
[2] He then played 'Charlie Gordon' in amateur production of Charles Strouse musical, Flowers for Algernon,[3] at the Priory Theatre in Kenilworth.
[2] He then came to the attention of Bob Hamlyn, artistic director of the Belgrade Theatre, in Coventry who cast him as "third flunky from the left" in another show by Strouse, Annie.
In 1987, when Michael Crawford departed the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera for its Broadway premiere[5][1] Willetts succeeded him in the title role at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End.
He subsequently played the role of The Phantom in Manchester,[6] on the UK tour to critical acclaim, winning an Evening News Theatre Award.
[14] He played Max in a scaled-down production of Sunset Boulevard at the Comedy Theatre (now The Harold Pinter), directed by Craig Revel Horwood in September 2008,[9][15] for which he was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical.
[18] In 2017, he appeared as the White Rabbit in Wonderland, a new musical by Frank Wildhorn also starring Wendi Peters and Kerry Ellis.
[19][20] In 2023, Dave played the role of Sir George Dillingham in a West End revival of Aspects of Love at the Lyric Theatre.