I’m wedded to the stage… and to entertainment too! It all started when I fell head over heels with theatre in my teens. Even a bit earlier, as my elder brother proved recently – doing a clear-out of my mother’s attic for her, he found scrapbooks I had started making when 11, where I cut out every single article on theatre I came across in every paper I read including The Sun.

My obsession grew into a profound passion, which has led me to sing, dance, act and direct in countless shows over the last few decades, as well as presenting programmes on theatre for radio and TV as well as performing in the UK, I’ve also been on some romantic theatrical trips around the world from New York to KL to Cape Town and to Cockermouth. My relationship with the entertainment industry has been demanding, all-consuming and immensely rewarding. I’ve had such a blast too. I love (most days of the year) the world I work in and always strive to communicate my love of the business of show business.

Many people know my fun-loving, cheeky, comedic side, when, as one of the hairiest men in British entertainment, I may show the odd hint of camp behind my macho exterior. I have of course played in many hilarious shows, from John Prescott ( in a fat suit) in Blair on Broadway, to Jack Crawford and Clarice’s dad in Silence!, the musical spoof of Silence of the Lambs to three runs in Bathhouse The Musical playing Maurice, the sad gay looking for love.

Many of you will of course be familiar with my alter ego, the irrepressible Sister Mary McArthur from St Peter’s of the Sisters of the Third Removed in Soho, who graced the West End tapping down on the streets of Soho resembling a religious version of Gene Kelly – but a nun. Rumoured to be the secret love child of Elaine Paige.

After starting my career in pantomime many years ago as a dancer, I used to be able to get my legs very high dear- alas those days are long gone. Then as later years have approached and everything headed south I was cast as an Ugly Sister in Cinderella at Radlett in 2008. Spent four glorious years in Hereford - Aladdin was my debut as Dame , got me Twankey out. Since then have played her three times. For the past seven years I have been resident Dame at The White Rock Theatre in Hastings for Qdos (Daryl Back) Imagine and now Polka Dot. I’ve also acted in several Shakespeare plays, from playing Feste in Twelfth Night, to Amiens, and Charles the Wrestler in As You Like It having to do a stage fight with some star from Soldier Soldier- very intense, had to concentrate to make sure me false moustache stayed on.

Some were startled to see me play the extremely dark role of Sam Byck in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins. The Sondheim society magazine reviewed the show and gave me the following quote:
“Perhaps the strongest member of a fine cast was Tim McArthur giving probably the scariest portrayal I’ve yet encountered of Father Christmas- attired , monumentally angry Sam Byck” Sondheim Society Magazine 2012
My favourite role so far has been the Baker in Into The Woods. I adore this show and our version had a modern twist all of the characters were based on reality TV types.
Those who don’t know me well may be surprised to hear that my very favourite composer of musicals is America’s Sondheim. I adore his work having seen Follies in 1987 when I was 12 he is a supremely complex musical writer of the last half century; I am indeed a great Sondheimite, and was thrilled to devise my own tribute to him, Classic Moments Hidden treasures which got a four star review in the Times and a rather flattering quote for myself:
“The actor director had a high weakness for camp in the past, but he puts in a bracingly disciplined performance.. McArthur always relishes a comic challenge, yet he shows that he can rise to more emotional peaks as he steps into the role of a scorned partner on Could I Leave You” The Times July 2010

Among the plays that I’ve directed are several reflective, even tortured pieces. I’m particularly proud of my work on adaptations of E.M. Forster’s Maurice, Laclo’s Liaisons Dangereuses, and Hanif Kureishi’s My Beautiful Laundrette – while working on My Beautiful Laundrette, I was privileged enough to meet Hanif himself and to be able to introduce him to the cast. Musicals I have loved directing Sondheim seems to be high on my list, Into The Woods, A little night Music, Sweeney Todd. Then of course their is the longest running comedy show in the world Newsrevue, you never look at the news again in the same way.

In recent years, I have developed my skills as a writer. My first play Control opened at the Hen and Chickens Theatre in 2018 and transferred to the Bridge Theatre. Followed by Deeper and Deeper in 2022 at Above the Stag and in 2023 played a four week season at the Union Theatre. A Word for Mother ran for 32 performances at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in May 2024. Then Small Town Boys opened at the Union Theatre in September 2024 for 4 weeks. My play Conversations Over Toys is hovering in the wings and myself and Lucy Penrose wrote Above The Stags Panto in 2023 Puss which ran for 5 weeks at Wonderville on the Haymarket.

Perhaps some people are unfamiliar with my serious side having been quite well known as a cabaret performer in the late 90’s and turn of the millennium , so don’t be entirely fooled by the comic exterior; I may like to celebrate the joyous sides of life, but I take my marriage to the theatre and to entertainment extremely seriously. If you include my initial years of training at Mountview, where I started at the age of 17, I’m now celebrating my 30th anniversary living with the London entertainment world! [Many happy returns, dear!]

My mission today is to carry on and enjoy all the different facets this business has to offer from acting to presenting, bits and bobs of comedy, and directing. Please do enjoy my website and remember I am a man for all stages.