Chris Nightingale

Christopher "Chris" Nightingale (b. March 1966) is a British orchestrator, music supervisor, conductor, composer, and keyboardist, prolific both in Broadway musical/theater and Hollywood film industries. He studied organ at [url=/label/4112733]Magdalene College[/url], serving as the musical director for the "[url=/artist/3918885]Footlights[/url]" troupe during his [url=/label/280159]Cambridge[/url] tenure. After graduating in 1987, Chris Nightingale worked at the [url=/label/1160201]RSC[/url] for several years. Notable highlights of his stage career include Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil's musical Miss Saigon (1989–94), a modernized adaptation of [url=/artist/369053]Puccini[/url]'s Madama Butterfly opera set during the Vietnam War era, and Lionel Bart's "[url=/master/979780]Oliver![/url]" 1994 revival at the London Palladium. Chris also worked on a 2001 musical by Pet Shop Boys, [url=/master/30761]Closer to Heaven[/url], at the London Palladium, and Andrew Lloyd Webber/A.R. Rahman's Bombay Dreams (2002). More recently, Nightingale worked on [url=/master/2233048]Matilda: The Musical[/url], which earned him two nominations for the "Best Orchestration" (2013) at Tony Awards and the "Best Musical Theater Album" (2014) at [url=/label/409941]Grammys[/url], and Jack Thorne's Christmas Carol (2021) — winning the Tony Awards in the "Best Original Score" category (one of five awards, along with [url=/artist/1934097]Simon Baker[/url]'s "Best Sound Design," Hugh Vanstone's "Best Lighting," and [url=/artist/7296895]Rob Howell[/url]'s 2× for "Best Scenic" and "Best Costume Design.")

Nightingale regularly collaborated with director Matthew Warchus. Chris co-wrote [url=/master/1564666]The Lord Of The Rings[/url] musical with A.R. Rahman and Finnish band Värttinä, premiered in 2008 at London Palladium in London, composed the soundtrack for his 2014 historical comedy-drama [url=/master/898258]Pride[/url], and scored Matthew's Future Conditional play at London Palladium theater in 2015, among others. In addition to stage productions, Chris was a musical supervisor and arranger for Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam's Moonshadow UK tour. Over the years, Chris contributed to a handful of Hollywood film productions: from coaching and conducting Madonna, Antonio Banderas, and Jonathan Pryce on the cast of [url=/artist/84838]Alan Parker[/url]'s 1996 rock-musical [url=/master/1191773]Evita[/url] to serving on the music department of Ryan Coogler's 2015 sports drama [url=/master/1146003]Creed[/url] (the inaugural chapter in the eponymous spin-off series within Sylvester Stallone's "[url=/artist/1068798]Rocky[/url]" franchise), [url=/artist/9076738]Shane Black[/url]'s neo-noir action comedy [url=/master/1355899]The Nice Guys[/url] (2016) with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, and several installments in London Palladium's superhero "cinematic Universe," like Doctor Strange (2016) starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and [url=/artist/4899273]Coogler[/url]'s Black Panther (2018).