Michael Bruce

Sound

Michael Bruce

Michael Bruce is a Scottish composer and lyricist who works in TV, film and theatre. He has composed scores and original songs for Warner Bros, Netflix, PBS, Sky Arts, the National Theatre, the Old Vic and theatres in the West End and on Broadway. He was composer-in-residence at the Donmar Warehouse from 2012-2019. His new musical, based on the film The Illusionist, opened in Tokyo in 2021 and hi…

Known For

National Theatre Live: Twelfth NightNational Theatre Live: Twelfth Night · 2017
National Theatre Live: Twelfth Night
★ 8.72017
MovieComedyDrama
A ship is wrecked on the rocks. Viola is washed ashore but her twin brother Sebastian is lost. Determined to survive on her own, she steps out to explore a new land. So begins a whirlwind of mistaken identity and unrequited love. The nearby households of Olivia and Orsino are overrun with passion. Even Olivia's upright housekeeper Malvolia is swept up in the madness. Where music is the food of love, and nobody is quite what they seem, anything proves possible.
Kiloran BayKiloran Bay · 2026
Kiloran Bay
2026
Movie
Kiloran Bay is written and directed by Michael Bruce: A musical short film starring Alan Cumming and Jack Wolfe. After decades away, a gay man returns home to Scotland to attend a traditional wedding and faces a past he spent a lifetime avoiding.
National Theatre Live: Romeo and JulietNational Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet · 2021
National Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet
★ 6.22021
MovieDramaRomance
An adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy set in modern-day Italy where two young lovers strive to transcend a violent world where Catholic and secular values clash.
The Nan MovieThe Nan Movie · 2022
The Nan Movie
★ 5.72022
MovieComedy
Catherine Tate's iconic character Nan hits the big screen as she goes on a wild road trip from London to Ireland with her grandson Jamie to make amends with her estranged sister Nell. Militant vegan arsonists, raucous rugby teams, all night raves and crazed cops on motorbikes all make for a proper day out. An origin story that mixes Nan's present with her past where we finally find out what's made her the cantankerous old bastard she is today.
National Theatre Live: Les Liaisons DangereusesNational Theatre Live: Les Liaisons Dangereuses · 2016
National Theatre Live: Les Liaisons Dangereuses
★ 6.02016
MovieDramaRomance
Marquise de Merteuil, former lover of Vicomte de Valmont, incites him to corrupt the innocent Cécile de Volanges before her wedding night, but Valmont has targeted the peerlessly virtuous and beautiful Madame de Tourvel.
A Merry Scottish ChristmasA Merry Scottish Christmas · 2023
A Merry Scottish Christmas
★ 6.22023
MovieTV MovieComedy
When estranged siblings Lindsay and Brad travel to Scotland at Christmas to reunite with their mother Jo, a big family secret is revealed.
National Theatre Live: CoriolanusNational Theatre Live: Coriolanus · 2014
National Theatre Live: Coriolanus
★ 8.12014
MovieDrama
When an old adversary threatens Rome, the city calls once more on her hero and defender: Coriolanus. But he has enemies at home too. Famine threatens the city, the citizens’ hunger swells to an appetite for change, and on returning from the field Coriolanus must confront the march of realpolitik and the voice of an angry people.
Keeping Company with SondheimKeeping Company with Sondheim · 2022
Keeping Company with Sondheim
★ 9.02022
MovieDocumentaryMusic
Filmed over two years, this new documentary takes an exclusive inside look at Tony-winning director Marianne Elliott’s creative process of bringing a reimagined gender-swapped production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical Company to Broadway during the COVID-19 pandemic. Featuring rehearsal and performance footage, plus new interviews with Elliott, Sondheim, Katrina Lenk, Patti LuPone and members of the original 1970 cast, the broadcast tells the story of the show’s Broadway debut in a city on the verge of bankruptcy to its reimagination 50 years later as both Broadway and New York City emerge from one of the greatest crises in contemporary history.

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National Theatre Live: Man and SupermanNational Theatre Live: Man and Superman · 2015
National Theatre Live: Man and Superman
★ 6.22015
MovieDrama
Academy Award® nominee Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient, Schindler’s List, Oedipus at the National Theatre) plays Jack Tanner in this exhilarating reinvention of Shaw’s witty, provocative classic. Jack Tanner, celebrated radical thinker and rich bachelor, seems an unlikely choice as guardian to the alluring heiress, Ann. But she takes it in her assured stride and, despite the love of a poet, she decides to marry and tame this dazzling revolutionary. Tanner, appalled by the whiff of domesticity, is tipped off by his chauffeur and flees to Spain, where he is captured by bandits and meets The Devil. An extraordinary dream-debate, heaven versus hell, ensues. Following in hot pursuit, Ann is there when Tanner awakes, as fierce in her certainty as he is in his. A romantic comedy, an epic fairytale, a fiery philosophical debate, Man and Superman asks fundamental questions about how we live.

Music