as a career.) The Southwark Playhouse production also featured a then-unknown Lily James as Nina. (Lily went on to play Cinderella in the 2015 Disney live-action film version of Cinderella). The season was a sell-out. Derby Theatre asked him back to play Joe Josephson in Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. Menier Chocolate Factory also cast him again in The Invisible Man. The prestigious York Theatre Royal cast him as leading character Dr Robert Smith in the highly acclaimed play Blue/Orange. Beckley also spent three years (2009, 2014, 2015) travelling to 30 countries in the role of Bill Austin in the world-wide hit musical 'Mamma Mia!'. It was at the end of his last year with that show that he decided to return to Australia, where he has been since early 2016. Since returning to his native country Beckley has appeared on the television programs Here Come The Habibs, Doctor Doctor, The Secret Daughter and House of Bond, as well as the new Australian musical Melba based on the life of opera star Dame Nellie Melba (played by international opera star Emma Matthews). In 2019, Beckley appeared in the Opera Australia/Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour production of West Side Story as Officer Krupke ... the titular character of that show's famous comedy number 'Gee, Officer Krupke'. The production was directed by multi-award-winning director Francesca Zambello. Her assistant and choreographer was Julio Monge. It was Beckley's first appearance with Opera Australia. Directing Michael Beckley was resident director on The Rocky Horror Show for Australian and New Zealand tours during the 1990s. He began in the chorus as a Phantom and then became Dance Captain. After the first one-year tour, director Nigel Triffitt offered Beckley the position of assistant director for the show's New Zealand tour. This position was changed to Resident Director when the show began a new Australian tour starring Jason Donovan in Perth. Triffitt also used Beckley as his assistant for a revival of his 1990 Melbourne International Arts Festival hit production of Moby Dick for Sydney Theatre Company in 1998. Beckley continued to direct through the late 1990s on shows such as The Seventh Knob (Belvoir St Theatre, downstairs), Leader of the Pack (Laycock St Theatre, Gosford, 1996, return season 1997), Damn Yankees (full charity fund-raiser production, 1999) and assisted Jeremy Sims on the hugely successful Pork Chop production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Belvoir St Theatre, upstairs)