Musical Theatre
On 6 July 2008, Gates starred in the line-up for "A Spoonful of Stiles & Drewe", a charity fundraiser to celebrate 25 years of musical theatre composers George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Gates played the part of Robbie in a preview of a new musical "Soho Cinders" and features on the album.
In January 2009, Gates confirmed in an interview with the Daily Mail that he has no plans to go back to the pop music scene in the near future, planning instead to concentrate on musical theatre, as he had just been cast in the lead role in Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Adelphi Theatre, London. Taking over the role from Lee Mead, Gates began the role on 7 February 2009 and continued to play the part until the final performance on 30 May 2009.
Gates performed at the charity event "Broadway To West End by Special Arrangement" on 4 October 2009 at the Drury Lane Theatre, singing "Why God, Why?" as a solo and "The Last Night of the World" as a duet with Ima Castro. Both songs come from the musical Miss Saigon. The event was to honour the work of orchestrator William David Brohm and raised funds for CLIC Sargent Cancer care.
In June 2009, it was announced that Gates was joining the cast of the International 25th Anniversary World Tour production of Les Misérables in the role of Marius. Gates had been offered the choice of playing Marius in London's West End or in the anniversary tour, but opted for the tour as it was a new production and there was the opportunity to make the part his own.
In January 2010 Cameron Mackintosh BBC Manchester that there was to be a live cast recording of the production, recorded in Manchester,. This double album was released in the UK on 13 September 2010, Les Misérables Live on the label First Night Records.
Following the final performance of the anniversary tour at The Barbican, London, in October 2010, Gates joined the West End production of Les Misérables at Queen's Theatre where he continued to play the part of Marius until June 2011.
Gates took a break from musical theatre to work on other projects, including writing a new album, but planned to return in March 2012, taking the part of Claude in the UK touring production of Hair It was later announced that the musical would not proceed as efforts to rescue the tour following the bankruptcy of the original production company had failed.
Instead, Gates will play Eddie in the new musical Loserville at the West Yorkshire Playhouse from 18 June to 14 July 2012. The musical is written by Busted's James Bourne and Elliot Davis. Along with Gareth the cast also includes EastEnders Aaron Sidwell and Lil' Chris.
In January 2012 Gates featured in a one night only charity production of Children of Eden playing the part of Cain in aid of Crohn's disease.
In July 2012, Gates will take over the role of Warner in the UK tour of Legally Blonde (musical)
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