Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh (born 17 October 1946) is a British theatrical producer and theatre owner notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York Times.[1] He is the producer of shows including Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Oliver!, and Hamilton.
Mackintosh was knighted in 1996 for services to musical theatre.[2] Two of his productions, Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera, are the two longest-running musicals in West End history. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 7 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture".[3] In the Sunday Times Rich List of 2021, Mackintosh was estimated to have a net worth of £1.2 billion.[4]
Early life
Mackintosh was born in Enfield, London, the son of Diana Gladys (née Tonna), a production secretary, and Ian Robert Mackintosh, a timber merchant and jazz trumpeter.[5] His father was Scottish, and his mother who was a native of Malta, was of Maltese and French descent.[6][7] Mackintosh was educated at Prior Park College in Bath.[8]
Mackintosh first knew that he wanted to become a theatre producer after his aunt took him to a matinee of the Julian Slade musical Salad Days when he was eight years old.[9]
Theatrical career
Mackintosh in 2012
Mackintosh began his theatre career in his late teens, as a stagehand at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and then became an assistant stage manager on several touring productions. In 1967, working with Robin Alexander, he co-produced five plays at the Kenton Theatre, Henley.[10] He began producing his own small tours before becoming a London-based producer in the 1970s.[11] His early London productions included Anything Goes in 1969 (which closed after a mere two weeks), The Card (1973), Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), My Fair Lady (1978), and Tomfoolery (1980).[12][13]
In 1981, he produced Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, then considered an unlikely subject for a musical.[12] It became the hit of the season, and went on to become one of the longest running musicals on both sides of the Atlantic. After the success of Cats, he approached the French writing team Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil about bringing their musical Les Misérables (then a successful French concept album) to the London stage.[12] The musical opened in 1985 at the Barbican before transferring to the Palace Theatre. Les Misérables had a shaky start at the box office and a lukewarm critical reception before becoming a massive hit, largely by word-of-mouth and is now the longest running musical[14] and second longest running London production.[15]
In 1986, Mackintosh produced Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera,[16] which is one of the most commercially successful musicals of all time.[17] The original London production is still running and is the 3rd longest running production in London,[15] along with the New York production, which is the longest-running Broadway musical of all time.[18]
He produced Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil's next musical Miss Saigon, which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the West End in September 1989. It was similarly successful,[19] and the 1991 Broadway production[20] had what was then the largest advance ticket sales in theatre history prior to its controversy.[21] Asian American actors protested the casting of a Caucasian actor and the use of yellowface in the role of the pimp.
Mackintosh's less successful London productions include Moby Dick (1993)[26] and Martin Guerre (1996).[27] He produced the stage adaptation of John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick (2000) which despite some positive reviews and a run of over 15 months, failed to replicate the worldwide success of his previous blockbusters.
In 1998, Mackintosh celebrated thirty years in show business with Hey, Mr. Producer!, a gala concert featuring songs from shows he had produced during his career. The concert was performed twice, on 7 and 8 June, with proceeds going to the Royal National Institute of Blind People and the Combined Theatrical Charities. Many celebrities took part, and the 8 June performance was attended by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.[33]
Mackintosh produced a revival of Lionel Bart's Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane which ran from 2008–09. The production was cast via the hit BBC television series I'd Do Anything. Jodie Prenger became the winner and was subsequently cast as Nancy in the production, with Rowan Atkinson as Fagin. The publicity and attention surrounding the production was unprecedented on the West End stage, and it was reported in January 2009 that the production was the fastest-selling show in West End history, with £15 million of pre-opening sales.[34]
In April 2010, Mackintosh staged a West End revival of the musical Hair in London's Gielgud Theatre. This production was transferred from Broadway, where a revival production was staged in 2009.[35]
In 2013, he worked with the Chichester Festival Theatre on a revival of Barnum, starring Christopher Fitzgerald. Due to the Theatre's refurbishment, it was performed in a giant tent 'Theatre in the Park' in July and August. In 2014, the production toured the UK and Ireland starring Brian Conley in the title role.[36]
Mackintosh is notable as a producer for his transformation of the musical into a global and highly profitable brand; he was the first theatrical producer to recognise that both touring productions and worldwide productions (often in countries where musicals were seldom seen such as the former eastern bloc countries in the early 90s) were potentially highly lucrative markets which could collectively, match and even surpass the revenues generated from New York and London productions.[39]
Mackintosh has also had considerable success in bringing legitimate theatre directors (such as the Royal Shakespeare Company's Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner) and technicians to the world of musical theatre.
His partner is Australian-born theatre photographer Michael Le Poer Trench.[40] They met at the opening night of a production of Oklahoma! in Adelaide, Australia in 1982.[41] The couple live between homes in London; Stavordale Priory in Charlton Musgrove, Somerset; and the Nevis Estate, on North Morar in the West Highlands.
In 2006, Mackintosh was listed 4th on The Independent on Sunday's Pink List, a list of the most influential "out-and-proud" gay men and women.[42] He was also listed 4th in 2005.[42] Mackintosh also topped The Stage 100 list in 2007 for the first time since 2000.[43] The list recognises the most influential members of the performing arts community at the end of each year.
His younger brother, Robert Mackintosh, is also a producer.
Laird of Nevis
In 1994, Mackintosh bought the Nevis Estate, on North Morar, to the east of Mallaig in the West Highlands of Scotland, covering around 14,000 acres (5,700ha). He has since been involved in a long-running dispute with a tenant crofter, over the land use on the estate. As the laird, Mackintosh wants to use the land for building holiday homes, but the crofter says the land is needed for grazing.[40][44]
Politics
In 1990, Mackintosh responded to criticism of Jonathan Pryce using prosthetics and skin darkening makeup to play a Vietnamese character, "We passionately disapprove of stereotype casting...by choosing to discriminate against Mr. Pryce on the basis of his race, Equity has further violated the fundamental principles of federal and state human rights laws, as well as of federal labor laws."[45]
In 1998, Mackintosh was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party,[46] a decision he later regretted,[47][48] saying in 2010, "Labour really fucked it up. They were profligate at a time when we were doing well. That's why we have the problems we have now. They didn't save any money for a rainy day. It couldn't have been worse these last 12 years."[48] In the 2015 British general election, Mackintosh donated £25,000 to the successful Conservative candidate for Somerton and Frome, David Warburton.[49]
In the 2016 European Union membership referendum, Mackintosh voted for the UK to leave the EU, stating that it was "not because I don't love Europe - I do huge amount of work in Europe and love Europeans - but there is something wrong with a system where the Fat Controller is not accountable".[50]
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.
Les Misérables, colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz, is a sung-through musical with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, and a book by Schönberg and Boublil, based on the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. Set in early 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant, and his desire for redemption. After stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving child, Valjean is imprisoned for 19 years and released in 1815. When a bishop inspires him with a tremendous act of mercy, Valjean breaks his parole and starts his life anew and in disguise. He becomes wealthy and adopts an orphan, Cosette. A police inspector named Javert pursues Valjean over the decades in a single-minded quest for "justice". The characters are swept into a revolutionary period in France, where a group of young idealists attempts to overthrow the government at a street barricade in Paris.
Miss Saigon is a sung-through stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting of the plot is relocated to 1970s Saigon during the Vietnam War, and Madama Butterfly's story of marriage between an American lieutenant and a geisha is replaced by a romance between a United States Marine and a seventeen-year-old South Vietnamese bargirl.
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe. Based on the novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux, it tells the tragic story of beautiful soprano Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious and disfigured musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opéra House.
Alain Boublil is a French national musical theatre lyricist and librettist, best known for his collaborations with the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg for musicals on Broadway and London's West End. These include La Révolution Française (1973), Les Misérables (1980), Miss Saigon (1989), Martin Guerre (1996), The Pirate Queen (2006), and Marguerite (2008).
The Really Useful Group Ltd. (RUG) is an international company set up in 1977 by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is involved in theatre, film, television, video and concert productions, merchandising, magazine publishing, records and music publishing. The name is inspired by a phrase from the children's book series The Railway Series in which Thomas the Tank Engine and the other locomotives are referred to as "Really Useful Engines".
Valentine Ruth Henshall, known professionally as Ruthie Henshall, is an English actress, singer and dancer, known for her work in musical theatre. She began her professional stage career in 1986, before making her West End debut in Cats in 1987. A five-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the 1995 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Amalia Balash in the London revival of She Loves Me (1994).
John Owen-Jones is a Welsh musical theatre actor and singer, best known for his portrayals of Jean Valjean in Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schönberg's Les Misérables and The Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.
Hugh Panaro is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his work in Broadway stage musicals, most well known for his role in The Phantom of the Opera being in over 2,000 performances in the Broadway production.
Mary Poppins is a musical with music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman and additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, and a book by Julian Fellowes. The musical is based on the similarly titled Mary Poppins children's books by P. L. Travers and the 1964 Disney film, and is a fusion of various elements from the two, including songs from the film.
Gavin Lee is an English actor who has appeared on the stage in musical theatre, notably as Bert in the musical Mary Poppins, in both the West End and on Broadway, and as Squidward Tentacles in the original Broadway cast of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical.
Side by Side by Sondheim is a musical revue featuring the songs of composer Stephen Sondheim. Its title is derived from the song "Side by Side by Side" from Company.
Jerzy Jeszke is a Polish theatre actor and singer, whose considered as one of Poland's most successful theatre actors. From 28 August 2020, Jeszke is serving a three-year jail sentence for the rape of his ex-girlfriend.
Richard Jay-Alexander is an American Broadway producer and director. He served as Executive Director of the North American Flagship Headquarters, Cameron Mackintosh Inc., for twelve years, known for productions which include Les Misérables, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera,Miss Saigon, Five Guys Named Moe, Oliver! and Putting It Together.
Robin de Levita is a Dutch theatre- and television producer, who produced shows on Broadway and West End and won several Tony Awards.
Nicholas David Allott, OBE is a British theatrical producer.
Anthony Lyn is a Welsh theatrical director and actor, originally from Swansea in South Wales. During his early life, he performed in numerous shows at the Grand Theatre in Swansea. As an actor he appeared in London's West End and toured nationally.
Eva Maria Noblezada is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her work in theatre, starring in musicals in the West End and on Broadway. Her accolades include a Grammy Award and two Tony Award nominations.
Martin McCallum FRSA was a British theatrical producer who was President of the Society of London Theatre. He worked on over 500 shows, many as an independent producer, on Broadway and in the West End.
↑ Zia, Helen (2000). Asian American dreams: the emergence of an American people. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN0-374-14774-4. OCLC42437065.
Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh by Sheridan Morley and Ruth Leon, published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and in the US by Back Stage Books, 1998.
Master of the House. The Theatres of Cameron Mackintosh by Michael Coveney, published by Unicorn, 2023, ISBN 9781914414831 (about the historic London theatres owned by Mackintosh and their renovations)
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