Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen | |
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Born | Stephen Harry Waley-Cohen 22 June 1946 |
Education | Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge. [1] [2] |
Occupation | Theatre producer |
Spouse(s) | Pamela Doniger (m.div.) Josie Spencer )m.) |
Children | 5, including Freya Waley-Cohen and Jack Waley-Cohen |
Father | Bernard Waley-Cohen |
Relatives | Sam Waley-Cohen (nephew) |
Sir Stephen Harry Waley-Cohen, 2nd Baronet (born 22 June 1946 in Westminster, London) [3] is an English theatre owner-manager and producer, following a career as a businessman and financial journalist. He manages the St. Martin's Theatre in London's West End and is the current producer of the world's longest running play The Mousetrap . [4] [5] He was Chairman of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) Council. [6]
Waley-Cohen was a financial journalist, at the Daily Mail from 1968 to 1973, [3] and a founder director and publisher at Euromoney Publications (which later became Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC) [4] [7] from 1969 to 1983. [3]
He was involved with the insurance business, including as chairman of Willis Faber & Dumas (Agencies) (part of what became the Willis Group) from 1992 to 1999, [3] [8] director of the Stewart Wrightson Members Agency Ltd 1987 to 1998 [3] and chairman of Policy Portfolio plc from 1993 to 1998. [3] [9]
He was chairman of First Call Group plc from 1996 to 1998 and of Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspaper plc from 1998 to 1999. [3] He was a director of Exeter Preferred Capital Investment Trust plc 1992–2003. [3]
Waley-Cohen has been a theatre owner and manager since 1984 when he was Joint Chief Executive of Maybox Group, which managed the Albery (now named the Noël Coward), Criterion, Donmar Warehouse, Piccadilly, Whitehall (now Trafalgar Studios) and Wyndham's theatres, until it was sold in 1989. [3] [4]
In 1989 he became managing director of the Victoria Palace Theatre, [3] [4] and took on the management of the St. Martin's Theatre. [3] [4] He managed the Vaudeville Theatre from 1996 to 2001 [3] [10] and the Savoy from 1997 to 2005. [4] [11] In April 2007 he took over the Ambassadors Theatre. [3] [4] In 2014, he sold the Victoria Palace to Delfont Mackintosh Theatres. [12]
He became the producer of The Mousetrap in 1994. [3] [5] During his time managing the St. Martin's Theatre, he had got to know The Mousetrap's producer, Peter Saunders. Waley-Cohen said, "When [Saunders] wanted to retire at the age of 80, he picked up the phone to me". [13] Mousetrap Productions, of which Waley-Cohen is the sole director, is licensed to produce the play by Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie's grandson, to whom she gave the rights to The Mousetrap when he was nine. [13]
In 1997, Waley-Cohen launched the education charity, Mousetrap Theatre Projects. [14] The charity brings disadvantaged young people into the West End to experience theatre, and runs access, education and audience development programmes. The charity had taken over 100,000 young people to the theatre by 2012. [14]
Waley-Cohen stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate in both the General Elections in 1974 for the Manchester Gorton constituency.
Waley-Cohen was Chairman of the RADA Council until 2021 (a position to which he was elected in September 2007), [3] [4] [15] and Chairman of RADA's Development Board. [6] He was President of the Society of London Theatre from 2002 to 2005, having been a member since 1984 and a board member since 1993. [3] [4] [16] He was a Trustee of The Theatres Trust from 1998 to 2004. [3] [4]
He is President of the JCA Charitable Foundation, which supports projects for education, agriculture and tourism in rural areas of Israel such as Galilee and the Negev. [3] [17] In 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. [18]
He was chairman of the British-American Project executive committee from 1989 to 92, and continued to have a role in its subsequent development. [3] [19]
As a hereditary baronet, Waley-Cohen is styled Sir as part of his baronetcy – the title is not a knighthood.
Waley-Cohen has three children by his first marriage, to Pamela Doniger, including the businessman Jack Waley-Cohen, and two with the American sculptor Josie Spencer, [20] including the violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen, [21] composer Freya Waley-Cohen. His nephew is the successful amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen. His father, Bernard Waley-Cohen, was Lord Mayor of London, and his mother was educationalist and public servant Joyce Waley-Cohen.
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The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA, is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London, close to the Senate House complex of the University of London, and is a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools.
The Mousetrap is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The play opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until 16 March 2020, when the stage performances had to be temporarily discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemic. It then re-opened on 17 May 2021. The longest-running West End show, it also has by far the longest run of any play in the world, with its 29,500th performance having taken place as of February 2024. Attendees at St Martin's Theatre often get their photo taken beside the wooden counter in the theatre foyer. As of 2022 the play has been seen by 10 million people in London.
The Ambassadors Theatre, is a West End theatre located in West Street, near Cambridge Circus on Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster. It is one of the smallest of the West End theatres, seating a maximum of 444, with 195 people in the dress circle and 251 in the stalls.
The Victoria Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster. The theatre was designed by Frank Matcham in 1911 and was the last London theatre he designed before his retirement. The building was designated as a Grade II* listed building by Historic England in 1972. It has been the west end home of the musical "Hamilton" since 2017.
Sir Bernard Nathaniel Waley-Cohen, 1st Baronet was a British businessman. He was the 633rd Lord Mayor of London, elected in 1960.
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ATG Entertainment formerly The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), is a major international live entertainment organisation headquartered in the United Kingdom, with offices in Woking, London, New York, Sydney, Mannheim and Cologne. ATG's key operations comprise three inter-related activities: venue ownership and management, ticketing and marketing operations, and show productions.
Sir Robert Waley Cohen, KBE was a British industrialist and prominent leader of Anglo-Jewry.
Robert Bernard Waley-Cohen DL is an English entrepreneur.
The Waley-Cohen Baronetcy, of Honeymead in the county of Somerset, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 11 December 1961 for Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen, Lord Mayor of London from 1960 to 1961 and the son of Robert Waley Cohen. Born Bernard Nathaniel Waley Cohen, he assumed by deed poll his last forename as an additional surname in 1950. As of 2012 the title is held by his son, the second Baronet, who succeeded in 1991.
Delfont Mackintosh Theatres is a theatre group owned by British theatrical producer Cameron Mackintosh. The company was founded in 1991 by Mackintosh and Bernard Delfont when Mackintosh acquired part ownership of the theatre holdings of First Leisure Corporation. The group owns eight London theatres.
Sir Alfred Butt, 1st Baronet was a British theatre impresario, Conservative politician and racehorse owner and breeder. During a fourteen-year tenure as manager of London's Palace Theatre, beginning in 1904, Butt built a theatre empire, expanding firstly with the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow in 1910, followed by the London Victoria Palace a year later, to rival that of Edward Moss and others. He became managing director of several London West End theatres beginning in 1914, including the Adelphi Theatre, the Empire Theatre, the Gaiety Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, as well as theatres outside London. He continued as a theatre impresario until 1931.
Sir Howard Hugh Panter is a British theatre impresario and theatre operator. With his wife Rosemary Squire he ran the Ambassador Theatre Group from about 1995 until 2016; they remain directors and shareholders of the company. When they left the active management of ATG, they bought Trafalgar Studios, which became the centre of a new company, Trafalgar Entertainment.
Sam Bernard Waley-Cohen is an English entrepreneur and retired amateur National Hunt jockey.
Great West End Theatres is a documentary series detailing the history, architecture and theatrical anecdotes of the 40 West End Theatres of London, released individually as All-Region DVDs and also as digital downloads and the first 10 episodes were broadcast from 3 August 2013 in the UK by the BSkyB digital satellite channel Sky Arts 2 and were chosen as "Pick of the Day" by the London edition of Time Out magazine.
Dame Rosemary Anne Squire, DBE is a British commercial theatre owner and entrepreneur. She is the founder of the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) LTD, and co-founder of Trafalgar Entertainment.
The Agatha Christie Memorial is a memorial to author and playwright Agatha Christie, located at the intersection of Cranbourn Street and Great Newport Street by St Martin's Cross near Covent Garden, in London, United Kingdom.
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