CAMERON
MACKINTOSH
TH 497 - Musical Theatre
'The most successful, influential and powerful producer of
our time' - The New York Times
CAMERON
MACKINTOSH
For over 45 years Cameron Mackintosh has
been producing more musicals than
anyone else in history, including the three
longest running musicals of all time, Les
Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera and
Cats, which are still running extraordinarily
successfully across the world.
Link to Cameron Mackintosh.com
Early career
From the age of eight when Cameron Mackintosh
was taken to a matinee of Julian Slade’s musical
Salad Days he has never wanted to be anything
other than a producer of musicals. Starting off as
a stagehand at London’s Theatre Royal, Drury
Lane, he later became an acting ASM on the
national tour of Oliver! and by the age of twenty
he started to realise his dream. His first
productions were small scale tours but within a
very short time he had produced his first musical
Anything Goes which opened out of town,
transferred to the Saville Theatre in London’s
West End and closed after a fortnight.
Undeterred Cameron returned to his initial
musical inspiration and revived Salad Days.
SALAD DAYS - 1954
The 1970s
During the 1970s Mackintosh continued to
produce numerous tours, notably Godspell
which ran almost continuously for five years.
His first success was Trelawny in 1972 that
began at the Bristol Old Vic and transferred to
both Sadler’s Wells and the Prince of Wales
where it ran for a year. This was his first
production with Julian Slade. In 1973 he
instigated his first original musical The Card
with music by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent,
and a book by Keith Waterhouse and Willis
Hall, the cast included Jim Dale, Millicent
Martin and Joan Hickson and the show ran for
six months at London's Queen’s Theatre.
Mackintosh in the 1970s
Click above to link to Millicent Martin performance at 1977 Tony Awards
Cameron's first major international success
came in 1976 with the musical revue Side by
Side by Sondheim celebrating the wit and
lyrical genius of Stephen Sondheim that
moved from the Mermaid Theatre to
Wyndham’s Theatre and subsequently
transferred with the same cast to New York.
This was followed by a hugely successful
revival of the original production of Oliver! that
spawned an innovative collaboration with the
Arts Council of Great Britain and successful
productions of two of the all time great
musicals My Fair Lady and Oklahoma!
Following Cats, came Song and Dance, Little
Shop of Horrors, Blondel and Abbacadabra
before the next milestone production in 1985 of
Les Misérables and Cameron’s brilliantly
successful collaboration with the writing team
of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg.
Click logo to visit Les Mis website
While maintaining an ever expanding number of international
productions of Cats and Les Misérables, Cameron Mackintosh joined
Andrew Lloyd Webber again to produce The Phantom of the Opera
at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London in 1986, and in 1987 he produced
Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s Follies at the Shaftesbury
Theatre.
Meanwhile Boublil and Schönberg
continued their collaboration with
Cameron on another musical,
Miss Saigon, which opened at
the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in
September 1989. In that illustrious
home of the musical it broke the
record for the longest running
musical and in 1999 celebrated its
10th anniversary making it the
fourth of Cameron's productions
to continue running for over 10
years – a feat never before
achieved in the industry.
In 1990 Cameron transferred
Five Guys Named Moe to the
West End for a hugely
successful run at the Lyric
Theatre.
Oliver! opened in a completely new production at the
London Palladium in December 1994 and on 8 July
1997 became the longest running show at that theatre
before enjoying a sell out tour of the UK.
In 1996 Cameron again collaborated with Boublil and Schönberg to
produce their third musical Martin Guerre that opened at the Prince
Edward Theatre in London where it ran for 700 performances and won
the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical.
The Witches of Eastwick, with music by
Dana Rowe and lyrics by John Dempsey,
premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury
Lane in July 2000 and subsequently
transferred to the Prince of Wales Theatre,
running for a total of more than 500
performances.
In June 1998 he celebrated
thirty years as a musical
producer with a spectacular
charity gala presentation of
Hey Mr Producer! in the
presence of Her Majesty the
Queen and The Duke of
Edinburgh. This show was
subsequently released on
video and CD.
In March 2001 Cameron presented My Fair Lady
at the Royal National Theatre starring Jonathan
Pryce as Professor Higgins and Martine
McCutcheon as Eliza. This production opened at
the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 21 July 2001
with a record box office advance and won a total
of 5 Olivier Awards including Best Musical and
Best Choreography.
In June 2002 Cameron’s production of Les Misérables
became the first full scale production of a western musical
to be performed in China. A special concert performance
was given at Windsor Castle on 18 November 2004, in
honour of the French President, to celebrate the centenary
of the Entente Cordiale. Les Misérables overtook Cats to
become the longest running musical in the world and on 8
October 2006 it celebrated its 21st birthday at London’s
Queen’s Theatre. As well as celebrating this milestone
Cameron simultaneously put on a new version of Les
Misérables at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York.
Mackintosh with Thomas Schumacher
In 2004 he realized a long-standing ambition to produce a stage musical
of Mary Poppins. The production, in collaboration with Disney, is based
on the books by Pamela Travers and the hugely successful Disney film. It
opened in London on 15 December 2004 and on Broadway on 16
November 2006 where it won two Drama Desk awards and one Tony®
Award. It ended its Broadway run on
3 March 2013.
He produced the London production of AVENUE Q in 2007
Les Misérables is now the longest-running musical in the world and,
in October 2010, celebrated its 25th anniversary with a theatrical first
– three different productions of the musical were staged
simultaneously in one city – the star-studded Concert at The O2, the
acclaimed new 25th Anniversary Production at London’s Barbican
Theatre, and the original production, which continues its recordbreaking run at the Queen’s Theatre, London. The new 25th
Anniversary Production has been a huge hit all over again, currently
breaking box office records across North America, with another
production in Korea and more to open worldwide in Canada, Australia,
South America, Japan and China over the next three years. Click
here to see the Valjean Quartet
On 1 and 2 October 2011 The Phantom of
the Opera celebrated its 25th Anniversary
with a spectacular staging at the Royal
Albert Hall. A completely new production of
this legendary musical launched on a
national tour in February 2012. Over the
next three years over 40 new productions
of his musicals are due to open around the
world. To see the 25th Anniversary
Performance curtain call. (click here)
Cameron, in conjunction with Working Title Films and
Universal, has produced the film of Les Misérables, directed
by Tom Hooper and starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe
and Anne Hathaway, winner of 3 Golden Globes including
Best Picture, 4 BAFTAs and 3 Academy Awards.
Cameron owns seven historic theatres in
London’s West End – the Prince of Wales,
Gielgud, Queen’s, Wyndham’s, Noël
Coward, Novello and Prince Edward, all of
which have undergone spectacular
refurbishment, giving him the opportunity to
indulge his passion for architecture and the
restoration of old buildings. He is also the
co-owner of Music Theatre International,
the World's largest owner of secondary
rights of the greatest musicals.
Some of Cameron’s awards include The Queen’s Award for Export Achievement
and he was knighted in the 1996 New Year’s Honours for his services to British
theatre. In 2006 he received the National Enjoy England Award for Excellence
for his Outstanding Contribution to Tourism.
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh
Born: October 16, 1946, London Borough of Enfield
Siblings: Robert Mackintosh, Nicholas Mackintosh
Partner: Australian photographer Michael Le Poer Trench
U.S. CREDITS for CAMERON MACKINTOSH
Les Misérables
2014
Mary Poppins
2006
Les Misérables
2006
Oklahoma!
2002
Putting It Together
1999
Martin Guerre
1999
Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake
1998
Carousel
1994
Five Guys Named Moe
1992
Miss Saigon
1991
The Phantom of the Opera 1988
Les Misérables
1987
Oliver!
1984
Cats
1982
Little Shop of Horrors
1982, Off-Broadway
Tomfoolery
1981, Off-Broadway
UK Production Credits
2014
2013
2011
2010
2006
2005
2004
2001
2000
1998
1997
1996
1994
Miss Saigon
Barnum
Betty Blue Eyes
Hair
Avenue Q
Sunday in the Park With George
My Fair Lady Tour
Mary Poppins
My Fair Lady
Witches of Eastwick
Oklahoma!
The Fix
Martin Guerre
Oliver!
1992
1990
1989
1987
1986
1985
1984
1983
1983
1981
1980
1977
1970
1969
Carousel
Moby Dick
Putting It Together
Five Guys Named Moe
Miss Saigon
Follies
The Phantom of the Opera
Les Miserables
The Boyfriend
Abbacadabara
Little Shop of Horrors
Cats
Oklahoma!
Side by Side by Sondheim
Salad Days
Anything Goes
Read recent news about Cameron Mackintosh here.
Sources
Broadway World.com
Cameron Mackintosh.com
Les Miserables.com
Phantom of the Opera.com
Playbill.com