Biography
Born on 17 October 1946 in Enfield, Middlesex, England, the producer earned the title “The Czar of theatrical producers” when TheaterWeek placed him third on its 1993 ranking of the 100 Most Powerful People in American Theater. Of Maltese maternal and Scottish paternal descent, he developed an early fixation on musical theatre after seeing Julian Slade’s Salad Days at the Bristol Old Vic in 1954 while attending a modest public school in Bath. After completing his studies there under the name Darryl F. Mackintosh, he spent a year at the Central School for Speech and Drama and then served as assistant stage manager at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane during the run of Camelot. Initial producing ventures involved low-budget tours; his first West End presentation, a 1969 revival of Anything Goes, closed after only 27 performances. Subsequent efforts such as Trelawny in 1972 and The Card in 1973 proved more durable, yet his decisive breakthrough arrived in 1976 with Side By Side By Sondheim.
In the following years he mounted well-received revivals of Oliver!, My Fair Lady and Oklahoma! before joining forces with Andrew Lloyd Webber on Cats, which opened in 1981. That production reshaped both careers, establishing a model of large-scale musical theatre that dispensed with star casting in favour of a direct, visually striking experience readily transferable to other markets. Throughout the 1980s further successes followed with Song And Dance, Les Misérables, The Phantom Of The Opera and Miss Saigon, the last of which opened in 1989. In 1990 Mackintosh demonstrated his leverage when American Equity resisted the casting of Jonathan Pryce in the Broadway transfer of Miss Saigon; his threat to cancel the production, along with others, quickly resolved the dispute. The episode reinforced his reputation among New York theatre figures for uncompromising tactics and assertive promotion, though he deliberately avoided such methods when Five Guys Named Moe moved to Broadway, contributing to its modest reception.
A rare setback occurred in 1992 with Moby Dick, whose brief 15-week engagement reportedly cost him £1 million and prompted public remarks about having passed his prime. Nevertheless, financial indicators remained striking: his 1991 personal income exceeded £8 million, he ranked 39th on the list of Britain’s wealthiest individuals, and he acquired substantial interests in the Prince of Wales and Prince Edward theatres. His commitment to musical theatre has also directed portions of an estimated £300 million fortune toward philanthropic ends, including numerous grants to smaller companies, a £2 million endowment that created Oxford University’s first professorship in drama and musical theatre, and a £1 million donation to the Royal National Theatre that supported acclaimed revivals of Carousel and Sweeney Todd, the initial entries in a five-show series of classic musicals. Rights to subsequent commercial transfers of those productions are understood to remain with Mackintosh. Recognition has included the 1991 Observer Award for Outstanding Achievement and the 1992 Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence In Musical Theatre, an honour previously conferred on Harold Prince, Julie Andrews and Mary Martin. His 1994 London Palladium revival of Oliver!, again starring Jonathan Pryce, preceded the 1995 Queen’s Award for Export Achievement granted to Cameron Mackintosh Limited. Three years earlier he had enumerated for an interviewer the shows then running worldwide—six productions of Cats, twenty of The Phantom Of The Opera, twelve of Les Misérables, seven of Miss Saigon, four of Five Guys Named Moe, two of Follies, and others.
Martin Guerre, a further collaboration with Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, opened in London in July 1996 yet closed after twenty months, falling short of the success of its predecessors. The Fix, presented at the Donmar Warehouse in 1997, likewise drew critical disapproval. Mackintosh received a knighthood in the 1995 New Year Honours List for services to musical theatre and, three years later, the Bernard Delfont Award from the Variety Club of Great Britain. In June 1998 two benefit performances of Hey Mr Producer! The Musical World Of Cameron Mackintosh at the Lyceum Theatre marked his thirtieth anniversary in the profession; that same year he oversaw a second edition of the Sondheim revue Putting It Together featuring Carol Burnett in Los Angeles, a third iteration of Martin Guerre in Yorkshire, and the American premiere of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe’s Just So at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut.
Entering the new century he developed a stage version of John Updike’s The Witches Of Eastwick; although reviews were favourable, the production’s run was curtailed by the events of September 2001. Greater longevity attended his adaptation of Mary Poppins, which opened at the Prince Edward Theatre in December 2004 and collected two Olivier Awards the following year. Mackintosh’s theatre holdings comprise the Strand Theatre, Queen’s Theatre, Gielgud Theatre, Wyndham’s Theatre and the Albery Theatre.
In the following years he mounted well-received revivals of Oliver!, My Fair Lady and Oklahoma! before joining forces with Andrew Lloyd Webber on Cats, which opened in 1981. That production reshaped both careers, establishing a model of large-scale musical theatre that dispensed with star casting in favour of a direct, visually striking experience readily transferable to other markets. Throughout the 1980s further successes followed with Song And Dance, Les Misérables, The Phantom Of The Opera and Miss Saigon, the last of which opened in 1989. In 1990 Mackintosh demonstrated his leverage when American Equity resisted the casting of Jonathan Pryce in the Broadway transfer of Miss Saigon; his threat to cancel the production, along with others, quickly resolved the dispute. The episode reinforced his reputation among New York theatre figures for uncompromising tactics and assertive promotion, though he deliberately avoided such methods when Five Guys Named Moe moved to Broadway, contributing to its modest reception.
A rare setback occurred in 1992 with Moby Dick, whose brief 15-week engagement reportedly cost him £1 million and prompted public remarks about having passed his prime. Nevertheless, financial indicators remained striking: his 1991 personal income exceeded £8 million, he ranked 39th on the list of Britain’s wealthiest individuals, and he acquired substantial interests in the Prince of Wales and Prince Edward theatres. His commitment to musical theatre has also directed portions of an estimated £300 million fortune toward philanthropic ends, including numerous grants to smaller companies, a £2 million endowment that created Oxford University’s first professorship in drama and musical theatre, and a £1 million donation to the Royal National Theatre that supported acclaimed revivals of Carousel and Sweeney Todd, the initial entries in a five-show series of classic musicals. Rights to subsequent commercial transfers of those productions are understood to remain with Mackintosh. Recognition has included the 1991 Observer Award for Outstanding Achievement and the 1992 Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence In Musical Theatre, an honour previously conferred on Harold Prince, Julie Andrews and Mary Martin. His 1994 London Palladium revival of Oliver!, again starring Jonathan Pryce, preceded the 1995 Queen’s Award for Export Achievement granted to Cameron Mackintosh Limited. Three years earlier he had enumerated for an interviewer the shows then running worldwide—six productions of Cats, twenty of The Phantom Of The Opera, twelve of Les Misérables, seven of Miss Saigon, four of Five Guys Named Moe, two of Follies, and others.
Martin Guerre, a further collaboration with Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, opened in London in July 1996 yet closed after twenty months, falling short of the success of its predecessors. The Fix, presented at the Donmar Warehouse in 1997, likewise drew critical disapproval. Mackintosh received a knighthood in the 1995 New Year Honours List for services to musical theatre and, three years later, the Bernard Delfont Award from the Variety Club of Great Britain. In June 1998 two benefit performances of Hey Mr Producer! The Musical World Of Cameron Mackintosh at the Lyceum Theatre marked his thirtieth anniversary in the profession; that same year he oversaw a second edition of the Sondheim revue Putting It Together featuring Carol Burnett in Los Angeles, a third iteration of Martin Guerre in Yorkshire, and the American premiere of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe’s Just So at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut.
Entering the new century he developed a stage version of John Updike’s The Witches Of Eastwick; although reviews were favourable, the production’s run was curtailed by the events of September 2001. Greater longevity attended his adaptation of Mary Poppins, which opened at the Prince Edward Theatre in December 2004 and collected two Olivier Awards the following year. Mackintosh’s theatre holdings comprise the Strand Theatre, Queen’s Theatre, Gielgud Theatre, Wyndham’s Theatre and the Albery Theatre.