Cameron Mackintosh
b. 17 October 1946, Enfield, England. ‘The Czar of theatrical producers’—that is what the American magazine THEATRE WEEK called him in 1993. In the same issue they also rated him number 3 in their list of the 100 Most Powerful People in American Theatre. The son of a Maltese-born mother and a Scottish father, Mackintosh attended a small public school in Bath and became obsessed by the musical theatre at the age of eight after being taken to see a production of Julian Slade's Salad Days at Bristol Old Vic in 1954. After leaving school, where he was known as Darryl F. Mackintosh, he attended the Central School for Speech and Drama for a year before becoming an assistant stage manager at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane when Camelot was running. His first forays into producing came with some budget-priced touring shows before he moved into the West End in 1969 with a revival of Anything Goes. It proved to be a disaster and was withdrawn after 27 performances. TRELAWNY (1972) and The Card (1973) fared better, and, after a number of provincial productions of varying degrees of profitability, Mackintosh's breakthrough finally came in 1976 with SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM. During the next few years he mounted successful revivals of Oliver!, My Fair Lady, and Oklahoma!, before his meeting with Andrew Lloyd Webberresulted in Cats in 1981. The show transformed the lives of both men, and became the prototype for future productions that overthrew the old style of musical and provided a simple and vivid theatrical experience which did not rely on big name stars, and was easily exportable. In the '80s Mackintosh went from strength to strength with Song And Dance, Les Misérables, The Phantom Of The Opera, and Miss Saigon (1989). In 1990 the latter show provided an example of just how powerful Mackintosh had become when American Equity initially objected to the casting of Jonathan Pryce in the Broadway version ‘because it would be an affront to the Asian community’. After the producer threatened to withdraw the show altogether—and one or two others as well—capitulation was more or less immediate. The incident did nothing to improve the producer's ruthless (he prefers ‘relentless’) reputation with the New York theatre community, many of whom object to his dictatorial attitude and ‘flashy’ marketing methods. For some reason he deliberately did not use those ploys when his London hit, Five Guys Named Moe, transferred to Broadway, and that may well be one of the reasons for its relatively poor showing. In 1992 Mackintosh was involved with a rare flop which some say marked the beginning of his decline. Moby Dick (‘a damp squib … garbage’) is reported to have cost him £1 million and a great deal of pride during its 15-week run, and he hinted at the time that he may be past his peak. However, the highly impressive monetary facts continued to emerge: a personal salary of over £8 million in 1991, the 39th richest man in Britain, and the acquisition of a substantial stake in two West End theatres, the Prince of Wales and the Prince Edward. His love of musicals—that is all he produces—has caused Mackintosh to divert some of his reported £300 million wealth to a number of extremely worthy causes. As well as numerous donations to small theatrical projects, he provided £2 million to endow Oxford University's first professorship in drama and musical theatre, and his £1 million gift to the Royal National Theatre has enabled it to mount highly acclaimed revivals of Carousel and Sweeney Todd, the first two in a series of five classic musicals. It is not all philanthropy: Mackintosh is reported to retain the rights to the productions when they are eventually produced in the commercial sector. A knighthood is inevitable, but until then his kudos have included the 1991 OBSERVERAward for Outstanding Achievement and the prestigeous Richard RodgersAward for Excellence in Musical Theatre (1992). Previous recipients have been Harold Prince, Julie Andrews and Mary Martin. In 1993, for the benefit of an awe-struck journalist, he attempted to remember all the musicals he had running in various parts of the world. They included six Cats, 20 PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, 12 LES MISÉRABLES, seven MISS SAIGON, four FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE, two Follies …etcetera, etcetera, as Yul Brynner used to say.