BILL KENWRIGHT／Producer
Recent West End productions include: Cabaret (Lyric), Canterbury Tales (Gielgud), Hay Fever (Haymarket), Whistle Down the Wind (Palace), Night of the Iguana (Lyric), Scrooge (London Palladium), A Few Good Men (Haymarket), The Big Life (Apollo), Elmina’s Kitchen (Garrick), Festen (Lyric), Man and Boy (Duchess), We Happy Few (Gielgud), Judi Dench in All’s Well That Ends Well (RSC Gielgud),The Taming of the Shrew and The Tamer Tamed (RSC ? Queen’s),The Secret Rapture (Lyric), Tell Me on a Sunday (Gielgud), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (New London), the RSCJacobean season (Gielgud), Home and Beauty (Lyric), Via Dolorosa (Duchess), Sleuth (Apollo), The Constant Wife (Lyric), Dangerous Corner (Garrick), Star Quality (Apollo), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Lyric), Caught in the Net (Vaudeville), Barbara Cook Sings Mostly Sondheim (Lyric), Gondoliers (Apollo), Ghosts (Comedy), Fallen Angels (Apollo), Long Day’s Journey into Night (Lyric), Brief Encounter (Lyric), Miss Julie (Haymarket), Song at Twilight (Gielgud), Stepping Out (Albery), Hurlyburly (Queen’s), Lady Windermere’s Fan (Haymarket), Shakespeare for My Father (Haymarket), Passion (Queen’s), Company (Albery), Design for Living (Gielgud), The Roy Orbison Story (Piccadilly), The Miracle Worker (Wyndham’s), Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land and Or Moonlight (Comedy), Dead Guilty (Apollo). Directed by Peter Hall: Mind Millie for Me, The Master Builder and Jessica Lange in A Streetcar Named Desire (Haymarket), School for Wives (Piccadilly), Hamlet and An Absolute Turkey (Gielgud), The Gift of the Gorgon (Wyndham’s), Lysistrata (Old Vic, Athens), Separate Tables (Albery), She Stoops to Conquer (Queen’s), Waiting for Godot, The Misanthrope, Major Barbara, Filumena and Kafka’sDick (Piccadilly). On Broadway: Travels with MyAunt (Wyndham’s and Minetta Lane Theatre, New York (Drama Desk Award), Dancing at Lughnasa (Garrick and Plymouth Theatre, Broadway (Tony Award), Medea with Diana Rigg (Wyndham’s and Longacre Theatre, Broadway (Tony Award), Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (Belasco Theatre, Broadway (four Tony Awards), Theatre de Complicite’s production of lonesco’s The Chairs (Golden Theatre, Broadway ? six Tony nominations), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Music Box Theatre), The Glass Menagerie (Barrymore), Primo (Music Box Theatre) and, currently, Festen (Music Box Theatre). Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers will shortly celebrate its 20th year in the West End at the Phoenix Theatre. It ran for three years at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway, receiving seven Tony nominations. As a director he is responsible for Whistle Down the Wind (Palace), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (New London and UK tour), Jesus Christ Superstar (UK tour) and Blood Brothers (Phoenix and UK tour). He was nominated for a London Theatre Critics’ Award for West Side Story at the Shaftesbury and a Tony Award for Blood Brothers in New York.
His films include The Day After the Fair, Stepping Out, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Sundance Festival award-winner Die Mommie Die and The Purifiers. He co-produced the phenomenally successful national arena tour of Elvis ? The Concert with Elvis Presley Enterprises.
He received an Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool’s John Moore’s University and is an Honorary Professor of Thames Valley University in London. In 2002 he received the Variety Club Bernard Delfont Award for his contribution to the entertainment industry. January 2001 brought him a CBE in HM The Queen’s New Year’s Honours.He is chairman and major shareholder of Everton Football Club (and an even bigger fan). |
