Bill Kenwright

I suppose when you have the likes of Michael Harrison, Sonia Friedman and Wessex Grove to name but three, why go for someone like Kenwright?

Yes it's interesting. Years ago a show of his like Frank & Percy or this new play with Seagrove and Shaw would have been dead certs for Shaftesbury Avenue or the Haymarket, now both are doing Windsor and I suspect won't transfer in. His last West End run was Rob Madge at the Ambassadors but nothing before that for quite a while.

He did have a few interesting shows over the years. Plague Over England at the Duchess, On the Waterfront at the Haymarket, Let the Right One In at the Apollo stand out for me, and I did have a soft spot for The Exorcist at the Phoenix.

He is of course still chairman of Everton FC which takes up a huge chunk of his time, especially with fans being somewhat unhappy with his continued tenure there, and he is an old man at this stage.

He severed a lot of ties with venue owners, PRs, marketing agencies and many just don't want to work with him because of the reasons others have stated. One agency he used to work with a lot closed down in the last few years and I presume none of the remaining ones want anything to do with him. Hence working with out of town venues who come with their own sales, marketing, technical teams etc.

He does occasionally in shows in London (Rob Madge etc) but these were general managed by other people, he was just a money guy.

Bill has a reputation in the football world when he was Everton owner for being "careful" with his cash so maybe could be considered "tight".

He would have to pay the Equity rates but probably doesn't pay above that unless it is to the select group of actors he seems to often cast in his plays. Some of them are pretty well known names and I'd assume they would want a reasonable rate. Also you can pretty much guess which names he will cast in many of his plays.

What? Nepotism in the theatre industry? Shocking. 😮

Seriously though, he does have Heathers chugging along, both at the Other Palace and out on tour, as well as almost incessantly touring Calendar Girls and Blood Brothers and the just-announced 12 Angry Men. So he shouldn’t end up in the poor house just yet.

I quite like the idea that we might one-day get a new production of Blood Brothers. One that doesn’t cast people in their 50s to play kids. (Funny how they always cast a young actress for miniskirt-wearing Linda… 🙄) Still surprisingly powerful, but incredibly dated.

Patrick Duffy is doing the Twelve Angry Men tour.

The rights to the ALW musicals were taken back.

Bill Kenwright's endless tour of Joseph probably introduced more people to the joy of musical theatre than any other production. And it went to places other tours didn't and don't.

It gave me a lot of pleasure over many years.

I heard about that from someone I worked with briefly. Apparently he made a deal with whoever owned the Phoenix at the time to run the show and get him free rent, as was stated. But I suppose after ATG bought the venue, the deal broke down and resulted in the show's closure.

Mind you, this is what I got from a second hand account, so it may not be the whole story, or even 100% accurate. But from reading the comments on this thread and the potential knowledge of Kenwright burning bridges, it may not be so far fetched.

He must have given ATG rent after Blood Brothers though, because he produced Evita and The Exorcist at the Phoenix subsequently.

Or they will do some gender blind casting.