Cameron Mackintosh - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography (Read)

Cameron McIntosh - biography, date of birth, place of birth, filmography, clips, Producer, Actor, Writer, Operator.

Born October 17, 1946, Anfield, Middlesex, England, UK is a British theater producer, actor, screenwriter, cameraman and theater owner known for his association with many commercially successful musicals.

He was the eldest of three sons. His father, Ian Mackintosh, is a half Scot, a timber merchant, and in his spare time he played the trumpet in the Troglodytes under the pseudonym Spike. Macintosh's mother, Diana, was half French and half Maltese.

When Cameron was eight years old, an event took place that determined his whole future life - he saw a musical for the first time. It was Julian Slade's play "Salad Days", to which the boy was brought by his aunt. It was then that Cameron decided what profession he would choose in the future - he would become a producer of musical theater. Already in childhood, Mackintosh had his own puppet theater, for which he himself wrote scripts, and his younger brother Robert moved the figures.

After leaving school, Cameron tried to become an actor, enrolling in the Central Drama School in London, but soon left it, as there he was forced to study the history of ancient Greek theater, while he was interested not in theory, but in practice.

At 18, Macintosh got a job as a stage worker in Camelot for seven pounds a week. He received another seven pounds for cleaning the hall after the show. Although Cameron's salary was small, from the very beginning of his career he cared about his image: he kept a two-room apartment in a prestigious area of ??London, went to work only by taxi, and his clothes were always impeccable. It was at this time that Cameron became friends with one of the authors of Camelot, the librettist Alan Jay Lerner. At 22, Macintosh, while working on an advertising campaign for the rock opera Hair, came up with a new way to attract audiences: he offered to sell a ticket to a show along with a train ticket.

In 1969, Cameron McIntosh's first show premiered. He resumed Col Porter's musical "Anything Goes" at the Kenton Theater, but the production flopped and closed two weeks after the premiere. In 1970, Mackintosh expected another failure: the theatrical version of the popular radio show "The Dales" did not last long on stage, and Cameron after the closure of the production was left with a debt of 15 thousand pounds to the National Westminster Bank.

The young producer changed his approach to productions: in 1973, he staged not just another version of the old musical, but a new musical play "Karta" (music by Tony Hatch and lyrics by Joan Hickson), but this did not bring him money and fame. The play lasted only six months. It was only in 1976 that he achieved success as the producer of Sondheim's "Side By Side". The production withstood 781 performances, the profit was colossal: investments amounted to 6 thousand pounds, and income - 100 thousand pounds. In 1976 Cameron had another successful production - the revived Oliver! ("Oliver!"), A musical by Lionel Bart based on Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist".

The turning point in the life of the producer was a meeting with composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber. The acquaintance, which happened in 1978, did not bode well. McIntosh was organizing the West End Theater Council Awards at the Royal Cafe, and Andrew Lloyd-Webber's "Evita" rock opera was voted Best Musical of the Year by the Council of Theaters, so the aria "Not cry for me Argentina "from this rock opera. Cameron faced technical difficulties, so the composer was not satisfied with the sound of his music, and he told this to Macintosh. Drunk with grief, the producer was ready to punch Lloyd Webber in the nose, but did not.

In 1980, the composer remembered this meeting and invited Cameron McIntosh to produce his new musical "Cats", which brought him not only fabulous profits, but also worldwide fame. Simultaneously with "Cats" the producer worked on the musical Tom Lehrer "Tom Foolery" ("Tomfoolery"). Cameron McIntosh collaborated with Lloyd-Webber several times: in 1982, Cameron produced his musical "Song and Dance", and in 1986 - the musical "The Phantom of the Opera". In 1983, Cameron worked with former Andrew Lloyd-Webber collaborator Tim Rice on his musical "Blondel" (composed by Stephen Oliver), which only lasted three weeks. Cameron has produced three musicals by Claude Michel Schonberg and Alan Bublil: Les Miserables in 1985, Miss Saigon in 1989 and Martin Guerre in 1996 year. For services to the British Theater in 1996, Cameron Mackintosh was knighted.

In 1998, a concert was held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Macintosh's production. It featured scenes and arias from the show, produced by Macintosh. The concert was hosted by Julia Andrews, an actress known to the Russian audience for the musical film "Sounds of Music", among those who came to congratulate Macintosh were such musical theater stars as Elaine Page, Colm Wilkinson, Michael Ball, Lee Salonga, Jonathan Price , Bernadette Peters and others, and the hit of the concert was the performance of Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd-Webber, who played four hands in honor of the hero of the day and sang a parody of the songs "Send In The Clowns" and "Music Of The Night". Cameron also decided to take part in the action and performed a line from the musical "Days of Youth", which made him in the days of his youth choose the career of a producer of musical theater.

Sir Cameron Macintosh has been going through hard times in his business lately. On several occasions, he even stated that it was time to make way for the younger generation of producers. His extravagant production of Swan Lake, where all the roles were played by men, failed miserably. The musical "Eastquick Witches", another show produced by Mackintosh, closed in London in October 2001 with 504 performances. It was recently announced that the last show of "Cats" will take place in May 2002. But "My Fair Lady", which was renewed by Macintosh in 2001, is nominated for the Laurence Olivier Prize, and "Oklahoma!" Will open in New York in February.

All Information About: Cameron Mackintosh - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography.
Author: Jane Watson