Michael McCabe Theatre Producer
Michael McCabe is an independent, four-time Olivier Award-winning theatre producer in the UK and Tony® Award nominated on Broadway. Across his 40-year international career, he has worked variously in production, marketing, and ticketing and is Executive Producer of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's musical Wicked in the UK, which is already 11th longest running production in West End history and on tour until January 2025. He was the original Marketing Director of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus' Mamma Mia!, overseeing the first 14 international stage premieres. He is a director, co-owner, and co-founder of The Marketing Department London, which oversees all marketing and ticketing operations for Wicked in the UK, including the Wicked Active Learning cultural and social education programme and the Wicked Direct ticketing platform.
Michael's producing credits include: Wicked (Olivier Audience Award, 2010 & 2015) at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre, on three UK & Ireland Tours and on International Tour, also serving as a consultant on licensed productions in Germany and the Netherlands; The Prince of Egypt, in collaboration with DreamWorks Theatricals and Neil Laidlaw (which was filmed live by Universal Pictures and released via Broadway HD, Global Digital, and Trafalgar Releasing); An American In Paris (Olivier Award nomination, 'Best Musical'), in partnership with Joshua Andrews; Sweeney Todd (Olivier Award, 'Best Musical Revival'; Evening Standard Theatre Award, 'Best Musical'), starring Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton; Spring Awakening (Olivier Award, 'Best Musical'; Critics' Circle Award, 'Best Musical'); the 2011 original West End production of Million Dollar Quartet and, on Broadway, Rob Ashford's hit revivals of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (Tony® Award nomination, 'Best Musical Revival'), starring Daniel Radcliffe (and subsequently Darren Criss and Nick Jonas), and Promises, Promises, starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. The latter five productions all in partnership with Joseph Smith. Together with Adam Spiegel, he produced Aristophanes' Frogs, adapted, composed and directed by Fiona Laird, at the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam and on tour in the Netherlands.
From 1998-2004, Michael was the Marketing Director (and subsequently also as Associate Producer, Worldwide), of Mamma Mia! for the 1999 London premiere at the Prince Edward Theatre and for productions in Toronto, Melbourne, Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul, Hamburg, Utrecht, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, on two North American Tours and at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. Working directly with the show's creator and global producer, Judy Craymer, he also worked on the launch of the International Tour and productions in Stockholm and Madrid.
Michael began his career, in September 1983, at Leader & Co., part of the Keith Prowse ticketing organisation, in London's Old Bond Street. The following year, he joined the advertising agency Dewynters where he worked on the promotion of over 30 productions including the premieres of Me and My Girl (Adelphi Theatre) starring Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson; Les Misérables (Barbican Centre and Palace Theatre); La Cage Aux Folles (London Palladium); CHESS (Prince Edward Theatre); On Your Toes (Palace Theatre), starring Natalia Makarova; Dave Clark's TIME (Dominion Theatre); The Hired Man (Astoria Theatre); Alan Bleasdale's award-winning Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Phoenix Theatre); Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart (Albery Theatre), starring Tom Hulce, and Torvill & Dean: The World Tour at Wembley Arena, as well as on many long running productions including Starlight Express; Daisy Pulls It Off and Little Shop of Horrors.
In 1986, Michael was appointed as General Manager for the transfer of the Broadway musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, starring Ernie Wise, Lulu, and Julia Hills (Savoy Theatre), and, in December 1987, for Larry Shue's hit comedy The Foreigner, starring Nicholas Lyndhurst (Albery Theatre, now the Noël Coward Theatre).
He went on to found Michael McCabe Associates, the West End's first consultancy dedicated solely to the marketing of commercial theatre, including Willy Russell's Blood Brothers (Albery Theatre). He continued as Managing Director for over a decade (during which time the company became known as McCABES), overseeing its expansion into a full-service advertising agency for live entertainment and the cultural industries. McCABES was the agency for many notable and long running productions including Mamma Mia!; Disney's Beauty and the Beast; West Side Story; the West End transfer of the National Theatre production of An Inspector Calls; The Woman in Black and The Graduate, which variously starred Kathleen Turner, Jerry Hall, Amanda Donohoe, Linda Gray and Anne Archer as 'Mrs Robinson'. During this time, he also spent two years living and working in New York where he served as a Marketing Consultant on productions including Smokey Joe's Café; the Tommy Tune production of Grease!, Hello, Dolly, starring Carol Channing; Blood Brothers, Blue Man Group and Crazy For You. Following a merger, he departed the agency to assume the role of Associate Producer of Mamma Mia! at Judy Craymer's Littlestar company and, subsequently, pursued his own independent producing career.
As a freelance marketing consultant, Michael has worked with companies including Cirque du Soleil; English National Opera (the premiere of Anthony Minghella's Madam Butterfly; Leonard Bernstein's On The Town and Candide and the first major London revival of Kismet, which opened to the highest advance in ENO's history), and for Disney Theatrical Productions in Europe (including Der König der Löwen in Hamburg, Tim Rice & Elton John's Aida in Essen and Munich, and Le Roi Lion in Paris). He also served as a consultant to the ticketing organisations SpaceTime Systems (First Call, BOCS) and Keith Prowse.
Born in Brighton, East Sussex and educated at Kingscliff House School, Shoreham College and BHASVIC, he also attended the Brighton School of Music & Drama and went on to study Drama & Theatre Arts and Stage Design at Lewis Technical College (now East Sussex College).
Michael was a Trustee of English Touring Theatre, is a Patreon of Open Drama UK, and a proud supporter of the charity BrightonSoup.
He lives in Brighton & Hove, East Sussex.