Martin McCallum Dies: Broadway & West End Producer Who Worked With Cameron Mackintosh On ‘Cats’, ‘Les Miz’ And ‘Phantom’ Was 73
17.01.2024 - 21:57
/ deadline.com
Martin McCallum, a British theatrical producer whose work on more than 500 Broadway and West End shows saw his participation in some of the most successful stage productions in modern theater history, died January 14 in Sydney, Australia. He was 73.
His death was announced by Broadway producer Shidan Majidi. A cause was not disclosed, but Majidi’s announcement noted that he died peacefully surrounded by family.
The President of the Society of London Theatre from 1999 to 2002 and a member of the Broadway League since 1988, McCallum made an indelible mark on Broadway with massive hits (Les Misérables, executive producer, and Miss Saigon, associate producer), critical favorites (the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting It Together, executive producer, and The Cripple of Inishmaan, producer) and even two high-profile flops (Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, executive producer, and Hughie, producer).
His impact on the London theater scene was even greater. Born in Blackpool on April 6, 1950, McCallum began his stage career as an assistant stage manager at the Castle Theatre Farnham, later becoming a production manager at the Old Vic, then home to the National Theatre and under the leadership of Laurence Olivier.
McCallum managed numerous shows at the National, including Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night (1971), starring Olivier and Constance Cummings, and the premiere production of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land (1975), with John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. Martin remained at the National Theatre after Olivier’s departure and in 1975 worked on the opening of the company’s South Bank complex under the leadership of director Peter Hall.
After leaving the National Theatre in 1978, McCallum, with his colleague Richard