66. Behind The Scenes of Our Great West End Theatres with Nick Allott

If anyone’s seen it all in theatre it’s Nick Allott, who spent 40 years with Cameron Mackintosh, running it for 20. This week we chat to Nick about theatre’s glory days, from Cats and Phantom to  Les Misérables and Hamilton.  But he also sheds sobering light on how devastating the pandemic has been for the industry as theatres went dark for the longest time in their histories.  As the sector slowly starts to recover, Nick looks to the future while regaling us with a host of hilarious, entertaining anecdotes ranging from Princess Diana doing the splits in his office to Andrew Lloyd Webber drenching Barbra Streisand’s canapés in champagne.    He also offers us a backstage pass to the real stories behind the headlines – why did Elaine Paige take over from Judi Dench in Cats? Why was Martin McCutcheon so panned in My Fair Lady?  Why did losing out to Jodie Prenger in the 2008 BBC Series I’d do Anything ultimately catapult Jessie Buckley to stardom? What’s Hugh Jackman really like? How did Nick end up with a gun in his fridge?  Listen in to hear what it’s really like to live your life behind the scenes of London’s leading West End theatres. Produced by Audio Coast