MICHAEL BENEDICT MCCABE LIMITED - Key Persons
Michael is a four-time Olivier Award-winning theatre producer in the UK and Tony® Award nominated on Broadway. Across his 40-year international career, Michael has worked variously in production, marketing, and ticketing and is the Executive Producer of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's musical Wicked in the UK. 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).
Michael was a Trustee of English Touring Theatre and is a Patreon of Open Drama UK.