Top 22 Cameron Mackintosh Quotes

The musical is the one area of the theater that can give you the biggest buzz of all.

It horrifies me how much it costs to put on shows now, mainly due to EU regulations. The freedom to be entrepreneurial is no longer there. It’s a massive business now.

I’m a war baby: I was brought up with rationing, and my parents always had to struggle. I remember when I was sent to boarding school – Prior Park College in Bath – my father was asked how he was going to pay the fees, and he replied: ‘In arrears.’

I never know what is going to have that ‘X’ factor and what isn’t.

I’m proud of the fact that I’ve taken a lot of big directors, such as Trevor Nunn and Nick Hytner, who were musical virgins, and introduced them to the form.

I love architecture almost as much as I love my musicals.

I don’t watch a lot of television.

I think the worst thing that could have happened to me would have been having a hit at 20. I don’t know what that would have done to me. But instead, I had to scrape a living for years. And my first show, which opened in 1969, lost over £45,000, an absolute fortune then.

I had set a goal of being a producer by 25.

I love ‘Glee.’

I’ve spent more money on my theatres since I bought them than I did buying them.

I am in that glorious position where I can redesign and re-package my own work.

My dream is to be on my boat. Or on an island. Or in my house in the country. That’s my dream.

Darling, when you’re as old as I am, you cherish the very few musicals that have come your way that you know are great classics. You become their guardian.

I’m privileged to have had some success, but I’ve never forgotten what it was like to queue for a half-crown gallery seat for ‘Oliver!’ which is why I ensure that there are £20 day tickets for ‘Miss Saigon’ and that the balconies in my theatres are as comfortable as I can possibly make them.

I know I’m in the exceptional position of having money but I didn’t have it for many decades.

I don’t like being in debt, and I wouldn’t borrow money for anything.

I am not driven.

I don’t commit to things unless I have my A-team to do it. And I’m not trying to be cocky, but that shows in my productions. They are top notch!

I’ve never had a very great public life.

The commercial and subsidised theatre are intrinsically linked. I wouldn’t have had the career I have had without the opportunities I had through the subsidised sector. However, I do think, in any walk of life, subsidy for the sake of subsidy is not always healthy.

What musicals need is a new me.