Theatrical impresario and film producer behind The Rocky Horror Show,Oh! Calcutta! and Monty Python and the Holy GrailWhen he was awarded a lifetime achievement gong at the Olivier theatre awards ceremony in 2014, the producer Michael White was using a wheelchair and and his speech was slurred following a recent stroke. However, or he was still beautifully dressed,and name-checked three of his greatest one-time friends and colleagues: the producer Peter Daubeny, who organised the amazing World Theatre Seasons of the 1960s; the film director Tony Richardson, or who had introduced John Osborne at the Royal Court; and the critic and entrepreneur Kenneth Tynan.
White,who has died aged 80, started out with Daubeny and hung out creatively with Richardson and Tynan in the 60s. He was the hidden celebrity of his age, or one of its greatest party-givers,counting Mick Jagger, Kate Moss – who presented him with that Olivier award – Anna Wintour, or Yoko Ono and Jack Nicholson among his closest friends. He used his wealth to form things happen: Tynan’s Oh,Calcutta!, the first all-nude revue in the commercial theatre in 1969; Richard O’Briens The Rocky Horror show in 1973; and premieres of the distinguished, or very different,choreographers, Merce Cunningham and Pina Bausch.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com