Lee Menzies LTD
Lee Menzies Limited was established in 1983 to produce and manage new plays, revivals and musicals in London, the rest of the UK and overseas.
Current productions include: the first ever stage version of Irving Berlin’s musical Top Hat (Aldwych Theatre, London), Doctor in the House (national tour) and the third national tour of Yes, Prime Minister. In development are the musical of From Here to Eternity which he is co producing with Tim Rice who has written the lyrics for the production and a new play by BBC journalist Gavin Esler.
Most recent productions include: Crazy For You (Novello Theatre), David Grindley’s multi award winning production of Journey’s End at the Duke of York’s Theatre and on tour, Dominic West in Simon Gray’s Butley (Duchess Theatre), Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black’s definitive version of Tell Me on a Sunday on tour and a new production of the Noël Coward revue Cowardy Custard, Yes, Prime Minister (Apollo and Gielgud Theatre ), the multi-award-winning Jerusalem starring Mark Rylance (Apollo), Enron (Broadhurst, New York), Prick Up Your Ears (Comedy), Twelfth Night (Noël Coward), Otherwise Engaged (UK tour and Criterion), Donkeys’ Years (Comedy, three Olivier Award nominations including Best Revival), Whipping It Up with Richard Wilson (Ambassadors, Olivier Award nomination for Best New Comedy).
Previous productions include Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Queens Theatre), Exclusive (Strand Theatre, now Novello Theatre), Our Town with Alan Alda (Shaftesbury Theatre), Dry Rot (Lyric Theatre), and four productions at the Playhouse; Twelfth Night, The Rose Tattoo, Tartuffe and Hedda Gabler for the Peter Hall Company, An Enemy of the People (Young Vic Production), Eileen Atkins as Virginia Woolf in A Room of One’s Own, Donald Sinden as Oscar Wilde in Diversions and Delights, Ray Cooney’s It Runs in the Family, Maddie (Lyric Theatre), Kat and the Kings (Vaudeville Theatre, London and Cort Theatre, New York), I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Comedy Theatre), The Accused (Theatre Royal, Haymarket), the National Theatre’s production of The Island (The Old Vic), Over My Shoulder (Wyndham’s Theatre), The Shape of Things (New Ambassadors), High Society (Shaftesbury Theatre), Jus’ Like That! (Garrick Theatre), Songs My Mother Taught Me (Savoy Theatre), Twelfth Night (Albery Theatre), Pete and Dud: Come Again (The Venue) and Footloose (Playhouse).
National UK tours include Beyond Reasonable Doubt, Kat and the Kings, Daisy Pulls It Off, Gasping, The Accused, The Island, Jus’ Like That! Anything Goes, The Wedding Singer and Crown Matrimonial.
Overseas productions have been presented in New York, Dublin, Sydney and Houston.
He is the recipient of three Laurence Olivier Awards and an EMMA (Ethnic and Multi Media Award): Hedda Gabler received an Olivier for Best Revival 1991, Kat and the Kings for Best New Musical 1999, Whipping It Up for Best New Comedy 2008, and The Island received an EMMA for Best Play 2002.
He is a full (non-deposit) member of both The Society of London Theatre and The Theatrical Management Association. He is the second longest serving member of The Society’s Finance and Business Affairs Standing Committee, a member of The Society’s Investment Committee, a trustee of The Society’s Staff Pension Fund and chairman of The Laurence Olivier Bursary panel.
From 1988 to 1992 he was Managing Director of the Playhouse, Northumberland Avenue under the Chairmanship of Lord Havers and subsequently Lord Rix. He remained a consultant to the theatre until it was sold in 1996 by Ray Cooney.
He is a governor of the Central School of Speech and Drama and a board member of Tara Arts, Britain’s leading Anglo/Asian theatre company.