- All Quotes
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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!
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An old building is like a show. You smell the soul of a building. And the building tells you how to redo it.
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I don't like being in debt, and I wouldn't borrow money for anything.
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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.
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I am in that glorious position where I can redesign and re-package my own work.
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I never know what is going to have that 'X' factor and what isn't.
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I had set a goal of being a producer by 25.
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I know I'm in the exceptional position of having money, but I didn't have it for many decades. I'm always trying to get shows put on for 25 per cent less production costs.
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My own tastes happen to be in tune with what the public wants. I think that's the reason my batting average is so high, not because I've discovered some brilliant formula.
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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.
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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.
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My aunt took me to see 'Salad Days' when I was seven. This story of a magic piano that infects everyone who hears it infected me, too. It was a Road to Damascus moment in my life.
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Constrained circumstances can bring the best out of you.
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I love architecture almost as much as I love my musicals.
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I've spent more money on my theatres since I bought them than I did buying them.
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I know I'm in the exceptional position of having money but I didn't have it for many decades.
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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.
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Sometimes, thinking on your feet can be the most creative. Constrained circumstances can bring the best out of you. Some of the most successful shows come out of shoestring invention.
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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.'
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Audiences aren't going to get rid of me. One thing I can say, with absolute certainty, is that my shows will still be performed when I'm dead, buried and forgotten. They're going to absolutely outlive me, which is a wonderful thing to think about.
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If there's too much of you around, people can get tired of you.
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I love 'Glee.'
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By the time I was ten, everyone knew I wanted to be a producer. I was a very precocious little boy.
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I used to have to beg and borrow £25 to hire some French windows. I started producing in 1967, and I was in debt until 1981. Having a think about whether you can afford 'this' or 'that' is a good discipline to have, to maximise what you can achieve to the highest standard.