Actor Nigel Planer and model Kate Moss with British impresario Michael White who won a Special Award at this year’s Oliviers. The Last Impresario, a documentary about White, will have a limited release in September
The Last Impresario, a documentary about the prolific British theatre impresario and film producer, is on limited national release from 26 September.
It is 20 years now since the flamboyant British playboy-impresario Michael White had his last West End hit with She Loves Me which ran at the Savoy Theatre for a year in 1994 and won multiple Olivier awards, not least for Best Musical Revival.
For three decades White was a figure of mega-importance to London’s theatre life of the late 20th century – particularly musical theatre, starting with the mould-breaking erotic revue Oh! Calcutta! in 1970 and carrying on with the equally outrageous Rocky Horror Show (1973-80) and the less controversial A Chorus Line (1976) and Annie (1978-81).
So the Australian documentary, The Last Impresario, arrives as an overdue reminder of a larger-than-life personality who made and lost several fortunes in his colourful heyday.
First shown over here at the London Film Festival to critical acclaim last year, it will have a limited national release from 26 September. There will also be a special 24 September showing at the Curzon Soho accompanied by a Q&A with the glamorous director Gracie Otto, an actress herself and younger sister of the Australian film star Miranda Otto.
White’s public profile has lessened since suffering an almost fatal heart attack nine years ago has which left the 78-year-old having difficulties with mobility and speaking, but he is still seen keeping his hand in at all the better places like Cannes and Hollywood, still a friend of stars who would never snub him now that he is relatively down on his luck and compelled to sell his memorabilia at Sotheby’s to fund a still-expensive lifestyle.
The extravagance of lavish party-giving, gambling and drugs (hinted out in the movie but never pursued by the director) has given way to a more modest existence in a Notting Hill flat now that the Knightbridge mansion has had to be sold to pay for later flops, such as the solve-it-yourself murder musical Drood that ran for just 68 performances at the Savoy, but White refuses to bow to infirmity or surrender without a fight to old age.
He still loves to be part of ‘the scene’ and as he made so many friends in his halcyon days among the A-listers, he remains a welcome guest among movie and theatre royalty, even real royalty like Prince Andrew.
Otto, directing a feature-length film for the first time, has assembled an impressive roster of witnesses to his life, from Kate Moss and Naomi Watts to John Cleese, Rocky Horror Show creator Richard O’Brien and Barry Humphries, even Yoko Ono, and numerous directors who benefited from White’s flair and trust.
His risk-taking backfired too often for his own good – most of his deals were done on a handshake. Tough LA negotiator Lou Adler allegedly screwed him on the American rights of The Rocky Horror Show (he still cannot bear to talk about the money he lost there), while it’s clear he fell out, for a time anyway, with ‘Dame Edna’, to whom he gave his first West End chance and who defected to a rival producer for his next show.
Otto makes no attempt to tell us what was special about White outside his hedonistic lifestyle and his love of taking endless pictures of the rich and famous.
Why was he such a successful producer? Obviously, he was ahead of his time in assessing that the theatregoing public was ready for Oh! Calcutta! because it ran for almost 4,000 performances.
And the story of how he took The Rocky Horror Show from the 63-seater Upstairs at the Royal Court to offbeat theatrical venues such as the Chelsea Classic and another cinema further down the Kings Road before unleashing this Gothic musical on West End audiences at the Comedy in 1979 is the stuff of theatrical legend.
But did he know a good singer from a moderate one or a good show from a potential disaster area? The film hints that perhaps he was more interested in producing musicals and plays (Sleuth was a big hit for him on Broadway) for the parties and showbiz glitz that surrounded them than the shows themselves.
There’s a scene at the races where we see the horse he has backed losing, there’s plenty of sorting through his vast catalogue of self-taken photos before deciding what he’ll sell off at Sotheby’s and plenty of evidence he’s finding it tricky coming to terms with his frailties.
But the man who gave Catherine Zeta-Jones her West End break (in Annie at the age of nine) must surely, even now, be better known than one talking-head description of him as “the most famous person you’ve never heard of”. They’d certainly heard of him at this year’s Oliviers where, from his wheelcair, he accepted a special award for theatrical achievement.
For sure, ‘Chalky’ has lived a life that for the most part will have been the envy of any theatre lover. As such, this 83-minute documentary will intrigue those involved in the business while perhaps struggling for an audience elsewhere.
* The Last Impresario will be screened, courtesy of Dogwoof, at the BFI Southbank on 23 September and runs at the Curzon Soho from 24 September to 2 October
* Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4_sLe1D5Zw
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