The Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd (ATG), the UK’s largest theatre company, with 39 venues in the UK, including 13 in the West End, announced today that it has partnered with Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell, the acclaimed director and choreographer, to form Jerry Mitchell Productions. Jerry Mitchell Productions will work to develop, create and produce new productions for ATG theatres in London, New York and around the world. Mitchell will also take on a Creative Producer role, as well as being a Director/Choreographer on selected productions, and will focus on a wide range of projects from new commissions to fresh, innovative versions of classic pieces.
Mitchell’s Legally Blonde, co-produced by ATG at its Savoy Theatre in London, and winner of Best Musical Olivier award 2011, is now in its third smash year, and has embarked on a UK tour. An ATG co-production of Legally Blonde will open in Sydney in October 2012.
“Jerry Mitchell Productions represents a unique, transcontinental approach to creating new theatrical productions, and we feel fortunate to have access to both Jerry’s immense talents as well as his extensive relationships in the creative community,” said Howard Panter. “We’ve had a great experience working with Jerry, and look forward to exciting collaborations with him through this new partnership.”
“This is great vehicle as a director to be able to develop new work,” enthused Mr. Mitchell, “but I’m also extremely excited to have the chance to bring in fellow artists, whom I love and admire, to develop their own work under this new creative umbrella.”
About Jerry Mitchell: Jerry Mitchell made his Broadway and West End debuts as director of Legally Blonde, for which he also served as Choreographer, and was nominated for both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his choreography and the Drama Desk Award for his direction. He also recently choreographed the Broadway production of Catch Me If You Can and West End production of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies. Mitchell received Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics’ Circle Awards for choreographing the 2005 Tony Award-winning Best Revival of La Cage aux Folles, having also been nominated for the Tony as choreographer of Legally Blonde and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Previously, Mitchell has received Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics’ Circle and Astaire Award nominations for choreographing Hairspray and Tony, Drama Desk and Astaire Award nominations for choreographing The Full Monty. On Broadway, he choreographed the hit revivals of Gypsy, starring Bernadette Peters, The Rocky Horror Show (Drama Desk nomination) and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, as well as Never Gonna Dance and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, both on stage and film. He conceived and co-produces Broadway Bares, a comedy burlesque performed annually for the charity, Broadway Cares. Most recently, he directed, choreographed and co-produced Peepshow, a Las Vegas extravaganza production show, and served as Production Supervisor for the Toronto and Broadway productions of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Currently, he is supervising the writing of Broadway musicals based on the films Kinky Boots and Mad Hot Ballroom and the iconic television series, The Honeymooners, all of which he will direct and choreograph for Broadway.
About Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd: Co-founded by Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire in 1992, the Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd is the largest owner/operator of theatres in the UK with 39 venues, an internationally recognized theatre producer and a leader in theatre ticketing services through ATG Tickets. ATG’s impressive portfolio of West End theatres includes historic buildings such as the Apollo Victoria, Donmar Warehouse, Duke of York’s, Fortune, Harold Pinter, Lyceum, Phoenix, Piccadilly, Playhouse, Savoy, Trafalgar Studio 1 and Trafalgar Studio 2. ATG’s regional theatres include The Ambassadors Woking encompassing the New Victoria and Rhoda McGaw Theatres and the award-winning 6 screen cinema complex, Ambassador Cinemas; Aylesbury Waterside Theatre; New Alexandra Theatre Birmingham; Theatre Royal Brighton; Bristol Hippodrome; Churchill Theatre Bromley; Edinburgh Playhouse; Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone; King’s Theatre and Theatre Royal, Glasgow; Grimsby Auditorium; Liverpool Empire; Palace Theatre and Opera House, Manchester; Milton Keynes Theatre; New Theatre, Oxford; Richmond Theatre; Southport Theatre; Regent Theatre and Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent; Sunderland Empire; Princess Theatre, Torquay; New Wimbledon Theatre and New Wimbledon Studio; Grand Opera House, York.
ATG has been behind some of the most successful and innovative productions in Britain and internationally. Current and recent ATG co-productions include the Lincoln Center’s production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific in London and on tour in the UK; Ghost the Musical in Manchester and London and on Broadway in 2012; Matthew Bourne’s The Nutcracker! at Sadler’s Wells and on tour in the UK, the hugely successful Monty Python’s Spamalot by Eric Idle; Being Shakespeare starring Simon Callow; The Misanthrope starring Damian Lewis and Keira Knightley; the critically acclaimed award-winning musical West Side Story at Sadler’s Wells; Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard; the hit comedy Fat Pig by Neil LaBute; Harold Pinter’s The Lover/The Collection; Elling starring John Simm; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess directed by Trevor Nunn; Guys and Dolls starring Ewan McGregor; Three Sisters starring Kristin Scott Thomas; Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and the Tony Award-winning Company, both on Broadway, and The Rocky Horror Show. ATG is also mounting productions around the world. ATG’s recent productions in Australia include The Rocky Horror Show, Guys and Dolls and West Side Story. Recent ATG productions on Broadway include Mountaintop starring Samuel L Jackson and Angela Bassett and Exit the King starring Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon. Other ATG successes include the co-production of The Weir in London and on Broadway (winner of the 1999 Olivier Award for Best New Play); Smokey Joe’s Café in the West End and the Olivier award-winning Slava’s Snowshow in the West End and North America plus the multi award-winning West End musical, Carmen Jones.
