Michael Ritchie (artistic director)
Encyclopedia
Michael Ritchie is the artistic director
of Center Theatre Group
, overseeing the Mark Taper Forum
, the Ahmanson Theatre
and the Kirk Douglas Theatre
.
in 1980 as a production stage manager in New York
. Over the next 15 years, he stage-managed more than 50 shows on and off-Broadway including productions at Lincoln Center Theater, Circle in the Square, Circle Rep, the New York Shakespeare Festival
, Playwrights Horizons
, City Center and the National Actors Theatre
.
Among the notable productions he stage managed were Our Town
with Spalding Gray
and Eric Stoltz
, Timon of Athens
with Brian Bedford
, Heartbreak House
with Rosemary Harris
and Rex Harrison
, Candida
with Joanne Woodward
, You Never Can Tell with Uta Hagen
and Philip Bosco
, Arms and the Man
with Kevin Kline
and Raul Julia
, A Streetcar Named Desire
(two productions: one with Blythe Danner
, Aidan Quinn
and Frances McDormand
, and the other with Jessica Lange
, Alec Baldwin
and James Gandolfini
) and Present Laughter
with George C. Scott
, Nathan Lane
, Christine Lahti
, Jim Piddock
, and Kate Burton
.
. New plays that began their lives in Williamstown and moved on to off-Broadway runs under his direction include Corners by David Rabe, Far East
by A.R. Gurney, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told by Paul Rudnick
, Chaucer in Rome
by John Guare
, The Glimmer Brothers (Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine) by Warren Leight
and The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan
.
American premieres during this time include The Late Middle Classes by Simon Gray
, Misha's Party by Richard Nelson
, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme
by Frank McGuinness
, Under the Blue Sky
by David Eldridge
and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
by Arthur Miller
.
Rediscovered American classics include Dead End
, Johnny on the Spot, Street Scene
and, 50 years after it was first presented on Broadway -- The Man Who Had All the Luck
by Arthur Miller
, a production that moved to Broadway and was chosen by Time
magazine as one of the year's 10 Best Productions in 2002.
Ritchie and the Festival also sent several other productions to Broadway, including Hedda Gabler
, One Mo' Time, The Price
and The Rainmaker
.
Other major revivals during Ritchie's direction include The Royal Family
with Blythe Danner
, Victor Garber
and Andrea Martin
, The Film Society with Cherry Jones
and Carole Shelley
, Camino Real
with Ethan Hawke
, A Raisin in the Sun
with Ruben Santiago-Hudson
and Viola Davis
, Hot L Baltimore
with Sam Rockwell
and As You Like It
with Gwyneth Paltrow
.
In 2002, the Williamstown Theatre Festival was the recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award
.
as artistic director. In his first four seasons at CTG, he premiered the musicals The Drowsy Chaperone
, Curtains
, 13
and 9 to 5: The Musical
(all of which moved to Broadway and received a combined 25 Tony Award nominations). He has produced 18 world premieres including the musicals Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
and Sleeping Beauty Wakes, and the plays Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
, Water & Power and Yellow Face
; and he presented a broad range of plays and musicals ranging from Dead End
to Romance to The Black Rider
to blockbusters such as Jersey Boys
, Edward Scissorhands and Mary Poppins
.
In addition, Michael inaugurated CTG’s New Play Production Program, designed to foster the development and production of new work.
.
In 1982, while stage managing a revival of Noel Coward
's Present Laughter
, Ritchie met actress Kate Burton
. They married in 1985 and have two children, a son, Morgan, born in 1988 and a daughter, Charlotte, born in 1998.
Artistic director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...
of Center Theatre Group
Center Theatre Group
Center Theatre Group is a non-profit arts organization located in Los Angeles, California. It is one of the largest theatre companies in the nation, programming subscription seasons year-round at the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre...
, overseeing the Mark Taper Forum
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...
, the Ahmanson Theatre
Ahmanson Theatre
The Ahmanson Theatre is one of the four main venues that comprise the Los Angeles Music Center.Through the generosity of philanthropist Robert H. Ahmanson, construction began on March 9, 1962. The theatre opened on April 12, 1967 with a production of More Stately Mansions starring Ingrid Bergman,...
and the Kirk Douglas Theatre
Kirk Douglas Theatre
The Kirk Douglas Theatre is located in Culver City, California and in 2004, was acquired by the famed Center Theatre Group. The theatre is the most intimate of the group's three stages and seats 317 patrons at max occupancy.- History :...
.
Early career
Ritchie began his professional career in the theatreTheatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
in 1980 as a production stage manager in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Over the next 15 years, he stage-managed more than 50 shows on and off-Broadway including productions at Lincoln Center Theater, Circle in the Square, Circle Rep, the New York Shakespeare Festival
New York Shakespeare Festival
New York Shakespeare Festival is the previous name of the New York City theatrical producing organization now known as the Public Theater. The Festival produced shows at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, as part of its free Shakespeare in the Park series, at the Public Theatre near Astor Place...
, Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....
, City Center and the National Actors Theatre
National Actors Theatre
The National Actors Theatre was a theater company founded in 1991 by Tony Randall, whose dream it was to create such an organization. He was chairman until his death in 2004. At first the company was housed at the Belasco Theatre New York, then at the nearby Lyceum Theatre, and in 2002 was based...
.
Among the notable productions he stage managed were Our Town
Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...
with Spalding Gray
Spalding Gray
Spalding Rockwell Gray was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist and monologuist...
and Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz
Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...
, Timon of Athens
Timon of Athens
The Life of Timon of Athens is a play by William Shakespeare about the fortunes of an Athenian named Timon , generally regarded as one of his most obscure and difficult works...
with Brian Bedford
Brian Bedford
Brian Bedford is an English actor. He has appeared on the stage and in film, and is known for both acting in and directing Shakespeare.-Life and career:...
, Heartbreak House
Heartbreak House
Heartbreak House is a play written by George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1919 and first played at the Garrick Theatre in 1920. According to A. C. Ward, the work argues that "cultured, leisured Europe" was drifting toward destruction, and that "Those in a position to guide Europe to safety...
with Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Ann Harris is an English actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Throughout her career she has been nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and has won a Golden Globe, an Emmy, a Tony Award, an Obie, and five Drama Desk Awards.-Early life:Harris was born in...
and Rex Harrison
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:...
, Candida
Candida (play)
Candida, a comedy by playwright George Bernard Shaw, was first published in 1898, as part of his Plays Pleasant. The central characters are clergyman James Morell, his wife Candida and a youthful poet, Eugene Marchbanks, who tries to win Candida's affections. The play questions Victorian notions...
with Joanne Woodward
Joanne Woodward
Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American actress, television and theatrical producer, and widow of Paul Newman...
, You Never Can Tell with Uta Hagen
Uta Hagen
Uta Thyra Hagen was a German-born American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1963 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee...
and Philip Bosco
Philip Bosco
-Personal life:Bosco was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Margaret Raymond , a policewoman, and Philip Lupo Bosco, a carnival worker. Bosco went to high school at St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City. He attended the Catholic University of Washington, D.C. Bosco married Nancy...
, Arms and the Man
Arms and the Man
Arms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin:"Arma virumque cano" ....
with Kevin Kline
Kevin Kline
Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.- Early life :...
and Raul Julia
Raúl Juliá
Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
, A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
(two productions: one with Blythe Danner
Blythe Danner
Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...
, Aidan Quinn
Aidan Quinn
-Early life:Quinn was born in Chicago, Illinois to Irish parents. He was brought up as a Roman Catholic and raised in Chicago and Rockford, Illinois, as well as in Dublin and Birr, County Offaly in Ireland. His mother, Teresa, was a homemaker, and his father, Michael Quinn, was a professor of...
and Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand
Frances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
, and the other with Jessica Lange
Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
, Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
and James Gandolfini
James Gandolfini
James J. Gandolfini, Jr. is an Italian American actor. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos, about a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and career in the Mafia...
) and Present Laughter
Present Laughter
Present Laughter is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1939 and first staged in 1942 on tour, alternating with his lower middle-class domestic drama This Happy Breed...
with George C. Scott
George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
, Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
, Christine Lahti
Christine Lahti
Christine Lahti is an American actress and film director. Lahti has had a successful career in television and film. Throughout her career she has garnered 2 Golden Globe Awards from 8 Nominations, An Emmy Award from 6 Nominations and 2 Academy Award nominations...
, Jim Piddock
Jim Piddock
James Anthony "Jim" Piddock is an English actor, writer, and producer who began his career on the stage in England, before emigrating to the U.S. in 1981.-Life and career:...
, and Kate Burton
Kate Burton (actress)
-Personal life:Burton was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the daughter of producer Sybil Burton and actor Richard Burton . She was thus the stepdaughter of actress Elizabeth Taylor and of Sybil's second husband Jordan Christopher. In 1979, Burton earned a bachelor's degree in Russian studies and...
.
Williamstown Theatre Festival
In 1996, Ritchie was appointed producer of the Williamstown Theatre FestivalWilliamstown Theatre Festival
The Williamstown Theatre Festival is a regional summer stock theatre on the campus of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, founded in 1954 by Williams College news director, Ralph Renzi, and drama program chairman, David C. Bryant. The theatre was conceived as a way to use the Adams...
. New plays that began their lives in Williamstown and moved on to off-Broadway runs under his direction include Corners by David Rabe, Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
by A.R. Gurney, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told by Paul Rudnick
Paul Rudnick
Paul M. Rudnick is an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His plays include I Hate Hamlet, Jeffrey, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Valhalla and The New Century. He also wrote for Premiere magazine under the pseudonym Libby Gelman-Waxner, and for Spy.Rudnick grew up in Piscataway...
, Chaucer in Rome
Chaucer in Rome
Chaucer in Rome is a play written by John Guare. In some ways, it is a sequel to House of Blue Leaves.-Synopsis:The play is set in Rome during the Holy Year of Jubilee, which is extremely crowded with pilgrims seeking confession and absolution...
by John Guare
John Guare
John Guare is an American playwright. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body...
, The Glimmer Brothers (Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine) by Warren Leight
Warren Leight
Warren Leight is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and television producer. He is best known for his work on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Lights Out and the showrunner for In Treatment and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit....
and The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan
Kenneth Lonergan
Kenneth Lonergan is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director.-Background and education:Born in the Bronx, New York City, New York, Lonergan began writing in high school at the Walden School .His first play, The Rennings Children, was chosen for the Young Playwright's Festival in...
.
American premieres during this time include The Late Middle Classes by Simon Gray
Simon Gray
Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE , was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years...
, Misha's Party by Richard Nelson
Richard Nelson (playwright)
Richard Nelson is an American playwright and librettist. He wrote the books for the musicals James Joyce's The Dead and the Broadway version of Chess.-Personal life:Nelson was born in Chicago, Illinois....
, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme
Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme
Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme is a 1985 play by Frank McGuinness.-Plot synopsis:The play centres on the experiences of eight Unionist Irishmen who volunteer to serve in the 36th Division at the beginning of the First World War...
by Frank McGuinness
Frank McGuinness
Professor Frank McGuinness is an award-winning Irish playwright and poet. As well as his own works, which include Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, he is recognised for a "strong record of adapting literary classics, having translated the plays of Racine, Sophocles, Ibsen and...
, Under the Blue Sky
Under the Blue Sky
Under the Blue Sky is a three-act play written by David Eldridge. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 14 September 2000, directed by Rufus Norris.-Original West End Production:...
by David Eldridge
David Eldridge
David Eldridge is the earliest known person of European descent to die in the Western Reserve, and the first person to be buried in the newly-created city of Cleveland...
and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan is a play by Arthur Miller.The play's central character is Lyman Felt, an insurance agent and bigamist who maintains families in New York City and Elmira in upstate New York...
by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
.
Rediscovered American classics include Dead End
Dead End
Dead End is a 1937 crime drama film. It is an adaptation of the Sidney Kingsley 1935 Broadway play of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea, and Sylvia Sidney...
, Johnny on the Spot, Street Scene
Street Scene (play)
Street Scene is a play by Elmer Rice that opened at the Playhouse Theatre in New York City on January 10, 1929 and ran for a total of 601 performances. The action of this ambitious, groundbreaking play takes place entirely on the front stoop of a New York City brownstone and in the adjacent street...
and, 50 years after it was first presented on Broadway -- The Man Who Had All the Luck
The Man Who Had All the Luck
The Man Who Had All the Luck is a play by Arthur Miller.David Beeves is a young Midwestern automobile mechanic who discovers he is blessed with what appears to be almost supernatural good fortune that allows him to overcome every seemingly insurmountable obstacle that crosses his path while those...
by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
, a production that moved to Broadway and was chosen by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine as one of the year's 10 Best Productions in 2002.
Ritchie and the Festival also sent several other productions to Broadway, including Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama...
, One Mo' Time, The Price
The Price (play)
The Price is a 1968 play by Arthur Miller. It is a piece about family dynamics, the price of furniture and the price of one's decisions. The play opened on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre on February 7, 1968 where it played until the production moved to the 46th Street Theatre on November 18, 1968....
and The Rainmaker
The Rainmaker (play)
The Rainmaker is a play written by N. Richard Nash in the early 1950s. The play opened on October 28, 1954 at the Cort Theatre in New York and ran for 125 performances. It was directed by Joseph Anthony and produced by Ethel Linder Reiner....
.
Other major revivals during Ritchie's direction include The Royal Family
The Royal Family
The Royal Family is a play written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. Its premiere on Broadway was at the Selwyn Theatre on 28 December 1927, where it ran for 345 performances to close in October 1928.-Plot summary:Characters...
with Blythe Danner
Blythe Danner
Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...
, Victor Garber
Victor Garber
Victor Joseph Garber is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. Garber is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, and Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic.-Early life:Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Garber is...
and Andrea Martin
Andrea Martin
Andrea Louise Martin is an American and Canadian actress and comedienne. She has appeared in films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, on stage in productions such as My Favorite Year, Fiddler on the Roof and Candide, and in the television series, SCTV.-Personal life:Martin, the oldest of three...
, The Film Society with Cherry Jones
Cherry Jones
Cherry Jones is an American actress and recipient of the 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Drama Series and the 2005 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play.-Career:...
and Carole Shelley
Carole Shelley
Carole Shelley is an English actress. Among her many stage roles are the character of Madame Morrible in the original Broadway cast of the musical Wicked.-Life and career:...
, Camino Real
Camino Real (play)
Camino Real is a 1953 play by Tennessee Williams. In the introduction to the Penguin edition of the play, Williams directs the reader to use the Anglicized pronunciation "Cá-mino Réal." The play takes its title from its setting, alluded to El Camino Real, a dead-end place in a Spanish-speaking town...
with Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...
, A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes...
with Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Ruben Santiago-Hudson is an American actor and playwright, who has won national awards for his work in both areas. In November 2011 he will appear on Broadway in Lydia Diamond's play .-Early life:...
and Viola Davis
Viola Davis
Viola Davis is an American actress.Known primarily as a stage actress, Davis won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for her role in King Hedley II . She won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her role in the...
, Hot L Baltimore
Hot L Baltimore
The Hot l Baltimore is a play by Lanford Wilson. Set in the lobby of the Hotel Baltimore, it focuses on the residents of the decaying property who are faced with eviction when the structure is condemned...
with Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke and Moon, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of...
and As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
with Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Se7en and Emma...
.
In 2002, the Williamstown Theatre Festival was the recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award
Regional Theatre Tony Award
The Regional Theatre Tony Award is a special non-competitive Tony Award given annually to a regional theatre company in the United States. Initially presented in 1948 to Robert Porterfield of the Virginia Barter Theatre for their Contribution To Development Of Regional Theatre, the Regional Theatre...
.
Center Theatre Group
On January 1, 2005 Ritchie joined Center Theatre GroupCenter Theatre Group
Center Theatre Group is a non-profit arts organization located in Los Angeles, California. It is one of the largest theatre companies in the nation, programming subscription seasons year-round at the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre...
as artistic director. In his first four seasons at CTG, he premiered the musicals The Drowsy Chaperone
The Drowsy Chaperone
The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical with book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. It debuted in 1998 at The Rivoli in Toronto and opened on Broadway on 1 May 2006. The show won the Tony Award for Best Book and Best Score. It started as a spoof of old...
, Curtains
Curtains (musical)
Curtains is a musical with a book by Rupert Holmes, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander, with additional lyrics by Kander and Holmes....
, 13
13 (musical)
13 is a musical with lyrics and music by Jason Robert Brown and a book by Dan Elish, with Robert Horn newly joining as co-librettist. The story concerns the life of 13-year-old Evan Goldman as he moves from New York City to Appleton, Indiana, and his dilemma when the move conflicts with the...
and 9 to 5: The Musical
9 to 5 (musical)
9 to 5: The Musical is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and a book by Patricia Resnick, based on the 1980 movie Nine to Five...
(all of which moved to Broadway and received a combined 25 Tony Award nominations). He has produced 18 world premieres including the musicals Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is a rock musical with music and lyrics written by Michael Friedman, and a book by its director Alex Timbers.The show is a comedic Wild West rock musical about the founding of the Democratic Party...
and Sleeping Beauty Wakes, and the plays Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is a play by Rajiv Joseph. The show is about "a tiger that haunts the streets of present day Baghdad seeking the meaning of life. As he witnesses the puzzling absurdities of war, the tiger encounters Americans and Iraqis who are searching for friendship, redemption,...
, Water & Power and Yellow Face
Yellow Face
Yellow Face is a play by David Henry Hwang, featuring the author himself as the protagonist. It premiered in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum in association with East West Players and had its Off-Broadway premiere at the Joseph Papp Public Theater...
; and he presented a broad range of plays and musicals ranging from Dead End
Dead End
Dead End is a 1937 crime drama film. It is an adaptation of the Sidney Kingsley 1935 Broadway play of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea, and Sylvia Sidney...
to Romance to The Black Rider
The Black Rider
The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets is a self-billed "musical fable" in the avant-garde tradition created through the collaboration of theatre director Robert Wilson, musician Tom Waits, and writer William S. Burroughs. Wilson was largely responsible for the design and direction....
to blockbusters such as Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is a documentary-style musical, based on one of the most successful 1960s rock 'n roll groups, the Four Seasons...
, Edward Scissorhands and Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins (musical)
Mary Poppins is a Walt Disney Theatrical musical based on the similarly titled series of children's books by P. L. Travers and the Disney 1964 film. The West End production opened in December 2004 and received two Olivier Awards, one for Best Actress in a Musical and the other for Best Theatre...
.
In addition, Michael inaugurated CTG’s New Play Production Program, designed to foster the development and production of new work.
Personal life
Michael Ritchie was born in Worcester, MassachusettsWorcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
.
In 1982, while stage managing a revival of Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Present Laughter
Present Laughter
Present Laughter is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1939 and first staged in 1942 on tour, alternating with his lower middle-class domestic drama This Happy Breed...
, Ritchie met actress Kate Burton
Kate Burton (actress)
-Personal life:Burton was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the daughter of producer Sybil Burton and actor Richard Burton . She was thus the stepdaughter of actress Elizabeth Taylor and of Sybil's second husband Jordan Christopher. In 1979, Burton earned a bachelor's degree in Russian studies and...
. They married in 1985 and have two children, a son, Morgan, born in 1988 and a daughter, Charlotte, born in 1998.