DAVID PUGH

Producer

David first produced Art at the Wyndham’s Theatre where it won every major theatre Award. This has subsequently become the most successful new play in London for the last 25 years. Art subsequently opened on Broadway at the Royale Theatre, winning David his first Tony Award.

David’s production of the juke box musical The Blues Brothers played in London’s West End for four separate seasons, toured throughout the world for fifteen years and was nominated for the Olivier award for best entertainment.

David produced The Play What I Wrote by Hamish McColl and Sean Foley, directed by Kenneth Branagh. The Play What I Wrote, which opened at the Wyndham’s Theatre, won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy, and every review was a rave. The Play What I Wrote opened at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway and was nominated for the Tony Award for Special Achievement.

Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of Gerald Sibleyras’ play Heroes opened in the West End and won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy, whilst Ducktastic opened for a very short run at the Noël Coward Theatre in the West End whilst still managing to be nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Entertainment.

David then produced Equus in London’s West End, which starred Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths and played a sell-out season at the Gielgud Theatre. Following this at the same theatre his production of God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton, which starred Ralph Fiennes, Tamsin Grieg, Janet McTeer and Ken Stott, where it played a phenomenally successful season and won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy.

God of Carnage then opened on Broadway starring James Gandolfini, Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis, where it was one of Broadway’s biggest play successes. God of Carnage played for four hundred and seventy-six performances and won David his second Tony Award.

David commissioned and produced Kneehigh Theatre's production of Noël Coward's Brief Encounter, which played for nearly a year in an old cinema on the Haymarket in London and toured the UK winning the UK Theatre Award. His production then played at St Ann’s Warehouse in New York, where it received a rave review from The New York Times, transferred to Broadway.

David’s production of Tim Firth’s award-winning comedy Calendar Girls opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre transferred to the West End, played in nearly every English-speaking country around the world and then toured the UK where it ran for over four years with fourteen different casts and has become one of the most successful touring productions of a play ever.

David produced The Full Monty which was Simon Beaufoy’s adaptation of his own screenplay. The play won the UK Theatre Award for best touring production and toured the UK successfully for three years.

David produced the musical The Girls by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth which was tried out at Leeds Grand Theatre and The Lowry, Manchester where it received marvelous reviews. The Girls opened in London’s West End and was then re-entitled Calendar Girls the Musical which embarked on a sixty-week tour of the UK.

The Band – the Take That musical written by Tim Firth opened at Manchester Opera House to the largest advance box office ever and toured throughout the UK for eighteen months.

Most recently David has produced on tour a highly acclaimed production of Willy Russell’s Educating Rita which was curtailed by lockdown however, in August 2020 David presented this production at the Minack Open Air Theatre in Cornwall making worldwide news as at that time he was the only producer in the world producing a play.

Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) by Isobel McArthur after Jane Austin, David’s production at the Criterion Theatre in the West End has just won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy.

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