Hello I'm Krestey Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1996 and the presenter was Sue Lolly. My costaway this week is a producer. He comes from a Scottish Jewish family and after a cosmopolitan but unhappy

childhood when he was educated in Switzerland, Germany and France ended up working in the London

theatre. The first show he produced was a complete flop.

Undaunted he tried again and the string of successes he since enjoyed

testify to the wisdom of that decision.

Sluth, Ocalda, a chorus line, the Rocky Horror Show to name. of that

the

the rocky horror show to name a tiny few.

Famous not just for his theatrical flare but his lifestyle too,

beautiful women always accompany him on his frequent trips to London clubs and parties,

he can't think of one good thing about growing old.

Now 60, he still loves every minute of his job.

It's like being on a roller coaster, he says. He is Michael White. A roller coaster with no guarantee of coming up the other side, though, Michael. I mean, you must have made and lost a fortune in your time if not several.

Several.

It's an extremely risky business and it becomes more so because the one thing that's happened

is that the public now expect productions to have such enormous quality in the scenic lighting

sound departments and obviously that's extremely expensive.

And there's no such thing as a surefire hit, That's the problem, isn't it? You can put a lot of money into something that goes

fut on the first night. Well yes, there are many famous occasions of shows that have opened with tremendous advance and expectation and they just

don't happen.

...