Tony-Winning Producer and Everton Football Club Chair Bill Kenwright Dies at 78

Theater producer, director, and Everton Football Club chairman Bill Kenwright has died at the age of 78 following a long illness.

Liverpool-born Kenwright was responsible for some of the largest and most-watched stage shows in the last 50 years of UK theater, including Blood Brothers (which ran in the West End for 24 years) and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. His recent shows included the award-winning Heathers the Musical, as well as Rob Madge’s My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?), which is now set to transfer to Broadway next year. Other West End shows have included Cabaret, Evita, The Exorcist, Foxfinder, The Best Man, The Pitmen Painters, and Whistle Down the Wind. 

Kenwright picked up Tony Awards for his Broadway productions of A Doll’s House starring Janet McTeer, and Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa. His scores of Broadway productions included Medea with Diana Rigg, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Ashley Judd, and The Glass Menagerie with Jessica Lange, among many others.

Kenwright was also the owner of Theatre Royal Windsor, and recently acquired The Other Palace in central London, currently home to the Ian McKellen and Roger Allam-led Frank and Percy, which continues until December.

All told, Kenwright produced over 500 West End, Broadway, UK touring, and international productions. During his time as the majority shareholder and chairman of Everton FC, Bill led the club through a period of unprecedented change in English football. Survivors include partner Jenny Seagrove and daughter Lucy Kenwright.