Andrew Lloyd Webber Names Broadway Producer Ken Davenport To Head Really Useful North America
Ken Davenport, a Broadway multi-tasker as producer, ticket broker, blogger, event organizer, theater owner and general manager, has joined Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group as Executive Producer for North America, effective immediately.
Davenport will report to RUG president Jessica Koravos, overseeing the company’s ventures on Broadway and on tour in North America, including three current Broadway runs, The Phantom Of The Opera, School Of Rock – the Musical and Cats. The title is new and represents RUG’s resurgent activities on this side of the Atlantic not seen since its heyday in the 1990s, when Edgar Dobie presided over the company’s operations here. A major restructuring and downsizing in 1997 brought that era to a close.
“When one of the greatest contributors to the art of musical theater asks you to look after his shows here in the States, you don’t just say yes,” Davenport said in the RUG announcement on Monday. “You say, ‘Absolutely-without-a doubt-unquestionably-and-when-do-I-start-yes.’ ”
RUG is Lord Lloyd Webber’s theater producing and rights licensing company, controlling theatrical rights for Phantom, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Sunset Boulevard and School Of Rock – The Musical, among others.
With a background in group sales and general management, Davenport has become increasingly involved in Broadway on the producing end since the successful off-Broadway runs of The Awesome 80s Prom and Altar Boyz, with credits including Deaf West Theatre’s Spring Awakening revival, the smash hit revival of Terrence McNally’s comedy It’s Only a Play, Alan Cumming’s solo Macbeth, Godspell revived and Kinky Boots, among others. His blog, “A Producer’s Perspective,” is widely read in the industry, and he owns an off-Broadway venue, the Davenport Theatre.
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