The role of a general manager on a big West End musical is to facilitate the producer’s vision on the stage, hire the technical team, do the contracts and deliver the goods or, occasionally, the not-so-goods. The Broadway model of a general manager for hire, rather than someone already ensconced in the producer’s office, was adopted in Britain for the first time by Andrew Treagus, who has died aged 78.
From the mid-1970s onwards, Treagus was the go-to general manager for any big import from Broadway – A Chorus Line, Annie, Rodgers and Hart’s On Your Toes, the rocked-up Pirates of Penzance, Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, La Cage aux Folles and City of Angels – through to homegrown spectacles such as Starlight Express, The Hired Man, Saturday Night Fever and Aspects of Love.
