Rupert Rhymes, who has died aged 83 following a stroke, was one of the key London theatre managers and administrators in the postwar period of recovery and renewal. Building on the pre-war legacy of Lilian Baylis and her colleagues at the Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells, Rhymes joined the energetic expansion that picked up pace after several years of austerity with the foundation of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1960 and the National Theatre in 1962.
He started as a box-office clerk at the RSC’s London base, the Aldwych theatre, in 1963 before joining the famous manager of this period, Stephen Arlen, as his assistant at Sadler’s Wells. There, guided by Arlen, he learned the ropes backstage and front-of-house, and the fine art of contracts with union members and their agents.
Later that year he joined the National at the Old Vic as Laurence Olivier’s theatre manager, running the front-of-house operation, entertaining guests of Olivier and the theatre in the intervals, and beginning the great collection of theatrical postcards from all over the world that adorned his office walls.
He also met there, in 1964, his future wife, Sue Chennells, who was working in the Old Vic’s graphic design department. They married in 1970 and Sue would later join him at Sadler’s Wells, where Rupert had returned alongside Arlen in 1969, first as head of press and publicity, then general manager, before succeeding him as company secretary and administrative director when Arlen died in 1972.
Rhymes was born in Bath, Somerset, the third son of Elson Rhymes, a butcher’s salesman – young Rupert often accompanied him in the van, touring villages in the surrounding area – and his wife Phyllis (nee Rawlings).
He was educated at King Edward’s school, Bath, and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a degree in modern history. He became embroiled in Oxford student theatre – his contemporaries included two tall future television newsreaders, Peter Snow and Gordon Honeycombe – soon confirming that his vocation was not on the stage but off it. He managed several OUDS foreign tours, including a fabled version of Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday.
In 1968 Sadler’s Wells Opera moved into the Coliseum, where six years later it was renamed the English National Opera. The company, with Lord (George) Harewood in the artistic driving seat as managing director from 1972, and the Coliseum theatre itself, a masterpiece of construction and design by the Victorian architect Frank Matcham, became the central enthusiasm of Rhymes’s professional life as an increasingly important figure in the capital’s theatreland.
Steely, dedicated and quietly spoken, with an attractively dry sense of humour, he left the ENO in 1987, but remained unofficially associated as he moved effortlessly through the gears; he had been nominated chief executive of the Society of West End Theatres (SWET), renamed the Society of London Theatres (SOLT), in 1978 – supervising significant changes in arts management and audience growth.
These included theatre tokens, with sales reaching £4m a year through a thousand or so outlets throughout the UK; the half-price ticket booth (now TKTS) which opened in Leicester Square in 1980, a transformative move incorporated from Broadway practice; a marked intensification of statistical research among audiences; and a renewed push for sponsorship and reforms of the funding system itself.
Uniquely, Rhymes served as president and chief executive of both SOLT and the Theatrical Management association (TMA) now known as UK Theatre. Neither trade association was seen as merely a negotiating body but as a provider of advice, and an advocate for an industry playing a vital role in the economic and cultural life of the country.
On a national level, his work continued, until his so-called retirement in 2002, with the National Campaign for the Arts, the National Council for Drama Training (now the Federation of Drama Schools), and as a governor (and vice-chair) of the Central School of speech and drama; beyond that date, he chaired the board of another beloved theatre, the Bristol Old Vic, in a difficult period until 2007 and the Theatres Trust (2002-09), the statutory campaigning body for the better protection of theatre buildings nationwide.
He was for many years (1977-2001) a trustee of the (Raymond) Mander and (Joe) Mitchenson theatre collection (and chair from 1986-2001), the most important such collection we have; Rhymes was a huge admirer of “the boys” and their flamboyant first-night attire – to such an extent that he set about acquiring for himself an equally colourful, though inevitably more discreet, line in shirts and ties. The Mander and Mitchenson Collection now forms part of the University of Bristol Theatre Collection.
The Coliseum remained close to his heart as he became a proactive chair of the Frank Matcham Society in 2011, remaining a vice-president from 2016 and a contributor to their excellent annual journal.
Rhymes was appointed OBE in 2002. He remained true to his roots, listing among his recreations in Who’s Who, “protesting against further destruction in the city of Bath”.
The family home was a rambling farmhouse nearby, where Sue still runs a cattery – a sort of hotel for cats – in one of the outbuildings.
She survives him, as do their children, Darren and Tamasin, and two grandchildren, Polly and Arthur. He was predeceased by his older brothers, Trevor and Roy.
• Rupert John Rhymes, theatre manager and executive, born 24 June 1940; died 12 September 2023
