Nicholas Hytner


Nicholas Hytner
Born
Nicholas Robert Hytner

(1956-05-07) 7 May 1956 (age 67)
Occupation(s)Theatre director, film director, film producer
Awards

Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner (/ˈhaɪtnər/ HYTE-nər; born 7 May 1956) is an English theatre director, film director, and film producer. He was previously the Artistic Director of London's National Theatre. His major successes as director include Miss Saigon, The History Boys and One Man, Two Guvnors. He has also known for directing films such as The Madness of King George (1994), The Crucible (1996), The History Boys (2006), and The Lady in the Van (2015). Hytner was knighted in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to drama by Queen Elizabeth II.

Early life and education

Hytner was born in the prosperous suburbs of south Manchester in 1956, to barrister Benet Hytner and his wife, Joyce. He is the eldest child of four, and has described his upbringing as being in "a typical Jewish, cultured family".

He attended Manchester Grammar School and went to university at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he studied English. He did some acting whilst at university, including co-scripting and performing in a televised production of the 1977 Cambridge Footlights Revue. However, Hytner did not consider acting his strong point. "I think I was savvy enough when I went to Cambridge to discover I was a poor actor," he said later. He also did some directing, including a production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.

Career

Early career

After leaving Cambridge, Hytner's first "proper paid job" was as assistant to Colin Graham at English National Opera. Some of his earliest professional directing work was in opera, including at Kent Opera, Wexford Festival Opera and a production of Rienzi at English National Opera. His first theatre productions were at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter. He then directed a series of productions at the Leeds Playhouse, including The Ruling Class by Peter Barnes, an adaptation of Tom Jones and a musical version of Alice in Wonderland. In 1985 he became an Associate Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, a position he retained until 1989.

Theatre director

Hytner was hired by producer Cameron Mackintosh to direct Miss Saigon, the next work from Les Misérables creators Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. "I had seen several of Nick's opera productions – Handel's 'Xerxes' and Mozart's 'Magic Flute' – as well as some of his classical plays, and he has a marvellously visual point of view," Mackintosh said. For Hytner, "It just felt like a huge lark... It was gigantic, and I was into gigantic at the time, so I threw everything I knew at it. It was big, honest, moving, brash, kind of crazy. I had no idea that it would take off."

Hytner's London production of Miss Saigon opened on 20 September 1989, and closed on 30 October 1999 after just over ten years, on its 4,274th performance, having grossed more than £150 million in ticket sales during its London run. Hytner also directed the New York production, where the show recouped its $10.9m investment in 39 weeks. The show, at New York's Broadway Theatre, opened on 11 April 1991 and closed on 28 January 2001 after 4,092 performances.

Hytner was on a percentage for both London and New York productions, allowing him (then aged 34) to never need worry about money again. "It was a huge– a massive stroke of fortune," he said in 2010. "It meant that thereafter I only needed to do what I wanted to do."

What Hytner did was to continue directing theatre and opera, including several productions at London's National Theatre (where he had first directed in 1989 with Ghetto). In 1990, he was appointed an Associate Director of the National by its then-Director Richard Eyre. One of the plays he directed was Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III. When a film adaptation was commissioned, Bennett insisted Hytner should direct it, and the retitled The Madness of King George (1994) became Hytner's film debut.

In 1994, Eyre announced he would be leaving the National Theatre in three years' time. "[It] made me begin to think about the vision that is needed in such a position and the fact that this needs refreshing under every directorate. I very much felt that you had to have a big idea in order to put yourself forward for such a role and as I didn't have this kind of idea at that time, I decided not to apply," Hytner said later. He continued as an Associate Director at the National until 1997, when the new Director, Trevor Nunn, took up his post.

Hytner directed more films: The Crucible (1996) with Daniel Day-Lewis, The Object of My Affection (1998) and Center Stage (2000). The last of these was not an adaptation from a play or novel, having been based on an original screenplay. He also spent 15 months developing a film of the musical Chicago, to star Madonna, but the project foundered and was later made with a different director and cast.

National Theatre Director (2003-15)

When Trevor Nunn announced that he would be leaving the National Theatre, Hytner "really felt that this time I had a strong sense of what the NT should be doing under a new Director. I had a long conversation with Christopher Hogg, then Chairman of the NT Board, and Tom Stoppard about my ideas for the NT's future. These included a redefinition of how it might be possible to use the theatre spaces and opening up the NT to new audiences by lowering prices for some performances." Hytner was successful in his application for the post, and his appointment as Director was announced in September 2001. He took over from Nunn in April 2003.

Hytner's role as Director of the National involves decisions about what plays are staged. "Essentially what I do is produce 20 shows a year here," he stated in one interview. "To produce as opposed to direct, as I generate the ideas, generate the repertoire. What I do is put together the team that are going to stage the repertoire together then stand back and come in at a later stage to see how it's all going." (Hytner does also direct plays himself at the National, and all his theatre work since 2003 has originated there.) But his role is also about the overall direction of the National Theatre as an organisation. "It would be wrong to say that I confine myself only to the repertoire – I don't. I think how we allocate our resources, exactly what we spend money on, is always an artistic decision. I think the amount of attention we give to what goes on in the foyers, what goes on outside, how the building looks at night, the amount of attention we give to our education work and our website are all artistic matters. They all stem from a sense of the artistic direction of the organization."

Under Hytner's directorship, the National has innovated with Sunday openings, live cinema broadcasts of NT plays around the world, National Theatre Live, and with its reduced price ticket seasons. These seasons, sponsored by Travelex, have offered large numbers of reduced price seats (for £10 when the scheme was introduced in 2003, with prices rising to £12 from 2011). The reduced price seasons were credited with achieving high usage for the Olivier auditorium – between 90% and 100% full during the summer months compared to a historic average of 65%, with no loss in overall income, and with encouraging a younger and more diverse audience. In 2003 it was reported that one third of the audience for the multiracial production of Henry V in modern dress (directed by Hytner) had never been to the theatre before, and that a large section of the audience for the drama Elmina's Kitchen were Black east Londoners new to the National.

Hytner has said that this diversity is a consequence of the theatre's direction rather than the motivation for it. "I think our repertoire is more diverse than it's ever been," he said, "and I think that reflects a more diverse society and a more diverse audience. The aim, though, was not to go out and find a diverse audience but for the repertoire to reflect a greater diversity in our culture." He has also said: "The rep[ertoire] should reflect the world we're part of, and it should put the society in which we live in the context of the past and, as far as we can, of the wider world."

Hytner's latest innovation is NT Future, a £70 million scheme (of which £59 million had been raised at October 2012) to open up the National's building and to contribute to the regeneration of the South Bank, to transform facilities for education and participation, and to keep ahead of new technologies and the changing needs of theatre artists and audiences.

Hytner stated as early as 2010 that he did not wish to stay as head of the National indefinitely, saying, "I've been here seven years. My predecessors have averaged 12. It's important that someone else comes in and shakes it up again so I won't be here in 10 years, that's for sure." In April 2013, he announced that he would step down as Director of the National Theatre at the end of March 2015. In his role as Director of National Theatre, he appeared on the Cultural Exchange as part of the Radio Four programme Front Row, where he chose The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart as his work of art.

The London Theatre Company and Bridge Theatre (2017-present)

Following the National Theatre, Hytner and Nick Starr founded the London Theatre Company and a new 900-seat adaptable commercial theatre the Bridge Theatre near Tower Bridge, which opened in October 2017. Hytner directed the inaugural production of Young Marx.

Opera and film

Hytner has worked extensively in opera, with many of his productions achieving critical acclaim and commercial success – his English National Opera staging of The Magic Flute was in repertory for 25 years. But Hytner has described himself (to an opera-related audience) as "someone who is unimpressed by his own work on the operatic stage".

Similarly, most of Hytner's films have achieved critical and commercial success, with The Madness of King George winning BAFTA and Evening Standard awards for best British film, but he still sees himself as primarily a theatre practitioner. "I think I'm a theatre director who does other stuff," he has said. "I can't see myself as a film-maker. I love doing opera when ever I've done it, but I always see myself as visiting from the theatre, which is where I belong. The real film-maker thinks with a camera, which is something I just can't do."

Personal life

Hytner is gay. Although brought up in a Jewish household, Hytner said in 2010, "I'm not a believer, but I do think it is a significant part of my adventure and it fascinates me. I couldn't say I'm a member of the Jewish community or gay community in that I don't seek out either of those communities to hang out with, but it is an important part of who I believe myself to [be]."

Hytner's mother, Joyce Hytner OBE, is a theatrical fundraiser, who has served on the board of many organisations including The Old Vic, the Criterion Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre and Historic Royal Palaces.

Filmography

Film

As a Director

Year Title Distribution
1994 The Madness of King George Channel Four Films / The Samuel Goldwyn Company / Rank Film Distributors
1996 The Crucible 20th Century Fox
1998 The Object of My Affection
2000 Center Stage Sony Pictures Releasing
2006 The History Boys Fox Searchlight
2013 National Theatre Live: 50 Years On Stage Television special
2015 The Lady in the Van Sony Pictures Classics / TriStar Pictures
2020 Talking Heads 3 episodes
TBA The Choral Sony Pictures Classics

Theatre

Year Title Playwright Theater Ref.
1982 Absurd Person Singular Alan Ayckbourn Northcott Theatre, Exeter
1984 Jumpers Tom Stoppard Royal Exchange, Manchester
1985 The Scarlet Pimpernel Baroness Orczy Chichester Festival Theatre
1986 As You Like It William Shakespeare Royal Exchange, Manchester
1986 Mumbo Jumbo Robin Glendinning Royal Exchange, Manchester
1986 Edward II Christopher Marlowe Royal Exchange, Manchester
1987 The Country Wife William Wycherley Royal Exchange, Manchester
1987 Don Carlos Friedrich Schiller Royal Exchange, Manchester
1988 The Tempest William Shakespeare Royal Shakespeare Theatre
1988 Measure for Measure William Shakespeare Barbican Theatre
1989 Ghetto Joshua Sobol National Theatre
1990 Volpone Ben Jonson Almeida Theatre
1990-91 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
adapted by Alan Bennett
National Theatre
1989-99
1991-01
Miss Saigon Claude-Michel Schönberg Drury Lane, West End
The Broadway Theatre, Broadway
1991 King Lear William Shakespeare Barbican Theatre
1991-92 The Madness of George III Alan Bennett National Theatre
1992 The Recruiting Officer George Farquhar National Theatre
1992
1994-95
Carousel Rodgers and Hammerstein Lyttleton Theatre, National Theatre
Vivian Beaumont Theater
Lincoln Center, New York
1993 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde Aldwych Theatre
1997 The Cripple of Inishmaan Martin McDonagh National Theatre
1998 Twelfth Night William Shakespeare Vivian Beaumont Theater, Broadway
Lincoln Center, New York
1999 The Lady in the Van Alan Bennett Queen's Theatre
2000 Orpheus Descending Tennessee Williams Donmar Warehouse
2000 Cressida Nicholas Wright Albery Theatre
2001 The Winter's Tale William Shakespeare National Theatre
2001 Mother Clap's Molly House Mark Ravenhill National Theatre
2002 Sweet Smell of Success Marvin Hamlisch / Craig Carnelia Martin Beck Theatre, Broadway
2003 Henry V William Shakespeare National Theatre
2003 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman Olivier Theatre, National Theatre
2005
2006
The History Boys Alan Bennett Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre
Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway
2004 Stuff Happens David Hare National Theatre
2005 Henry IV, Part 1 William Shakespeare National Theatre
2005 Henry IV, Part 2 William Shakespeare National Theatre
2006 Southwark Fair Samuel Adamson National Theatre
2006 The Alchemist Ben Jonson National Theatre
2007 The Man of Mode George Etherege National Theatre
2007 Rafta, Rafta... Ayub Khan-Din National Theatre
2007-08 Much Ado About Nothing William Shakespeare National Theatre
2008 Major Barbara George Bernard Shaw National Theatre
2009 England People Very Nice Richard Bean National Theatre
2009 Phèdre Jean Racine National Theatre
2010 The Habit of Art Alan Bennett National Theatre
2010 London Assurance Dion Boucicault National Theatre
2010-11 Hamlet William Shakespeare Olivier Theatre, National Theatre
2011
2011-15
2012
One Man, Two Guvnors Richard Bean Lyttleton Theatre, National Theatre
Adelphi Theatre, West End
Music Box Theatre, Broadway
2011-12 Collaborators John Hodge Cottesloe Theatre, National Theatre
2012 Travelling Light Nicholas Wright National Theatre
2012 Timon of Athens William Shakespeare Olivier Theatre, National Theatre
2013 Othello William Shakespeare Olivier Theatre, National Theatre
2014 Great Britain Richard Bean Lyttleton Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
2015 The Hard Problem Tom Stoppard Dorfman, National Theatre
2017 Young Marx Richard Bean and Clive Coleman Bridge Theatre
2018 Julius Caesar William Shakespeare Bridge Theatre
2018 Allelujah! Alan Bennett Bridge Theatre
2019 Alys, Always Lucinda Coxon Bridge Theatre
2019 A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare Bridge Theatre
2019 Two Ladies Nancy Harris Bridge Theatre
2020 Beat the Devil David Hare Bridge Theatre
2020 Talking Heads Alan Bennett Bridge Theatre
2020, 2022 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens

adapted by Hytner

Bridge Theatre
2021 Bach & Sons Nina Raine Bridge Theatre
2021 The Book of Dust:
La Belle Sauvage
Philip Pullman Bridge Theatre
2022 Straight Line Crazy David Hare Bridge Theatre, London
The Shed, Off-Broadway

2022 The Southbury Child Stephen Beresford Chichester Festival TheatreBridge Theatre
2022 John Gabriel Borkman Henrik Ibsen Bridge Theatre
2023-24 Guys and Dolls Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows Bridge Theatre
2024 Giant Mark Rosenblatt Royal Court Theatre

Opera

Opera produced by Nicholas Hytner
House Opera Composer First production Notes
Kent Opera The Turn of the Screw Benjamin Britten 1979
Kent Opera The Marriage of Figaro Mozart 1981
Wexford Festival Opera Sakùntala Franco Alfano 1982
Kent Opera King Priam Michael Tippett 1983
English National Opera Rienzi Wagner 1983
English National Opera Xerxes Handel 1985
Paris Opéra Giulio Cesare Handel 1987
Royal Opera Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan (The King Goes Forth To France) Aulis Sallinen 1987
Royal Opera The Knot Garden Michael Tippett 1988
English National Opera The Magic Flute Mozart 1988
Grand Théâtre de Genève Le Nozze di Figaro Mozart 1989
Glyndebourne La clemenza di Tito Mozart 1991
English National Opera The Force of Destiny Verdi 1992
Bavarian State Opera, Munich Don Giovanni Mozart 1994
Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris The Cunning Little Vixen Janáček 1995
English National Opera Xerxes Handel 2002
Glyndebourne Così fan tutte Mozart 2006
Royal Opera Don Carlo Verdi 2008
Metropolitan Opera Don Carlo Verdi 2010

Awards and honours

Hytner is on the Board of Trustees of the Royal Opera House. He is a patron of many organisations including London International Festival of Theatre, HighTide Festival Theatre, the Shakespeare Schools Festival, Dance UK, Action for Children's Arts, Pan Intercultural Arts and Prisoners' Penfriends.

He was elected an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 2005, and was Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University in 2000–01.

Hytner was knighted in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to drama. In Spring 2014, the Royal Northern College of Music announced it was to confer Honorary Membership of the College upon Hytner. In 2014 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.
1995 British Academy Film Awards Outstanding British Film The Madness of King George Won
Best Film Nominated
Best Direction Nominated
1991 Tony Awards Best Direction of a Musical Miss Saigon Nominated
1994 Carousel Won
2006 Best Direction of a Play The History Boys Won
2012 One Man, Two Guvnors Nominated
1990 Laurence Olivier Awards Best Director Miss Saigon Nominated
1991 Best Director of a Play The Wind in the Willows Nominated
1993 Best Director of a Musical Carousel Won
2001 Best Director Orpheus Descending Nominated
2005 The History Boys Won
2012 One Man, Two Guvnors Nominated
2014 Society of London Theatre Special Award Won

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