Richard Darbourne is senior producer at ATG Productions, an international theatrical production company dedicated to producing critically acclaimed, commercially successful and creatively ambitious work for the West End, Broadway and beyond.

 “You really should go and see this show, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. I often heard comments like this, but this was the second person who had said it. It was June 5th, 2019.

“Who is it by? I don’t mean F. Scott Fitzgerald, who’s staged it?’

“Jethro Compton” came the reply. He was apparently the show’s producer, director, writer and designer, and a decade before, we had shared an office as part of an “emerging producers” support programme called Stage One.

We were wide-eyed and penniless, but with enough ignorance to forge ahead in the most turbulent of career choices. Back then, that “career” was more a series of small steps that seemingly would lead nowhere but collectively would create a slow trajectory towards accumulating enough credibility to allow us both to earn a living from putting shows on. When you know someone else has been on that journey, it forges a strong bond. He knew about me, and I knew about him. We both “got it”.

They say you need a bit of luck, and that is true. However, the actor Peter Dinklage describes it better by saying “I hate the word ‘luck’: it cheapens a lot of hard work.” Jethro had brought this thing to life with a tenacious, one-man vision to take those hardest and loneliest of steps...the first ones.

If a musical takes off, the royalty remuneration is weighted heavily towards the authors: typically, 50% of the total pot goes to the authors of the music, book and lyrics.

This is why. In the beginning they have not just to create it but coax it into life. Not only do they probably not get paid, but they have to pay others. And raise the initial finance to get it seen and staged in whatever way possible. And it has to be original yet mainstream enough to make the jump from £25 tickets to £75 tickets, competing with every other major production.

Back in June 2019, Jethro was determined to get his work first staged in a 100-seat theatre with five actors. He needed £100 000 to book the theatre, build a set, rehearse five people (who also played all the music on stage) and pay wages and running costs for four weeks of rehearsals. He wrote it, he directed it and then he also designed both the physical production as well as the lighting design.

What enabled him to get it all together? Those small steps during the previous decade. Small steps to get into a position where the theatre owner on the fringe knows him, and his prior work as playwright and director, well enough to give him the slot. He has to have the portfolio of work to cobble it all together, get the actors on board and, crucially, attract the interest of a composer.

Step forward Darren Clark. Darren, a Kiwi and long-time UK resident, had been on a similar journey making connections, writing songs and scores and pursuing a dream. The timing and combination of people was right, and the dream was about to come true.

It was Friday night, it was raining and I wanted to go home. The show was sold out in the 100-seater: you might think that is an easy task on the fringe, but with a tiny marketing budget, only word of mouth can bring a packed house.

Thankfully, they squeezed an extra seat from somewhere and what exploded before me was a glorious score of violins, cellos, guitars, piano, French horn…all played by the five cast members. The visuals were stunning, watching these joyous human beings tell this story.

The story was deep, layered and well structured. It had a maturity about it that it sometimes missing from development work. Often you see potential, but it’s scrappy or too niche, too aimed at a younger market who might not buy West End tickets. But not this one.

So now began the second part. The first part – creating it – had taken three years, and the second part – getting it to the West End – took another (admittedly pandemic-affected) five years.

This is where the producer comes in. I had produced around 30 shows of differing shapes and sizes in the previous decade, and in 2015 I had become Senior Producer for Ambassador Theatre Group (now ATG Entertainment), and our producing arm, ATG Productions, had fast become a leading world player, with hits likes Cabaret with Eddie Redmayne, Betrayal with Tom Hiddleston and Cyrano with James McAvoy, and commercial bangers like Pretty Woman: The Musical, 9 to 5: The Musical, working with Dolly Parton, and Plaza Suite, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick.

You don’t get a Benjamin Button without a Pretty Woman. A crowd-pleaser that sells more than a million tickets in the UK brings investors returns that allow them to take risks on new material. So, how do you raise two million quid to get a new musical into the West End? The answer is to produce other shows.

How do you get given a West End theatre for new work, when star-led plays and studio-led musicals are more profitable and less risky for the landlord? Firstly, you position the show to (just about) work in a smaller theatre: a smaller theatre is one the landlord can give you without risking shareholder wrath. Button would never displace Paddington in the Savoy, but in the 400-seat Ambassadors you might have a chance.

The West End transfer was secured in 2023 as we re-staged the show back on the fringe, this time with a company of 13 who played 30 instruments between them. The visual was even more stunning, and, on 8th November 2024, the show’s West End life began.

So now the third part: playing to the world. The plan was to use the West End run as a shop window for international markets. The task of refining and evolving the work so it can sit proudly in the company of 30 West End shows, many of them massive hits that have been around a long time, is like landing a helicopter on a postage stamp.

It could not just be good; it had to be very special. The audience were the people who were going to sell the tickets by saying not “Yes, I had good time” but ‘Holy shit, you have to go and see this show!’ And to get international attention, we needed an award.