Ken Hill (playwright)

Despite having cancer intermittently for 12 years, Hill was a prolific writer and sent Stratford East ideas for new productions right up until his death from cancer on 23 January 1995 aged 57. He died just two weeks before the opening of what was his final production, Zorro The Musical!, which he directed. Zorro opened on 14 February 1995, to rave reviews and immense box office success.

The Ken Hill Memorial Trust was set up after Hill died in 1995, to aid the Theatre Royal in supporting new talent in musical theatre. It now offers a biennial Musical Theatre Award annually to help nurture new talent in theatrical writers. The award in 1997 was a total of £5,000 for the winner – £1000 in cash, with the balance going towards the production costs of a week's showcase at the Theatre Royal, where many of Ken Hill's works were premiered. In addition, royalties were paid to the writer for the showcase. The trustees also offered small cash prizes to five runners up.

The Invisible Man, with illusions by the magician, Paul Kieve, fared much better in the West End, transferring from Stratford East to the Vaudeville Theatre in 1993. This show was a particular favourite of Hill's, combining his love of stage trickery and childish optical jokes in scenes most famously of which involved the unbandaged 'invisible' head of the Invisible Man smokes a cigar. At his request, everyone working in the theatre, from the cleaning staff upwards, signed a document forbidding them to reveal how this was done to the press.

He left Theatre Workshop in 1976 and worked for some years as the Director of Productions at the Newcastle Playhouse. That same year, he first staged his version of Phantom of the Opera at the Duke's Playhouse in Lancaster (and also on Morecambe Pier). In 1983, he adapted Catherine Cookson's Katie Mulholland into an elaborate stage musical for the Playhouse with songs by Eric Boswell. In 1984, an updated version of Phantom of the Opera was revived and produced in a joint-production with the Newcastle Playhouse and the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Andrew Lloyd Webber was inspired by the production and wrote his musical The Phantom of the Opera, which opened in the West End in 1986, after talks of staging Hill's version fell through. Hill's Phantom went abroad to St. Louis in the United States in 1987 and had another major production in San Francisco in 1988. The musical then embarked on a two-year-long national tour of the US from 1989 to 1991. The show also transferred to the West End in 1991 but, despite excellent notices, did badly at the box office and was forced to close earlier than expected. Since then, Phantom of the Opera has arguably become one of his most famous works,and has toured the world – the most recent production was in Tokyo, Japan in November 2004.

Hill's productions there included Is Your Doctor Really Necessary? (1973), a collaboration with songwriter Tony Macaulay, The Count of Monte Cristo (1974), Gentlemen Prefer Anything (1974) and Dracula (1974). He then became artistic director of the Musical Theatre Company, directing for the West End: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Westminster Theatre (for Andrew Lloyd Webber), The Mikado, and Fiddler on the Roof. Other West End credits include playdoctoring productions of Drake's Dream and Wren.

In 1970, Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop returned the Theatre Royal Stratford East. A satire on local authorities was discussed as a good subject for a new production, and Hill's name was put forward as a possible writer. The result of the collaboration Hill's Forward Up Your End (1970) was criticised by some of the press for its juvenile humour but Joan Littlewood liked it and Hill stayed on.

Hill worked as an actor in numerous productions but preferred writing. He was made associate director and resident writer at Theatre Workshop from 1970 to 1974 and from 1974 to 1976 he took over as artistic director, Joan Littlewood by this time having left for projects in Tunisia.

Ken Hill (28 January 1937 – 23 January 1995) was an English playwright and theatre director.

Ken Hill was born in Birmingham, England on 28 January 1937 and was educated at King Edward VI's Grammar School, Camp Hill, Birmingham, after which he joined an amateur theatrical company, Crescent Theatre, sweeping the floor, making props, writing and directing. His first play, Night Season, was put on at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, in 1963. For a time, he worked as an investigative journalist for ATV and it was there that he caused controversy with his report on corruption in Birmingham's local government.