William Kenwright (4 September 1945 – 23 October 2023) was an English theatre and film producer. He was also the chairman of Everton Football Club for nearly two decades, from 2004 until his death in 2023.
Kenwright was born in Liverpool and attended Booker Avenue County Primary School, and then Liverpool Institute High School for Boys (predecessor to LIPA) from 1957 to 1964. He was treasurer of the Christian Union at school.
Kenwright was a judge in the 2007 BBC One television series Any Dream Will Do.
As a theatre producer, Kenwright is best known for the long-running West End hit Blood Brothers and the record-breaking UK tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Other productions have included West End runs of Whistle Down the Wind at the Palace Theatre, Festen in London, on a UK tour, and on Broadway, The Big Life, Elmina's Kitchen, Scrooge – The Musical, The Night of the Iguana, A Few Good Men, and A Man for All Seasons alongside UK tours of Jesus Christ Superstar, Tommy, Tell Me on a Sunday and This is Elvis. He produced the London revival of Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre in September 2006, starring Anna Maxwell Martin, James Dreyfus and Sheila Hancock.
Kenwright helped start the careers of many current West End theatre producers, including Mark Rubinstein and Marc Sinden. It has been estimated that he employed more actors in a year than any employer other than the BBC.
Kenwright also directed many productions, including Blood Brothers and Whistle Down the Wind; he was asked by Andrew Lloyd Webber to make changes to the direction of Love Never Dies. Bill Kenwright additionally produced and directed the 2018/19 UK touring production of Saturday Night Fever, in which Richard Winsor (as the preliminary Tony Manero) perceived the symbolic "Stayin' Alive" dance spectacle as "The Kneebreaker" and he presented the deceiving "Stage Pose" downgrade (created by Arlene Phillips in 1997). From 1997 he managed the Theatre Royal in Windsor.
Productions, mainly musicals, included:
Blood Brothers – Phoenix Theatre, London and on UK National Tour, starring Helen Hobson and Steven Houghton
Cabaret – Savoy Theatre, London with Will Young, Michelle Ryan and Sian Phillips
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – UK National Tour, starring Joe McElderry
The Wizard of Oz – London Palladium, London (2011)
Jekyll & Hyde – UK National Tour (2011)
Fame – UK National Tour (2014)
Evita – World Tour, starring Madalena Alberto and Gian Marco Schiaretti (2018)
Kenwright had his own record label (Bill Kenwright Records), which released a number of albums: the London Palladium cast recording of Scrooge (starring Tommy Steele) and the 2006 Lyric Theatre Recording of Cabaret were joined in February 2008 by the debut album of Kenwright's new boy group Dream On. Dream On, comprising five runners up from the BBC's Any Dream Will Do – Craig Chalmers, Lewis Bradley, Chris Crosby, Chris Barton and Antony Hansen – was formed in January 2008. BK Records also released Joe McElderry's 4th album Saturday Night at the Movies, and a soundtrack of McElderry singing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
Kenwright began his music career in a band known as the Chevrolets. Perhaps less known is Kenwright's recording career both solo and with a group Bill Kenwright and the Runaways:
"I want to go back there again"/"Walk through dreams" Columbia DB8239 (August 1967)
"Love's Black & White"/"Giving Up" MGM 1430 (July 1968)