NEW YORK: Who knows what power is?" Cameron Mackintosh said, cutting off a question, as he went into the kitchen of his New York apartment for a fresh cup of coffee.
It was a day off, and Mackintosh, the British producer, had just received a book of photographs of his Scottish castle, the first of many presents for his 60th birthday on Oct.
17. It put him in a reflective mood. He seemed just as happy to leaf through the pictures pointing out the mist on the cove or Frank, who runs the boats, as to talk about the reasons he was in New York: the American premiere of "Mary Poppins" and the revival of "Les Mis rables.
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Reflective is not one of the words usually associated with Mackintosh. Those would be: big, artful, lavish, tear- jerking. English music hall meets global passion on a stage near you, and the helicopter wins.
Mackintosh remade the modern theatrical spectacle and transformed Broadway and the American road (not to mention old cinemas from Vienna to Tokyo) with his big four: "Cats," "Les Mis rables," "Miss Saigon" and "The Phantom of the Opera." At 50, he was knighted, partly because of his shows' impact on Britain's economy. And now "Phantom" is the longest-running show on Broadway.
But the high points came 15 years ago. Since then Mackintosh has had a long bout of mixed results and forgettable titles. "Martin Guerre," "The Witches of Eastwick," "Moby Dick," "Putting It Together," "The Fix.
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"Anyone in this business has to be prepared to hold themselves up to scorn and ridicule, that's the nature of the theater," said his friend Freddie Gershon, who owns licenses of shows with Mackintosh.
"The hits," as Mackintosh explains, "don't come down like a conveyor belt." Even so, his gut is famous.
And what is it telling him about "Mary Poppins," which opens on Nov. 16 at the New Amsterdam, and the revival of "Les Miz," which, somewhat scaled down, was to open at the Broadhurst on Thursday, almost three and a half years after ending its 16-year Broadway run?
"In the end they will be as successful as the public wants them to be," he said.
"I'm going to be delivering two great pieces of theater. I can't do anything more than that."
But this is the last time he'll do two big shows together, he said.
Come January Mackintosh plans to put all calls on hold and spend eight months rotating among his estates. There are pigs to cook in Scotland, venison in Somerset, seafood in Malta. Now and then he will look in on the seven London theaters he owns and is restoring.
He sighed philosophically: "Owning a lot of stuff is a nightmare. Because of the responsibility."
The next day was the first run- through of "Mary P.
," as he calls it, at the New Amsterdam, and he shed his rubber Crocs for cap-toed shoes before doing what he does best: meddling. He was rushing around in the dark to give notes to the various creative people in the show.
"Cameron is part everything.
He wears as many hats as we wear," says George Stiles, the composer of the show's additional songs, who sometimes finds himself worn down by the process. "He can be a bully," said Richard Eyre, the director of the London and the Broadway "Poppins." "But I've never known him gratuitously to bully as it were, as a sort of psychological need.
To him what matters more than anything in the world is the project, that is the passion and the thing that he gains his identity from."
A thin man shot up the aisle and grabbed Mackintosh's sleeve. "Hello, darling, I bring love from the east," Thomas Schumacher said and was instantly gone.
Schumacher, who heads Disney's theatrical arm, was just back from Europe. Mackintosh and Disney are producing "Poppins" together. The show has been playing in London for almost two years to celebratory reviews.
There are long- standing rumors of enmity between the producers, but both say - loudly - that they get along fine.
It was a shotgun wedding: Disney held the rights to the "Mary Poppins" songs, by Richard M. and Robert B.
Sherman, from its 1964 movie, but Mackintosh held the theatrical rights.
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