The Stage

Producer Brolly dies aged 70

Published Tuesday 7 November 2006 at 13:10

Top Broadway producer, founder of Classic and Jazz FM and former head of the Really Useful Theatre Company, Brian Brolly has died aged 70.

Brolly began his career with MCA Television Inc and at the age of 26 became the company’s vice-president. He was responsible for numerous film and television productions including The Snow Goose, starring Richard Harris, Richard Chamberlain’s Hamlet and the BBC series Colditz.

Brolly met the young Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice when he became an executive at MCA Records. He urged them to develop the idea which became Jesus Christ Superstar. 

He went on to become managing director of Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group. He quit in 1988 after RUG branched out into books and films. Brolly took an £800,000 payoff and sold his stake in the business for £14 million to the late Robert Maxwell. 

Among the Broadway musicals he produced were Flower Drum Song (2003), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2003) and Brooklyn (2005). He went on to found Jazz FM and Classic FM and retained substantial stakes in both radio stations.

Brolly, who died suddenly of a heart attack on November 4, is survived by his wife Gillian. An obituary will follow in a future issue of The Stage.