Rachel Kavanaugh

An award winning and highly experienced freelance director of plays and musicals     both in the UK and internationally, with experience as an Artistic Director and CEO.

Her work at the Royal Shakespeare Company includes the box office breaking adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted by David Edgar. First produced in 2017 with Phil Davies as Scrooge and then revived in 2018 and 2022 with Aden Gillett and Adrian Edmondson respectively. Also Alice in Wonderland (RST and Barbican Theatre) and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Swan Theatre, UK tour, Ann Arbour Michigan and Old Vic Theatre London).

Work at Chichester Festival Theatre includes Shadowlands starring Hugh Bonneville, Half a Sixpence (a co-production with Cameron Mackintosh who transferred it to the Noel Coward theatre, 4 WOS nominations, 2 awards), The Winslow Boy (also UK tour), Single Spies starring Belinda Lang and Nicholas Farrell (also UK tour), An Ideal Husband  starring Patricia Routledge and Edward Fox, The Way of the World starring Penelope Keith, Love Story by Howard Goodall and Stephen Clark (transfer to Duchess Theatre and Walnut St Theatre, Philadelphia, Olivier Award nomination for Best New Musical), The Music Man starring Brian Conley and A Small Family Business starring Nigel Planer.

Work at The Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park includes Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Olivier Award Nomination for Best Musical Revival), The Sound of Music (Olivier Award nomination for Best Musical Revival, Winner WOS Award for Best Musical Revival), The Taming of the Shrew (starring Sheridan Smith), Cymbeline, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It and Love’s Labours Lost (both starring Benedict Cumberbatch), Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Other notable West End, regional and international work includes The Great British Bake  Off  Musical starring Haydn Gwynne (Cheltenham Everyman and Noel Coward Theatres), The Wind in The Willows starring Rufus Hound, Denise Welch & Gary Wilmot  (Plymouth Theatre Royal, tour and London Palladium), Oklahoma! (BBC Prom, Royal Albert Hall with The John Wilson Orchestra), The Witches of Eastwick (Cameron Mackintosh and Cirkus Theatre, Stockholm), Romeo and Juliet (Washington Shakespeare Theatre), The Rivals (Bristol Old Vic), Hope Place (Liverpool Everyman), Oklahoma! (UK tour), Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Crucible) and It’s Headed Straight Towards Us by Adrian Edmundson and Nigel Planer and starring Rufus Hound and Samuel West (Park Theatre, London)

As Artistic Director and Joint CEO of Birmingham Repertory Theatre 2006-2011

Productions include Arthur and George (co-production with Nottingham Playhouse), Notes to Future Self (and tour), His Dark Materials, Hapgood starring Josie Lawrence, The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan - a Musical Adventure, The Madness of George III (all co-productions with Leeds Playhouse) Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, Arcadia (co-production with Bristol Old Vic) Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges, The Absence of War, A Doll’s House starring Tara Fitzgerald (and UK tour).