Obscure Playboy and Theater Producer Michael White Unveiled in THE LAST IMPRESARIO

While well-connected in the British and American theater scenes and friendly with A-list celebrities, Michael White is often referred to as the most famous person you’ve never heard of. A new documentary, The Last Impresario, by filmmaker Gracie Otto sets out to change that by profiling this British playboy and producer.

The film includes interviews with dozens of his close friends and associates including Naomi Watts, Anna Wintour, John Cleese, Kate Moss, Barry Humphries and Yoko Ono.

Michael White is considered a pioneer in the transformation of British culture through his big-name stage productions including Oh! Calcutta!, The Rocky Horror Show – and bringing to the big screen Monty Python’s The Holy Grail.

Gracie said that she first got to know Michael during a chance meeting at a party in Cannes. “He kind of liked that I didn’t know all of these celebrities in Cannes, and just wanted to show me his world,” she recalls.

“When we were hanging out it was funny, because I like to talk all the time, and he doesn’t talk. So our relationship was very much like him just listening to what I had to say, and I knew the whole time he was always responsive in his head of what he thought of me and what was going on.”

According to Gracie, Michael – whom his friends called “Chalky” - completely fit the profile of an impresario, since he was a bigger-than-life figure who was also considered one of London’s most successful theater producers.

“I think he had good taste from the beginning, just from coming from his education and upbringing – all of the different languages he spoke - and he was obviously highly intelligent. But then I feel like he was very avant-garde,” she said, explaining it seemed that Michael liked pushing the envelope and doing radical things that would be considered the most avant-garde.

Gracie said she learned many things from and about Michael during her associations with him and during the filming process.

“I did learn a lot about aging. Because when you look at everybody in the film, people in the film look amazing. But then they would be, ‘Oh, when I was 20 doing this show or whatever,’ you kind of go, wow, life just goes like that,” she said.

“Lots of people think that people who are older were born old, which is not the case. And they kind of had more fun than our generation is having at the moment.”

Watch the full interview to see extended clips from The Last Impresario, as well as to find out what Michael is up to these days.