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EventNewsDXB - Maxine English: A Maverick's Journey From Dubai To The West End

• W4 Podcast Studio • Season 1 • Episode 6

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EventNewsDXB Ep. 6 - Maxine English: A Maverick's Journey From Dubai To The West End

Supported by Warehouse Four - Dubai's best independent event venue.

What if you could bring some of Dubai's 'anything's possible' attitude to the heart of London's iconic West End? That's exactly what this week's guest did! Join host Ian Carless as he sits down with Maxine English, the maverick powerhouse behind the transformation of the Savoy Theatre. 

From her early days immersed in Dubai's arts scene to helping shape Dubai's burgeoning cultural landscape, Maxine's story is one of passion, resilience and a touch of old-school glamour. Discover how her childhood love for drama classes evolved into a full-fledged career and how a chance encounter with a hospitality industry titan, paved her way to success. 

Podcast Rundown

• Maxine's background and entry into the theatre world. 
• The evolution of Dubai's entertainment landscape. 
• Key challenges of making theatre commercially viable. 
• The balance between international productions and local talent. 
• The potential impact of casinos on the entertainment scene. 
• Personal sacrifices and experiences in theatre leadership. 
• The significance of creating memorable audience experiences. 

Production Credits:

Presented by: Ian Carless
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producers: Ian Carless & Joe Morrison
Produced by: EventNewsDXB & W4 Podcast Studio

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Ian Carless:

Welcome to Event News DXB. Before we begin, I've got a quick favour to ask. There's one simple way that you can support our show, and that's by hitting that follow or subscribe button on the app you're listening to the show on right now. It really does make a huge difference in helping us get the show out there to as many people as possible, so please give us a hand and click that button right now. Thanks a bunch.

Ian Carless:

You're listening to the Event News DXB podcast. Your behind-the-scenes look into the world of events in Dubai, the UAE and the MENA region. I'm Ian Carlos, and every week I dive into the latest event news, expert insights and industry trends, while spotlighting Dubai's most inspiring success stories from the people shaping one of the world's most dynamic event markets. Our guest this week needs almost no introduction. After relocating to Dubai at an early age from her hometown of Newcastle, maxine English has been a prominent figure from the very outset of Dubai's once fledgling event scene, with stints at the now sorely missed Madinat Theatre, as well as Flash Entertainment, ducktac and the QE2. Three years ago, she was offered what is probably her dream role as the GM of the Savoy Theatre in London's West End. And to prove that we go all out for Event News DXB. I took a plane, train and automobile to talk to Maxine backstage at the iconic Savoy Theatre. Maxine, welcome to the podcast.

Maxine English:

Excited yes.

Ian Carless:

Now I guess I should really start at the beginning, since that's what I've done with all, I guess, so far. How did you end up in Dubai? I know you're not there now. I know you're and actually, for those listening, we are actually having one of those rare occurrences where we're recording a podcast in person. I'm in London, I'm in the Savoy Theatre with Maxine, where she's been for the past three years, but, as I said, let's circleped on a plane to go and do two months of consulting in Dubai.

Maxine English:

And we waved him off and said we'll see you in two months. And then two months later he rang and said you're probably going to have to come here because I'm a bit busy. And that was that. Mum and I got on a plane, left my brother behind in London, off we went to Dubai and then Peter joined us a year later and the whole family was there and we never looked back. So when I, when I left to come here, I'd been in Dubai for the best part of 26 years at that point, Wow, and like most of us, I guess you've seen a lot of change.

Maxine English:

Yeah, you know, when I landed we did the obligatory must stay in the World Trade Center apartments. We stayed in all three at some point over the next couple of years, but at that point Shakespeare Road was one road. There was nothing else there. It was just that and you had to drive really far to go to a Spinney's and if you went to the Hard Rock Café you were very, very, very far away.

Ian Carless:

So how did you get into entertainment then? Because that's where you spent the well, predominantly the bulk of your career.

Maxine English:

Yes, I mean, it's always the same story, isn't it Annoying? Four-year-old who wants to be famous and is sent off to drama class and then summer sent off to drama school, summer school, circus school, singing school, acting school and always just loved the arts. And same thing, you know, in Dubai, through school, acting, acting, acting and then acting at A-level, and actually the kind of the understanding of how it happens. So for me that was the real joy and I always wanted to, not always just wanted to perform, I wanted to understand how we got to that performance. So you know, the school play was me being stage manager and director and operations and set building rather than wanting to be actually on the stage.

Maxine English:

And then it was, you know, a side hustle as a radio presenter when I was still at school, and then it was into theatre and it was. It's just always been theatre and it's always been big events. It's always been the, the putting together of something, that kind of jigsaw piece that allows the end bit to happen, because what everybody sees on the stage or, you know, wherever you are in the event, there's been a lot that's gone before to get there and that's the bit that interests me was how do we get here? What? What has to happen for us to enjoy this moment?

Ian Carless:

what was your first break then? What was? What was it that that got you sort of over the line and into the industry, would you say, where you felt like, OK, I'm a bona fide part of this industry now. What was your first major sort of role?

Maxine English:

I'd been doing bits and bobs, you know, radio, presenting events, et cetera, et cetera. And there was this wonderful man called Michael Voigt who worked at Jumeirah and when I was at school we'd done this huge school play and I decided that it was so good that it shouldn't just stay at Dubai College. So I toddled off down to Jumeirah Beach Hotel and said can I, uh, can I borrow your theater? You know the the one in there. And this wonderful man called Michael sat and heard me out and saw the business plan and I was like I don't have any money, but if you give it to me for free, you can have the F&B, I'll take the tickets, it'll be great. And we tried really hard to make it happen, but it it never did cue. Five years later I see Michael again and he said what are you, what are you up to? And I said I'm, you know, looking for a job, not really sure what. I'm still doing, the radio, etc. Etc. And he said come and see me tomorrow. And I walked into the Madinat.

Maxine English:

And he walked me into what was the Madinat MPV and then over to the souk and showed me the theatre and said this man, andy McLeod, who you will know, everyone will know, andy McLeod is looking for a coordinator to help run this theatre. And that was that. That man just took a chance. Andy went yep, you're in. And that was the beginning. That was my first big theatre job, was that wonderful Madenac Theatre, which will always remain in my heart.

Ian Carless:

How much of that was a baptism of fire?

Maxine English:

A lot of it, I think. But I think, in terms of theatre, you know everybody's like, oh so how on earth does it all happen? And I think it's the same with big live events, whether you're doing, you know, the Formula One or whether you're doing a theatre show. It's the common sense of it all, it's that that has to go here, to go here, to go here. We say it here a lot that it's 80% business and 20% sparkles. You know theater dust, but that that's you know.

Maxine English:

Theater in dubai back then was we were educating a city as well who hadn't had much theater before then and certainly not west end levels of theater, you know, certainly not box offices and tickets and turning up on time and late comers and that kind of thing.

Maxine English:

So in that aspect, doing what was happening on stage, I remember opening with Abigail's Party and people the expatriate community was like this is brilliant, this is just what we needed. And then there was another section of our wonderful nation that went what is this, what is happening, what are you all doing? And watching kind of theatre evolve. From then as a 20-odd-year-old and then watching it evolve and other things happen across the city was quite something. But yeah, baptism of fire, trying to, you know, even just things like ticketing systems that didn't sit well within the theatre world and then switching from the theatre across to the arena where we were working with big names like Peppermint back then and you know, putting on these huge, great, big shows in there and these nightclubs and then the film festivals, and it just grew so rapidly because the infrastructure had been put in place.

Ian Carless:

Now I mean there's a lot of people that would say making theatre commercially viable anywhere in the world is a tough ask. How difficult of a task is that in Dubai?

Maxine English:

I don't know how difficult it will always be, if that makes sense, because It'll never be easy. Yeah, I don't think it will ever be easy, because you are ranging from. You know things that go on at the Dubai Opera, like you know, like the big stuff, like Les Mis, like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, that kind of stuff to put on something of that size and quality is not cheap, it's expensive.

Maxine English:

And then what happens is is that those tickets become expensive because, also, it's not a long run, it's not the West End, it's not here. You can't sit that down for four months and hope to recoup. That's the very difficult commercial side of things is that then it feels elite. You know you're looking at a 600 Durham ticket for something, but then the question marks of that is you look at what we charge here, which is, you know, an average ticket price of around £100, and that has had to fly from here to the Middle East to be put on. Then you look at some of the smaller scale stuff and we're not yet. There is a lot happening, but we're not yet at the place where you can fly out 10 principles and surround it with a cast from the middle east, which is what happens on, you know, in other areas. So it is bringing the entire thing with you commercially.

Maxine English:

I think it will always be hard. Theater is this is a hard industry to make a lot of revenue. You'll have seen that from some of the notices this year, with all the biggies like Cameron McIntosh and Lloyd Webber were coming to the end of a financial year and they're all producing their results and it's hard. Theatre's always going to be hard and I think, unless you're incredibly passionate about the theatre as an industry, it's not your. Oh well, we'll just get involved in that because I'm going to make a load of money. It's really. I don't think it's ever going to be easy.

Ian Carless:

Do you think there could be an expectation, in the same way that, for example, some of the other entertainment sectors, when you know, certainly when they were getting started, you had Flash, which I know you're involved with, and some of the other ones where I think it was accepted that there was going to be a certain level of governmental support and that was going to be, you know, in the form of, you know, a marketing budget or however they wanted to account for it.

Ian Carless:

Do you think that's perhaps the only way to keep theatre sustainable in a small market like Dubai? Because, admittedly, I mean, there is only 9 million people and, whilst the demographics can be a plus, they can also be a con, because, you know, you've obviously got, you know, not a lot of people in the first place, and then, of that demographic, only a very small percentage who actually like theatre, and then we all come from different nationalities, don't we? So it's not everybody's cup of tea. So I guess there's two questions there, which is, you know, do you think that there will always need to be a level of, of some kind of support? And then, also, how difficult does that the demographics make for the someone programming the shows that are going on?

Maxine English:

yeah, um, I think actually the way to look at it is how flash did look at it, which, you know, is very much the model that has been used, not just in theater in terms of things like the World Cup for horse racing is that, yes, originally there has to be that get up off the ground support you know whether you know that is a marketing budget comes from Dubai tourism.

Maxine English:

It comes from Abu Dhabi tourism to promote their city. But the theory is that eventually it will stand on its own two feet like a toddler. So, you know, we help it up, we get it moving and then you're on your own because you have to make this work, which is exactly how it all has worked. You know there's a very famous interview with Sheikh Mohammed where he talks about that. The first Dubai World Cup was invited, paid for, et cetera, et cetera. Now that is one of the biggest money generating things in the world. You know there's no subsidy there anymore because people want to be a part of it and I think that always has to be.

Maxine English:

The theory with theatre is that, yes, it's going to need a little help in hand to get up and off the ground, but I do believe that that cultural vision for Dubai is that it becomes, you know, that hub of culture Dubai Opera, coca-cola Arena. You know the Palladium, which I know has been renamed, but but you know the new, the new Mall of the Emirates Theatre, zabeel Theatre, there is there's a thriving community now that did not exist 15 years ago. So, in terms of it working, it does you can see it, it's growing and it's developing and I think it's you know things that, like Lisa and Johnny are doing with DPA. You know I've had two and diverse, I've had two boys on my stage in the West End that came from, came from Dubai and performing arts schools in Dubai. So you're starting to see that expand and that's only going to get bigger.

Maxine English:

As you know, dubai and Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah and the wider UAE gets bigger and bigger and bigger. You know Ras Al Khaim is growing at a, at a, at a rate, you know, with all of the new things that are happening down there, and I think you, from a demographics point of view, I think it's just that you have to know who you are, um, you have to know who your audience is in your venue and I think that's the thing, rather than looking at it as a as a wider thing.

Maxine English:

To buy opera knows who their audience is and that's who they are, that that's who they have to programme for. You have to programme for that audience. You know, during my time at the QE2, we knew what the QE2 was and who our audience was and what they wanted. They didn't want new and modern, they wanted to step onto the QE2 and feel that. You know, as if they were on board.

Maxine English:

Yeah, as if they were on board back then. You, as if they were on board, yeah, as if they were on board back then. You know that lovely end of pier. You know we're going to do some tributes, we're going to do a supper club.

Maxine English:

This is what it would have been like back then. We're all going to get dressed up and have a nice time, and I think that's what each individual venue has to know. It has to know what it is. Is it a hiring venue? Is it a theatre venue? Are we talking to and then talk to them? Because I find that theatre is about, and events is about, trust, and I found that on the QE2, a lot was that the audiences that came began to trust in the programming and then they would go to something they might not necessarily have gone to before, because they trust the quality and what they're seeing. So you know I think that's the same with with any venue, with Dubai Opera, you know they're going to trust that what they go and see is a huge, great, big, fantastic West End spectacular, and so they will pay a little bit more for that and they will go and see a wonderful orchestra or, you know and I think you have to play to your strength of knowing who your audience is, and in Dubai that's quite wide.

Ian Carless:

Now you mentioned Ras Al Khaimah. I mean obviously the association there now and the rumour mill is casinos, etc, etc. If we look at casinos elsewhere around the world Vegas, macau obviously there's a huge amount of entertainment that goes alongside the whole gambling aspect. Do you think that will play into developing the entertainment scene, certainly the theatre scene and the more theatrical shows that we can expect to see in the region?

Maxine English:

Absolutely. I mean, you only have to look at the big shows that land in Las Vegas and it's every night and everybody wants to go and do a residency there, you know, and that's just in and amongst everything else that's happening. So you've got the. Again, it's the two versions, isn't it? You've got the day-to-day. This is happening every day, this is happening every night. We've got Roman performers, there's Cirque du Soleil happening and, as we know, this is the UAE that it's not going to be. Oh, we've got a couple of acrobats in. It will be.

Maxine English:

We've had Franco Dragone in. He's written an entire show just specifically for this casino, because that's who they are. You know, when they brought Franco in to do Cavalia and Mother of the Nation and all of these amazing shows that he put together for them. That's the UAE, right? So, yes, you're going to see that. You're going to see resident shows, land, and I think it's always the way, isn't it? Whoever does it, biggest and best. The UAE is like, not literally, but hold my beer, you know, watch me, you think that's good, watch this, and I think we'll see a lot of that.

Maxine English:

You know, I think, especially with you know the upcoming areas like Blue Water and things like that, we're going to see huge amounts of entertainment. That land, obviously, the rise of Saudi and the tourism there is something that means that whilst we're all a wonderful, friendly bunch, there's competition there as well. So there's going to be that element of it. You know we saw that with Expo. The entertainment that was driven during Expo in that dome I was very honored to work on the Sami Youssef concert in that dome and what went into that and what we saw of all of the concerts and shows that were put on there and the roaming performers and the entertainment on a daily basis was phenomenal.

Maxine English:

And that was just for a one off. So if we saw that for Expo, you can imagine what we're going to see when these huge resorts open, and I do think that there will be that kind of. I mean, look at Atlantis the Royal, with what they did and how they opened and how they will continue to. So I do think we're just going to see more and more and more of it on a huge scale.

Ian Carless:

And speaking of big shows, just rewinding a little bit to the early part of your career, you were involved quite heavily with bringing Robbie Williams to the bar in the beginning, weren't you, robbie? Tell us a little bit about that.

Maxine English:

How did that?

Ian Carless:

come about. Oh, Ian, that man. I think there's a few women that say that.

Maxine English:

Well, I tell you, there was this madcap idea that a Robbie Williams show would be put on, and a really wonderful friend of mine and yours, damien Calderbank, rang me up and said do you want to give me a hand?

Maxine English:

And I really said, I said yes, and I really shouldn't have, but it was amazing and we did that with some of the greatest people of all time, you know. And we went up to a golf course and said can we take one of your tees, can we use the front race course for standing and can we build a, a giant? And we flew in a roof from Italy and we did some very, very wild things and it was incredible. And I will never forget the morning that the tickets went on sale and me getting a call at like 5am from Mercato, from the manager, being like we've got a bit of a problem, and I was like please, don't have a bit of a problem. And I was like please, don't have a bit of a problem, we're not here, not now. We're about to try and sell 25,000 tickets and we really have to sell 25,000 tickets or we're in trouble.

Maxine English:

And they sent me a picture and there were queues down the street and it was like nothing Dubai had ever seen before and that reminded me of my youth, you know, queuing up for that ticket. You know, at five o'clock in the morning and they were ringing. They said, oh, we're ringing the gang from Starbucks to try and get them in early because we've never seen this many people before and it was sold out so fast and we just couldn't believe it. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. And we then had, you know, we then had all the boxes in the grandstand and so we sold all of these private boxes and corporate hospitality and Chris from the golf club had taken again a chance on a huge leap.

Maxine English:

Yes, a kind of wild idea, which is it was a bit maverick really, and it was one of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed and just it was a front news of every paper. It was everywhere. But again, that was the leap right, because we'd gone from the rugby club where we had amazing things like Spandau Ballet and Go West and all of these really great concerts that were absolutely incredible and absolutely what everybody wanted. And Dubai was getting bigger and there was younger people there and all of a sudden there's Robbie Williams and there's 27,000 people standing on a golf slash race course watching him, and it was watching a teeny little bit of history be made, and it was quite something.

Maxine English:

I remember standing in the grandstand and Sheikh Mohammed arriving and me being like why is he here? What is happening? And they were like well, because we'd taken Robbie to play football at his palace the day before and it was quite wild and he had then gone. Well, who is this guy? And so there was this whole brilliant meeting where he had no idea who he was. He had no idea who he was and then he turned up to watch the show and all hell broke loose and it was magic. And I think that's what. And all hell broke loose and it was magic. And I think that's what. I think that's one of the reasons that we all do it in the event world and the theatre world is because it's a bit wild.

Ian Carless:

Now and you're no stranger to rock royalty, are you? You've got a little bit of rock royalty in the family haven't you A little bit of rock royalty?

Maxine English:

Tell us a little bit, just a teeny bit, just a sneak peek there Come on. Yeah, there's a sneak peek. Yeah, there's a whole Brian Johnson thing.

Ian Carless:

For anybody who has been under a rock for the last 25 or 30 years. We are, of course, referring to Brian Johnson from ACDC.

Maxine English:

Yes, sorry, just in case, uncle Brian. Uncle Brian, I forget. I'm like, yeah, everybody knows him, but it's quite funny actually, because most of the kids in this building have never heard of ACDC.

Ian Carless:

It's absolutely wild heard of him in CDC. It's absolutely wild. Well, most of the kids would have heard of him TV.

Maxine English:

True, yeah, I haven't managed to get him in here yet into the Savoy, which is a bit of a shame, but yeah, he's going out on tour again. Yeah, he is going out on tour again. How's his? Hearing this is good he's doing really final tour.

Ian Carless:

As ever, I'm not doing it again. They're allowed to.

Maxine English:

I'm not doing it again, max, I'm done. Oh, okay, enjoy the next one, I think. But again, you know that touring it's in the bones, isn't it? You go, oh, I'm not doing this again. And then you're like, ah, go on, I'll do it one more time. But yeah, yeah, brian, part of the family and you've got some wonderful little anecdotes.

Ian Carless:

I know you've told me in the past where he's just called you up and wished you for your wedding or something he couldn't make. Your wedding is that right.

Maxine English:

No, he couldn't make the wedding and there's a couple of really brilliant photos of me because my family were brilliant and mum had spoken to him to get him to do this video and he was touring recording the rock and roll documentary that he was doing Rock and Rollers. It was part of the book and he's chatting away about how he couldn't be there and he hopes we're having a great day. And then the entire cast of the rock and roll documentary join in to say like, happy wedding. And I'm like who are all these people? I'm absolutely here for this. And then, following that, was this huge video of Michael Ball, who is the greatest love of my life after my husband, and we'd just done Michael does the musicals in Abu Dhabi with him and I'm a big stickler for, like people not going.

Maxine English:

Oh, you remember, maxine, could you do me a favor? And when he came up on the screen, I just looked at my mother as like what have you done? What have you done? And he goes. Okay, maxine, I guess you're getting married today and I'm not invited. And I was like what is happening? And he says it's a brilliant video and he looks furious and I thought they've made him do this and he's raging and I'm never going to get to work with him again because he's furious and he goes well in Abu Dhabi. I thought it was me and you and then falls about laughing and I was like, oh my word. So, yeah, even my wedding was not free from theatre and music and chaos, because that's who we are.

Ian Carless:

So let's fast forward. I know your last gig, I think, in Dubai was your own company that you set up Park Lane, and then a new opportunity came a-knocking. Can you tell us about that?

Maxine English:

Yeah, a kind of phone call to be like ATG. And I was like, oh OK, the world's biggest theatre company, that's exciting. Had a few phone calls and my husband was looking at me with tilted head like you know, they're in London, right, and I'm like we live in and we live in Dubai. And I'm like yeah, yeah, I know, you know they're in the West End, james, you know the the like the holy grail of theatre. It's either that or Broadway. My love and he was.

Maxine English:

James is not a theatre or event man, so he's just looking at me like I'm insane. Then this wonderful company said do you think you might want to come run the Savoy? And I was like the Savoy of all of them, like that's the Holy Grail. So I put the phone down and turned to James and said they've offered me the Savoy. And he was like that's not a thing, let's go and see your mum and dad. They'll tell you you're insane. And I was like I'm, having never lived apart from my parents in my life. So we dutifully trotted around to mum and dad's house, who both went the Savoy, you must go, cue. Five weeks later I landed in London, and that was just coming up to three years ago now. But yeah, it was. Yeah, the Savoy. It's kind of one of those moments that you it was a bit surreal really, because you're like, well, the actual Savoy or is there a different Savoy that I don't know about that isn't literally on the strand in the West End, you know now.

Ian Carless:

I'm going to ask you forgive me, but did you ever suffer from imposter syndrome?

Maxine English:

yeah, all the time still do oh, and here, yes, I was like yeah, I spent the first kind of three months going. What have you done? Are you insane? Do you really think you can run this? 1,200 seats, absolutely glorious heart of the West End with some of the biggest shows ever, and at the time when I landed, we had Pretty Woman, and Pretty Woman was short-lived in my time.

Maxine English:

We only had, kind of you know, five months of her. And then the next thing, I didn't have time for the imposter syndrome anymore because we were having a show delivered to us called A Little Life with James Norton of Happy Valley fame, and it was an incredibly difficult show four hours. He's not clothed for the show, it has a lot of trigger warnings. It's incredibly, incredibly difficult to watch. So we then launched into caring for my team, which was all of them had to be mental health first trained. Some of us had to be Samaritan trained, some of us had to be sexual trauma response trained. And it was just this whole new world of bringing in a new show, getting that show ready and all of the elements that there is to running a theatre in the West End that is slightly different to the UAE, and at that point we kind of kicked into a little life. And then we started knowing that after that was coming Sunset Boulevard with Jamie Lloyd and Nicole Scherzinger, and then we knew that we were having Plaza Suite with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and at that point you're just 100 miles an hour.

Maxine English:

But I also think that my nickname here is Maverick because a lot of people in ATG one of the great things about it is that. So there's 10. In the West End, we sit as a solid 10 brothers and sisters. So there's another I call us the big 10, and there's another nine of me, which has been an incredible thing, but most of those people have worked for ATG for 14 and 15 years, so you know I'm brand spanking new. They were all absolutely amazing, totally new, but what that brought with it was some of my they call them the Dubai ways out of the box thinking yeah, just a tad um.

Maxine English:

So sometimes I go why do we do that? And the answer is sometimes oh, we just always have. And I think that Dubai way of thinking that I learned in my time there, which is there's nothing you can't achieve, there's nothing you can't do, just but just look at it differently has really, has really helped.

Maxine English:

You know we've gone right. Well, we're not doing that, we'll do it this way, and people look at you like you're absolutely insane. You know, for a little life. For example, underneath the stage because it was a play we had this big empty orchestra pit, gigantic the size of our stage, and it's just sat there doing nothing and one of the hardest things that we have in these old buildings is there's not a lot of front of house space.

Maxine English:

So we just built a bar under the stage and everybody thought I was insane and my wonderful, I've got these two brilliant humans who work with me, joe and Mike. Joe is my deputy general manager and Mike's my technical and building manager and I said to Mike he'd gone on holiday and came back. I said we're going to build a bar under the stage and he was like no, we are not. And I was like no, we are not, you are. I've had an idea. And as Mike always says A don't go on holiday because you'll come back and she'll have gone rogue B when she says I've had an idea run. So we did. We built this incredible bar under the stage that became this amazing piece of history that everybody has loved so very much, and we've rebuilt it twice, but yes, I think, in terms of the imposter syndrome, it was short lived in the beginning because it was this overwhelming. This is the West End, maxine, this is the big time.

Ian Carless:

It's a funny thing, imposter syndrome, isn't it? I think you know we all suffer from it. I know I have you know in my career over the last 30 years in television and media, and even now I sometimes think you know, really, am I the right person to be doing this? But I think you know there's two things going on there, I think, in relation to your situation as well. I think there's the doubt that then evaporates when you get put in situations that you don't as you said, you don't have time to react to. It just comes naturally. Actually, it's not naturally, it's come from experience, isn't it?

Ian Carless:

And I think then when you sit back later, you go actually, no, I do know what I'm doing. And I think, secondly, there's a certain, there's an amount of internal pressure that you put on yourself, I think, and particularly perhaps in your role where you know, okay, Dubai, yes, it's in the headlines, yes, it's in a lot of newspapers around the world, but you know, if something really goes wrong there, you're a little bit shielded. The West End, you're not.

Maxine English:

Nope, Nope, you are not. You are Fair game and it's a wide open thing and you are differently to, obviously there where you've got a short run and you know what you're doing. Here we are open seven days a week and there's 1,200 people come through the doors, sometimes twice a day, and you've got your own team and then there's an entire cast and an entire production to look after and there's so much to think about. There's just elements of it that is never-ending. I'm a terrible workaholic, as you know, but I'm in here at 8.15, and some days at 11 pm. I'm like Maxine go home.

Maxine English:

Because it can become all-cons consuming because there's so much happening. But I do think it is that and there are moments where you get to sit and look at. I know I have and I don't know whether that's age experience or this building or being in the West End or having grown and developed but there are moments where I've kind of just sat down and gone wow, you know, this team that you support have done this and I've looked at some of the stuff that during a little life there's seats on stage so you can sit as part of the set, but you're not.

Maxine English:

Your phone goes in a locked bag and obviously they my team took my radio away from me, which they like to do a lot when there's an event on, in case I get involved and I remember sitting there. You have to go on stage first and I'm sat down and I watched my team fill 1200 seats of the theater. I watched them all walking around getting people in, then that you know, giving clearance, checking glasses, doing everything and then the lights went down and this play happened, and at the end of it you had to stay on stage.

Maxine English:

And then I lights went down and this play happened, and at the end of it you had to stay on stage. And then I watched them get everybody out and do everything, and to be able to watch them from that different point of view, that was a real look at them. That was immaculate and that was a real moment for me to go. You've been here seven months, eight months, maxine, in the West End, and that was a really successful thing that just happened and you were a part of it.

Ian Carless:

Um, that's really good now I want to ask you about what you've you've learned from your time here in the three years, because obviously it must have been an absolutely fantastic opportunity to to gain a wealth of experience that perhaps you couldn't have got anywhere else in the world before. That I also want to just touch on now. You're married. Your partner, james, lives in Dubai. You live here. How have you managed that?

Maxine English:

it's very hard. It's a lot of zooms. Basically we said a year because I'd never lived or worked in the UK. And again, imposter syndrome. Could I actually run a West End theatre? Or was I going to get sent home in four months being like, oh, you were what we thought you were. Thank you very much, Goodbye.

Maxine English:

Thankfully that hasn't happened. It didn't. You know. That lives with you. What if I can't do it? What if they go? This was a big mistake. You're the wrong Maxine, off you pop.

Maxine English:

And so then at the end of that year he got offered a job that meant he needed to stay and those they fly and and everything moves at speed. So the next thing we knew we were two years in. But, um, it is a lot of. We're going to eat dinner together. On zoom, it is. I'm walking to a meeting. I've got 30 seconds. I'm going to call you in every available moment.

Maxine English:

It is not leaving it longer than three months for one of us to fly either way. It is constant communication and it is a rock solid marriage and a man who went. This is your dream and I'm going to do the hard bit, which is stay here. But actually, on reflection and talking about it. I don't think that what we've achieved in this building in the last kind of two and a half three years would have been possible if he had been here in the nicest possible way. I've been able to work seven days a week, 24 hours a day to get to where we wanted to be with this wonderful venue, and I would have been torn if he was at home waiting for me.

Ian Carless:

Yeah, so a huge learning curve personally and then obviously professionally. If there was one thing that you could take away from your time here so far at the Savoy, what would it be?

Maxine English:

I think it would be. A very lovely producer, who has become a friend, said to me that the you know, the experience in the Savoy is something that he's not experienced in a very, very long time that you walk through the front doors and it's glamour again and the service is exceptional. My team are like ninjas and he said it reminds him of what theater used to be that you, you dress up, you go and you have an experience, and it's not just what's on the stage, it's the entire bit, from from the beginning right to the end, and that that is now one of the reasons he's producing the show that we're producing tonight, because he wants to work with a team that are as exceptional as mine and watching people have that experience of old-school glamour theatre and knowing that my team have done that and there's you know we're not fans of the old jogging bottoms in the Savoy. We like some glamour in our world.

Maxine English:

You need to dress up, you need to dress up, that's the idea Dress for the occasion, dress for the occasion, and I think it's the Savoy, and I love seeing that, and I love hearing him tell people that there's no theatre quite like this for the experience. And there's everyone who comes here and leaves. That's what they say to me. They all say your team are exceptional and I've had a great experience. And it's not just about what's on the stage and that, for me, is something I will always take away that coming to the Savoy is not just to see whatever is on that stage, it's coming to have an experience, and I think that will probably one day be my legacy as well.

Ian Carless:

Now, before we wrap up. We've been talking about big numbers and everything, and music. I'm a music fan. My vinyl collection is growing once again. What do you listen to? What do you like to unwind to?

Maxine English:

We've been asking all our guests this I'm pretty eclectic and it really depends on the day, because you're either I'm either listening to a musical number, because I do love the musicals. You have to, otherwise you'd go insane, or the big numbers is. Usually I go to Rob Thomas for Solace. Okay, I'm a huge Rob Thomas fan. That man could sing the phone book at me and have never seen him live. Of all of the hundreds of thousands of people that I have seen live he still remains elusive to me, but I will.

Maxine English:

One day I will go to America and watch that. Ever seen him live. Of all of the hundreds of thousands of people that I have seen live, he still remains elusive to me, but I will. One day I will go to america and watch that man sing brilliant maxine.

Ian Carless:

I've had a fantastic time sitting here recording the podcast today. Thank you very much thank you. Event news. Dxb was presented by myself, ian carlos, the studio engineer and editor was roy de, the executive producer was myself and Joe Morrison, and this podcast is a co-production between Warehouse 4 and W4 Podcast Studio Dubai, and if you haven't done so already, please do click that follow or subscribe button. See you next time.