Codron, Michael, 1930-

Michael Victor Codron was born on 8 June 1930. He began his theatrical career as an assistant to Jack Hylton who then recommended him to produce Salad Days . His first show as an independent producer was Ring for Catty (1956) and he soon acquired a reputation for championing new writers, most famously producing the first production of Harold Pinter 's The Birthday Party at the Hammersmith Lyric in 1958. He went on to produce Joe Orton 's Entertaining Mr Sloane and Pinter's The Caretaker and thus became embroiled in the 'Dirty Plays' controversy in which the immensely powerful producer and theatre owner Emile Littler condemned Codron and the newly formed RSC (among others) of violating the sanctity of the British stage.

Codron has consistently championed playwrights and plays over musicals and was without rival as a producer of straight commercial plays from the 1970s until the 1990s: among the playwrights he is most often associated with are Alan Ayckbourn, Michael Frayn, Simon Gray and Charles Wood.