Philip Wm. McKinley papers

Philip Wm. McKinley was born on 22 June 1952 to William and Virginia McKinley of Avon, Illinois. He graduated from Avon High School in 1970. McKinley attended Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, where he participated as an actor and a choreographer in Augustana’s theater program and the Barn Theater, a community group in Moline, Illinois, near Augustana College. He graduated in 1973 with majors in education, speech, drama, music, English, and the visual arts. After graduating, McKinley moved to Henderson, Nevada, where he taught music and directed the choirs at Burkholder Jr. High.

After leaving Burkholder Jr. High in 1974, McKinley worked as a singer, choreographer, and director at various theaters in the Las Vegas, Nevada, area, mostly the Judy Bailey Theater. During this time he also wrote and directed Love, Is That What It Is?/Broadway Tonight for the Oak Grove Players. In 1975, McKinley got a principal part in Lido De Paris at Las Vegas’ Stardust Hotel, where he remained for seven months until he began performing in a principal role in Casino De Paris at the Dunes Hotel. McKinley remained at the Dunes Hotel through 1981 and was also employed by the Meadows Playhouse, Las Vegas’ first professional theatre. From 1977 to 1981, McKinley served as Educational Director and Dean of the Arts School for the Meadows Playhouse. As the theater’s Educational Director, he developed an arts curriculum that included speech, drama, music, dance, and the visual arts for K-12 students for a local school district. Additionally, he was appointed to be the Associate Artistic Director for the theater in 1978. During McKinley’s tenure at the Meadows Playhouse, he occasionally acted but more often served as a director. Also during this time, McKinley received an Emmy nomination for his work as a director, writer and composer for a KLAS-TV Las Vegas, Nevada, televised public service announcement, “Come See a Play.”

In 1981, McKinley moved to New York City and continued to pursue a career in professional theater. He returned briefly to Rock Island, Illinois, to direct Fiddler on the Roof at a local professional theater, Circa 21. He also authored and composed a musical version of A Christmas Carol that was performed at three venues in 1981, including Augustana College. For a few years, McKinley held various jobs in the performance industry around the country including stints as a stand-up comic in Atlantic City, New Jersey; the Sergeant of Police in a national tour of Pirates of Penzance; and Benjamin Kidd in The Desert Song, a role he would reprise seven times between 1984 and 1992.

In 1985, McKinley moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to start a production company and, shortly thereafter, was appointed Musical Theatre Project Coordinator to the nearby Paper Mill Playhouse. As coordinator, McKinley was in charge of staging six readings of new plays and holding two workshops for new musicals. During this time, he also served as an assistant to George Abbot in Paper Mill Playhouse’s 1986 production of Damn Yankees. By the end of 1986, McKinley had been appointed casting director for the Paper Mill Playhouse, a position he held until 1990. During this time, he worked on dozens of shows, including a production of Showboat that was featured on PBS Great Performances, the 1989 world premiere of Rhythm Ranch, and the 1990 world premiere of Mikado, Inc., a production in which McKinley also acted.

After five years, McKinley decided to leave the Paper Mill Playhouse to pursue a career as an independent director. He directed productions at theaters around the country, frequently at the Houston, Texas’ Theater Under the Stars (TUTS) and Kansas City, Missouri’s Starlight theater. It was at TUTS that McKinley first came into contact with Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston’s musical Phantom, an adaptation of the novel Phantom of the Opera. For this production, McKinley served as the producer’s New York representative and also directed the show at LaComedia D.T. in Springsboro, Ohio. Eventually, McKinley directed Phantom nine times, including a German version for Interworld Productions in Berlin, Germany in 1993. Since then, McKinley has directed several international productions, working in Japan, Germany, and Singapore. Also in 1993, McKinley directed his first A Fireside Christmas for the Fireside Theater in Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin. He continued to direct A Fireside Christmas nearly every year until 2006.

In 1997, McKinley was hired by Feld Entertainment to be director and choreographer for the 128th Edition of the Ringling Bros., Barnum, and Bailey Circus. As director, McKinley was responsible for organizing each show’s many acts around a theme or featured attraction. He also oversaw the technical aspects of the circus such as costuming, set piece construction, special effects, and music. McKinley continued in this position through the 135th Edition with the exception of the 134th Edition. He also directed Barnum’s Kaleidoscape in 1999, the first Ringling Bros., Barnum and Bailey show to be performed under a tent since 1956. Besides these shows, McKinley directed two one-ring shows for Feld Entertainment: Hometown Edition in 2004, and Boom-A-Ring in 2007, more than any other director. Altogether, McKinley has directed more editions of Ringling Bros., Barnum and Bailey Circus than anyone else since the circus began in 1919.

McKinley continued to work on other projects during this period. He directed a production of Hair at the North Shore Music Theater in Beverly, Massachusetts, that earned Boston’s Elliott Norton Award for Best Revival of 1998. Thwak, which McKinley also directed, received a Drama Desk Nomination for Unique Theatrical Event in 1999.

McKinley began working on Broadway in 2001 in an American production team for The Boy From Oz. The Boy From Oz, a musical based on the life of Australian singer/songwriter Peter Allen, was first staged in Australia. Allen was known for his hit songs like “I Go to Rio” and “I Honestly Love You” as well as his marriage to and subsequent divorce from Liza Minnelli. McKinley was selected to direct, and along with Eric Houston, wrote the book for the American version. The musical staged a workshop in 2002, and ran at the Imperial Theater in New York City in 2003 and 2004. Its star, Hugh Jackman, received a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in 2004. A year after The Boy From Oz closed on Broadway, McKinley directed a Japanese version in Tokyo.

After returning to the United States, McKinley continued to direct off-Broadway shows and, for a brief period in 2007, served as a visiting professor at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, where he directed a production of Crème de Coco. Internationally, he also directed some spectacles similar in character to the circus, such as Voyage de la Vie in Singapore (2008–2010), and Ben Hur Live in Germany (2008–2009, 2011). By 2010, McKinley had moved to Davenport, Iowa. He directed Wit at Davenport’s The Curtainbox Theater but soon was hired to direct Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark, the most expensive musical in Broadway history. The spectacle-filled show had encountered many technical problems on the set, and had already been through previews when McKinley was appointed new director for the show. The show premiered at the Foxwoods Theater in New York City in February 2011.