Henry Moncrieff Tennent (18 February 1879 – 10 June 1941), was a British

theatrical producer A theatrical producer is a person who oversees all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The producer is responsible for the overall financial and managerial functions of a production or venue, raises or provides financial backing, and hire ...

impresario An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer. His ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

. From 1929 to 1933, he mentored

Binkie Beaumont Hugh "Binkie" Beaumont (27 March 190822 March 1973) was a British theatre manager and producer, sometimes referred to as the "éminence grise" of the West End theatre. Though he shunned the spotlight so that his name was not known widely among ...

, having previously worked with him in Cardiff. When Tennent, already the general manager at the

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...

, and a senior executive with

Moss Empires Moss Empires was a company formed in Edinburgh in 1899, from the merger of the theatre companies owned by Sir Edward Moss, Richard Thornton and Sir Oswald Stoll. This created the largest chain of variety theatres and music halls in the United ...

, persuaded the boards of

and of Howard & Wyndham to co-operate, in order the better to produce theatre drama, it was Tennent and Beaumont who became the chief executives of a new shared company H. M. Tennent Ltd. The largest and controlling shareholders were the Cruikshank family of Howard & Wyndham founded in Glasgow in 1895 and headquartered in Edinburgh. Their first production at the Queen's Theatre in 1936 was a failure, but later that year they formalised their partnership as the production company 'H. M. Tennent Ltd', with offices on the top floor of the Globe Theatre (now the Gielgud), and went on to great success. On Tennent's death of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

in 1941, Beaumont found he was unmentioned in Tennent's will, but nevertheless took over as managing director of the company.

References

External links

National Portrait Gallery
* *Th
Collection of H.M. Tennent correspondence relating to the 1954 parliamentary debate
is held by the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

Theatre and Performance Department. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tennent, H. M. 1879 births 1941 deaths British songwriters British theatre managers and producers Impresarios