Born in Enfield, London to a Scottish father and a Maltese mother, Mackintosh was raised in his mother's Roman Catholic faith and educated at Prior Park College in Bath. His younger brother, Robert Mackintosh, also is a producer.
He first knew that he wanted to become a theatre producer after his aunt took him to a matinee of the Julian Slade musical Salad Days when he was just 8 years old.
Mackintosh began his theatre career in his late teens, as a stagehand at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, graduating to stage manager on several touring productions. Before long, he began producing his own small scale tours before becoming a London-based producer in the 1970s. His early London productions included Anything Goes (which closed after only two weeks), Side By Side By Sondheim, The Card, My Fair Lady and Tom Foolery.
In 1981, he produced Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, then considered an unlikely subject for a musical. It became the hit of the season and went on to become one of the longest running musicals on both sides of the Atlantic. After the success of Cats, he approached the French writing team Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil about bringing their musical Les Misérables (then a successful French concept album) to the London stage. The musical opened in 1985 at the Barbican before transferring to the Palace Theatre. Les Miserables had a shaky start at the box office and a lukewarm critical reception before becoming a massive hit, largely by word-of-mouth.
For many years Cats held the record for longest-running musical in London's West End before being overtaken by Les Misérables. Both musicals have also enjoyed similarly long runs on Broadway, where Cats became the longest running show in Broadway history, overtaking A Chorus Line.
In 1986, Mackintosh produced Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera perhaps the most commercially successful entertainment enterprise in history, outgrossing hit films such as Titanic and E.T. The original London and New York productions are currently still running.
In 1990, he produced Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil's next musical Miss Saigon, which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, and was similarly successful, and the Broadway production achieved what was then the largest advance ticket sales in theatre history.
Mackintosh is notable as a producer for his transformation of the musical into a global, profitable brand. He has maintained tight creative control of hundreds of productions of his musicals in dozens of countries across the globe in order to ensure the consistency and quality of the production. As far as possible, productions worldwide of Mackintosh musicals use the same staging, production design, lighting, front-of-house design, and orchestrations as their London and New York counterparts. This is a departure from previous practice, where international productions of West End or Broadway musicals would often be licensed out to foreign producers and entirely reconceived locally.
Mackintosh has also had considerable success in bringing legitimate theatre directors (such as the R.S.C.'s Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner) and technicians to the world of musical theatre, and is renowned for how closely he works with the creative team of a production.
Mackintosh has produced several other successful musicals, including Five Guys Named Moe and a much-revised production of Stephen Sondheim's celebrated Follies.
In 1995, Mackintosh produced the 10th anniversary concert of Les Misérables in London. Additionally, throughout the 1990s, he was responsible for presenting the West End transfers of the National Theatre revivals of Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, and Carousel.
Mackintosh's less successful productions include Moby Dick, Martin Guerre and the stage adaptation of John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick which, despite some positive reviews and run of over 15 months, failed to replicate the world-wide success of his previous blockbusters.
Mackintosh's involvement in the development of Mary Poppins led to his producing both the 2004 West End and 2006 Broadway stagings along with Thomas Schumacher of Disney's Theatrical Division. He also co-produced the London transfer of Avenue Q, which opened at the Noël Coward Theatre on June 1, 2006.
Mackintosh was knighted in the 1996 New Year's Honours List for services to musical theatre.
In 1998, Mackintosh celebrated thirty years in the business with Hey, Mr. Producer!, a gala concert featuring songs from shows he had produced during his career. The concert was performed twice, on June 7 and 8, with proceeds going to the Royal National Institute of the Blind and the Combined Theatrical Charities. Many celebrities took part, and the June 8 performance was attended by The Queen and Prince Philip.
He has recently expressed his interest in producing musicals from the otherwise neglected Asian and African regions, citing that the potential in these markets is inexhaustible.
Mackintosh's Delfont Mackintosh group owns seven London theatres, the Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, the Novello, the Queen's, the Gielgud, the Wyndham's, and the Noël Coward.
In 2006, Mackintosh was listed 4th on The Independent on Sunday's Pink List, a list of the most influential "out-and-proud" gay men and women. He was also listed 4th in 2005. Mackintosh also topped The Stage 100 list in 2007 for the first time since 2000. The list recognises the most influential members of the performing arts community at the end of each year.
Along with Andrew Lloyd Webber Mackintosh is looking for a Nancy and three boys to play Oliver on the West End in the BBC television programme I'd Do Anything.
His partner of fifteen years is Australian-born theatre photographer Michael Le Poer Trench.
He is a Patron of The Food Chain, a London-based HIV charity.
