In 1996, Ritchie was appointed producer of the Williamstown Theatre Festival. New plays that began their lives in Williamstown and moved on to off-Broadway runs under his direction include Corners by David Rabe, Far East by A.R. Gurney, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told by Paul Rudnick, Chaucer in Rome by John Guare, The Glimmer Brothers by Warren Leight and The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan. American premieres during this time include The Late Middle Classes by Simon Gray, Misha's Party by Richard Nelson, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme by Frank McGuinness, Under the Blue Sky by David Eldridge and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan by Arthur Miller. Rediscovered American classics include Dead End, Johnny on the Spot, Street Scene and, 50 years after it was first presented on Broadway -- The Man Who Had All the Luck by Arthur Miller, a production that moved to Broadway and was chosen by Time magazine as one of the year's 10 Best Productions in 2002. Ritchie and the Festival also sent several other productions to Broadway, including Hedda Gabler, One Mo' Time, The Price and The Rainmaker. Other major revivals during Ritchie's direction include The Royal Family with Blythe Danner, Victor Garber and Andrea Martin, The Film Society with Cherry Jones and Carole Shelley, Camino Real with Ethan Hawke, A Raisin in the Sun with Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Viola Davis, Hot L Baltimore with Sam Rockwell and As You Like It with Gwyneth Paltrow. In 2002, the Williamstown Theatre Festival was the recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award.
Center Theatre Group
On January 1, 2005 Ritchie joined Center Theatre Group as artistic director. In his first four seasons at CTG, he premiered the musicals The Drowsy Chaperone, Curtains, 13 and 9 to 5: The Musical. He has produced 40 world premieres including the musicals Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Sleeping Beauty Wakes, and the plays Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Water & Power and Yellow Face; and he presented a broad range of plays and musicals ranging from Dead End to Romance to The Black Rider to blockbusters such as Jersey Boys, Edward Scissorhands, God of Carnage,, Matilda, The Trip to Bountiful and Mary Poppins. In addition, Michael inaugurated CTG’s New Play Production Program, designed to foster the development and production of new work.
Personal life
Michael Ritchie was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1982, while stage managing a revival of Noël Coward's Present Laughter, Ritchie met actress Kate Burton, the daughter of actor Richard Burton. They married in 1985 and have two children, a son, actor Morgan Ivor, and a daughter, Charlotte Frances.
