Michael Butler (producer)

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Michael Butler (born in Chicago, Illinois) is an American theatrical producer best known for bringing the rock musical Hair from the Public Theater to Broadway in 1968. Other Broadway production credits include the play Lenny in 1971 and the musical Reggae in 1980.

In 1967, Butler was preparing to run for the US Senate when he began to discuss the Vietnam War with a young student who worked as a gardener at his home. As a result of these discussions, Butler says, "I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the popular 'hawk' stand I had been taught as an axiom." Later that year in New York City on business related to Otto Kerner, Jr.'s Commission about Civil Disorders, he saw an ad in the New York Times for Hair at the Public Theater that featured a photo of five indian chiefs. Thinking the show was about indians he bought a ticket. Instead he saw what he described as "the strongest anti-war statement ever written" and decided to obtain rights to the show. ^[1]

Before Hair, Michael served as Special Advisor to then-Senator John F. Kennedy on the Middle East, Chancellor of the Lincoln Academy, Commissioner of the Port of Chicago, President of the Organization of Economic Development in Illinois, Assistant to Illinois Governor Otto Kerner, Jr., President of the Illinois Sports Council, and he was a Democratic Candidate in Du Page County for the State Senate.

In the early 1800s, his ancestors Asa and Simon Butler were the first American paper makers to make paper for the U.S. Congress. In 1841, Julius Wales Butler founded the J.W. Butler Paper Company on State Street in Chicago, IL. , the oldest family owned business in Chicago. They also were the largest landowners in Du Page County.