John Havu

John Havu was born in Chicago and following university degrees in education and music began a career as a musician in symphony, opera, ballet orchestras in the US, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland and Germany, as well as in show orchestras for Chita Rivera, Henry Mancini, Lionel Hampton, Shirley Bassey, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald and other stars. His first professional encounter with musical theatre came as a musician in the final US tour of THE KING AND I starring Yul Brynner. In 1991 John began a four-year stint in the A.L. Webber musical CATS, in Zürich and its ensuing tour. This was followed by his engagement by The Really Useful Group as orchestra manager and musician in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Basel and SUNSET BOULEVARD, Wiesbaden. John then went into musical theatre as a manager, show scout, creative developer, creative producer and consultant. In 2005 his collaboration with Shaun McKenna, Stephen Keeling and Stefan Mens led to the large 2005 open-air production of HEIDI in Switzerland, where John served as Creative Developer and Creative Producer. Shaun, Stephen, Stefan and John cooperated on three more musicals, HEIDI II & III and THE RETURN OF PETER PAN, which will be premiered at Theater Regensburg in 2023. John served as a consultant for the stage adaptation of THE LORD OF THE RINGS (Shaun McKenna, Matthew Warchus, A.R. Rahman, Värttinä) as well as on the MAHABHARATA stage adaption by Stephen Clark and Nitin Sawhney which played at the Saddler’s Wells Theatre, London. Other development projects included the successful TELL musical in Switzerland, a musical based on the German novel and television series TIMM THALER and further development and re-writes of the Eric Woolfson musicals GAUDI and GAMBLER. In 2016 John began the development of a musical comedy based on the German smash-hit FACK JU GÖHTE in cooperation with Constantin Film which was first produced by Stage Entertainment in Munich in 2018 and will tour Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 2023. In current development is a musical about the 1848 revolution in Germany and German immigrants to the US, as well as a musical based on the novel DIE SCHWARZEN BRÜDER by Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Held. He has also been involved in the translations of musicals from English to German including ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, CALENDAR GIRLS, FOOTLOOSE, THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD, THE NEW MOON, THE KING AND I, SPONGEBOB – THE MUSICAL and THE WIZARD OF OZ and also created the English translation for FACK JU GÖHTE – THE MUSICAL. John currently serves in the areas of promotion, acquisition and creative development in the Berlin office of Concord Theatricals.