Shows That Shaped Me: David Babani

Shows That Shaped Me is a new theatre podcast from WhatsOnStage in which we ask leading theatre actors and makers about their most memorable productions, the production they wished they'd seen and the person, dead or alive, that they'd most like to work with.

In 2005 this week's guest opened a theatre on the site of an abandoned warehouse. 13 years later, the Menier Chocolate Factory is one of the most revered producing theatres in the world.

With critically acclaimed plays including Caryl Churchill's A Number and Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party, sitting snuggly alongside smash hit musicals like Sunday in the Park with George, Little Shop of Horrors, Assasins and The Colour Purple, David Babani's knack for programming the best in UK theatre seems to know no ends.

This month alone he opens a new production of Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Menier, oversees the Broadway transfer of Tom Stoppard's Travesties and is executive producer on the West End premiere of Ruthless! the Musical.