In the 1990s, when Martin Crosier was still contemplating a possible career, he moved to London to find his footing. Martin knew he wanted to work in the West End but quickly realized he lacked the technical skills for backstage work and the specific talents required to be an actor. He also ruled out theater management.
“I kind of thought theater management might be quite good, but then I realized they did have quite long hours,” Martin recalls with a laugh.
That left him with front of house. “I knew I could sell things,” Martin said.
Martin Crosier
Before he ever issued his first ticket, however, Martin found himself at the center of an entirely different kind of artistic creation. While working as a runner for a post-production television company in Soho, he was introduced to the legendary artist Lucian Freud. What followed was surreal. Three nights a week for just over a year, Martin and his girlfriend at the time would go to Freud’s Notting Hill home to sit for a painting.
“You can look up this painting,” Martin says. “It's called Julie and Martin. It sold [most recently] for $17 million USD.”
During those long sessions, Freud would share stories about the 1960s Soho scene, recount trips to Picasso’s studio, or welcome contemporary artists like David Hockney into the space. The surrealism of that period peaked later during a VIP retrospective exhibition of Freud's work.
“A couple of people came up to me and said, ‘Oh, can we just talk to you for a minute?’ I looked up, and I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ It was John Malkovich and Kate Moss asking me about what it was like sitting for a painting, and it was a very surreal thing.”
Despite rubbing shoulders with the art world and Hollywood elites, Martin’s true ambition remained anchored in the theater world. But entering the West End box office world proved to be its own masterclass in persistence. When he applied for entry-level positions, he was repeatedly told that even the lowest rung on the ladder required a full year of experience.
“I said, ‘Well, no, this is for the box office clerk.’ They said, ‘Yeah, you need a year's experience.’ I'm like, ‘Well, how do you get a year's experience?’ I think the idea is that you would work outside London, but I wanted to be in London.”
To break the paradox, Martin took a job in Ticketmaster’s Leicester Square call center. The pay was low, so he had to work 60 to 70 hours a week to make a living. After three months, an opening came up at the Piccadilly Theatre. During the interview, his grueling work ethic led to a comical misunderstanding.
“I went through the interview, and it was amazing. I got right to the end and they said, ‘So you've been working 60, 70 hours a week at Ticketmaster, and we use the Ticketmaster system, so that's very good … You've done this for a year and three months, have you?”
Martin continued, “I said, ‘That's what it says on the CV, is it?’ I was thinking, oh, I've got these dates completely wrong. And they said, ‘Yes, it says a year and three months.’ I said, ‘No, look, that's November 1999 to January 2000. That's just three months.’ I was thinking at the time, I should have just said, ‘Yeah’ … but I got the job with three months' work at Ticketmaster.”
A year later, Martin stepped into his first management role as the deputy box office manager at the Albery Theater on St. Martin’s Lane. Then, in 2004, he was offered the position of box office manager at the newly created Trafalgar Studios.
“I've never applied for a job since,” Martin notes, looking back on the 20+ years that followed.
Today, Martin serves as the Managing Director of LW Tickets. In a poetic twist of professional longevity, the brand launched publicly on July 28, 2025, his own 50th birthday.
“That was an incredibly proud moment,” he reflects. “There was an outdoor campaign for the new brand on the big screen at the London Palladium, and on the Tube, and stuff like that. I remember thinking that evening, ‘Oh, if it weren’t for my honesty about my CV way back when, it could all be very different,’ and so I never take anything for granted. I feel very fortunate, but again, you work hard, and you take your chances.”
That willingness to take calculated risks became the catalyst for what Martin considers his greatest professional achievement: changing LW Theatres' ticketing system in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the ticketing world, swapping core infrastructure is the ultimate high-wire act, particularly for an organization processing hundreds of millions of pounds. On top of everything, the vendor they chose, Line-Up, had never operated at that scale before.
"There was, in hindsight, a lot of risk there,” Martin says, “but it's proven to be a game changer for us.”
Martin attributes the courage to make that move to the influential creative leaders he had worked with over the years — entrepreneurs and producers who built empires from humble beginnings or managed massive portfolios with intelligence and panache.
He points to figures like Adam Kenwright, who started his AKA Group marketing business from the ground up; producer Michael Harrison, who brilliantly juggles countless high-profile productions simultaneously; and Andrew Lloyd Webber, whom he describes as a “tireless creative.” Martin also holds a deep, lasting admiration for the late producer André Ptaszynski, with whom he worked on the original London transfer of "Matilda the Musical" at the Cambridge Theatre.
“I didn't really fully appreciate his whole wealth of history that he had before in TV, and producing and directing, but he was just an incredibly savvy, intelligent operator, but always did it with a kind of panache and a fun, and the joy of what he did always shone through, and I always admired and tried to emulate that to a certain degree.”
Throughout his rise from a Piccadilly ticket office clerk to a managing director, Martin’s core leadership philosophy has remained anchored in open communication and over-delivery.
"I always said to anyone that would listen that your interview for your next job starts on the first day of your new job, because it's about who you meet, and it's about who you impress," Martin explains. "Your reputation goes before you ... and I think a lot of that comes down to how you communicate, how you present yourself, but also how you deliver and, not only meet but exceed expectations.”
He points to his ongoing partnership with Chris Crossley and Barnaby Clark, the founders of Line-Up, as the gold standard for collaboration. “We collaborate on ideas about what the next feature, or roadmap, or functionality, or idea is going to be, and more often than not, they take that away and come back and deliver it 110%. It's always 10% better than what I presented to them. They will take it, chew it around, add in their own creativity and suddenly it's so much better, and I admire that massively.”
He sees that same drive and passion mirrored in his own team, from his ticketing director, head of box office and head of ticketing services to his head of data. “They all over-deliver through pure drive and passion for the job,” he says.
As a leader, Martin views his primary role as fostering an environment where teams feel safe enough to innovate, which inherently means creating a safe space to fail.
“For me, it is inspiring people to get the best out of them to foster an open, non-judgmental place, where you can experiment, and you can fail, but it is the act of doing it which is encouraged,” he says. “If something goes wrong, we just work out why it went wrong, and we do better ... as opposed to a hands-off kind of finger-pointing exercise.”
He emphasizes that a great leader must understand how to relate to a wide range of characters and personalities rather than just connecting with one type. “You need all of them to complement what you know, or what you don't know more relevantly, and equally, how that gels with the team,” Martin notes. “Regardless of the technologies or the relative values of the different systems that we might use, or the subjective opinion on how good a certain venue or content is, it all really comes down to people, your team members or those who you are collaborating with externally, and ultimately, who's coming to buy a ticket.”
That deep focus on the human element is exactly what drew Martin into the INTIX community.
While he had spent years attending regional European conferences like Europe Talks Tickets (a conference series created by INTIX in the early 90s) and Ticketing Professionals Conference to name a few, the North American-headquartered INTIX commanded his attention as the global industry grew closer.
When he attended his first INTIX conference in Las Vegas in 2024, the sheer scale of the event left an indelible mark. Sitting in the conference room in Caesar's Palace for the annual awards lunch, he looked out at the large crowd of ticketing professionals gathered under multiple massive projection screens.
“I didn't really know what to expect," Martin recalls of his most memorable INTIX moment. "So many people were talking passionately and emotionally about different things. There was a group of Lifetime Achievement-type people presenting, and I didn't know a lot of the people, to be honest with you, but you could feel the passion, the history and the camaraderie that they all shared.”
For Martin, INTIX functions as a global sounding board where leaders can realize that their local challenges are universally shared.
"It is about generating connections, inspiration, learning, seeing what happens in a very different set of circumstances or a different venue ... but always seems to me very similar challenges or similar chats that come up time and time again,” he says. “The more people you talk to, the more people you recognize, or get introduced to, and, so, for me, it's about being part of a more global community, as opposed to primarily the UK and some of Europe.”
Martin admires that Maureen Andersen, President and CEO of INTIX, captures the industry’s collective consciousness so well, including by framing how global events can impact daily operations in entertainment and live event ticketing.
“A lot of that chat is, ‘Oh, the conflict in Iran, how's that affecting your business? Or what are you doing around these rail strikes or the cost-of-living crisis?’ Being able to bounce a few of those things out, or read some of the articles and the opinion pieces … I need to be part of that community and probably should have been five years before I was.”
While Martin values structured mentorship programs and encourages ticketing professionals to utilize them, his own approach to guidance has evolved into something more fluid and widespread. Rather than relying on a single mentor, he draws daily inspiration from a broad network: from his co-CEOs at LW Theatres, Jules Arnott and Darren Atkins, to his counterparts across competing London groups, to executive coaching sessions. Most notably, he finds himself looking in all directions for inspiration.
“I tend to unofficially mentor other people now and help as best I can,” he says. “In a way, I take guidance from quite a wide range of people now ... or it could be actually young people that are coming in, and how they approach things, and their freshness.”
When asked what he loves most about his career, Martin returns instantly to the human landscape and the sheer joy of connecting talented people.
“The people, that is primarily what I love most,” he says. “In the job that I have now, as managing director, I feel very empowered to help create and foster new relationships with people and develop teams of people, both inside and outside of LW, and link people with other great people for no other reason than I think they will have a great conversation.”
That passion extends directly to the industry at large, which Martin describes as an inherently supportive, creative and fun ecosystem where the commonalities far outweigh the differences. He believes professionals in entertainment possess a unique perspective that keeps daily stressors in context.
“There are jobs to be done, and it's stressful, and you've got to pay the wages and the rent and whatnot, but if you're working on selling Sam Ryder playing Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, it's a very different context from whether you're providing aid as part of the Red Cross.”
Beyond the people, Martin admits to a deep affection for the historic buildings that house the art. “I love the buildings. I love the audiences who are just so passionate, whether it's about musicals, music, comedy, or sport … Speaking purely from a theatre and ticketing point of view, I think you'll rarely find more brilliantly passionate, funny and creative people than you will in this industry … They're all in it for a reason, and it's rarely because they want to retire early. They love what they're doing.”
Martin’s favorite venue remains the historic Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where his offices are located today. Even before its massive renovation, the venue represented the quintessential ideal of what a theater should be.
“There is the history of it, and the size of it, and the rotunda, those great staircases, and the auditorium, I just thought it was brilliant,” Martin says.
His second love is the Noël Coward Theatre on St. Martin’s Lane, which was the Albery Theatre during his tenure as deputy box office manager. He maintains a strong soft spot for its classic, intimate, late Victorian and Edwardian architecture and the fantastic plays produced within its walls.
To fully understand Martin, one must look past the West End marquee lights and into his personal world, where his values are defined by honesty, transparency and an intentional rejection of corporate ego.
“I'm not that interested in ego and power plays and misdirection,” Martin states plainly. “[The quality I like most in a person] is honesty, but also imagination, creativity and entrepreneurial drive. You don't have to be writing books or painting a picture to be creative. You can do that in ticketing, or in everyday life, or playing with your kids.”
For Martin, maintaining a “childlike imagination” is the ultimate defense against the daunting, repetitive rounds of day-to-day life. He admires this quality whether he encounters it in a highly successful industry executive, a new face in the ticket office or the neighbor next door.
When asked about the greatest love of his life, his answer is a characteristically honest blend of the profound and the everyday: "Well, I'd say family, theatre, pizza, sci-fi, not necessarily at all in that order.”
Martin is a proud resident of East London, living in an apartment carved out of the former 2012 Stratford Olympic Athletes' Village. “We bought a share in this apartment and we've loved it,” Martin says, noting that his commute to Drury Lane is a mere 20 minutes. “Some people hate London, don't get me wrong, it's so busy and whatnot, but I just love it. I love the vibrancy, the old pubs, the museums and the history.”
His home life revolves around his wife, Leanne, and their two boys, George (12) and Henry (10). Martin delights in the fact that his sons have reached the perfect age to be introduced to classic pop-culture touchstones like Doctor Who, James Bond and Star Wars. “It gives me a classic reason to rewatch all of them, so I'm very pro that,” he laughs.
L-R: Martin, George, Henry and Leanne.
Martin’s appreciation for the uncomplicated things extends heavily to food. “I love food, not necessarily haute cuisine, but I do love a pizza. I love a pizza. I just can't get away from it,” he confesses, narrowing his preference down specifically to pepperoni. “Whenever I come to America for INTIX … I always try to seek out a pizza, because they do such great pizzas, or steak.”
If granted a special talent, Martin wishes for a musical one. “Either to play the piano, sing or something,” he says. “I'm not particularly talented at that. I haven't tried particularly hard either, but I would like to be in a pub with a piano one day and be able to strike up a tune and sing a song.”
In his spare time, Martin balances the demands of work and family by leaning into history and exploration. He loves visiting historic buildings, touring old pubs for a pint and exploring museums with his family. A recent trip took them to York, where they visited the Railway Museum and the JORVIK Centre. His eldest son, George, is an ardent train enthusiast. “I don't know why, and no one else is, but he is,” Martin smiles. “It is quite cool. You can go see all these old trains and new trains.”
Martin with his two sons.
Martin’s personal identity is deeply shaped by his roots as a Birmingham native and his family history. He remains a fiercely loyal supporter of his hometown football club, Aston Villa F.C.
“They are doing very well this season,” he notes. “Ordinarily, I have to caveat it by saying they might get relegated [to a lower division], but they're still my favorite.”
His deepest personal admiration belongs to his father, who passed away unexpectedly the day before Martin’s 17th birthday. Despite the tragedy occurring so early in his life, his father's character left a permanent template for how Martin operates today.
“He was very good at talking to people, and being himself, and making everyone feel at ease, and I always quite liked that,” Martin says quietly. “There was no sort of nonsense around him … I always admired that [about him], and in people, honesty, passion, love, energy and drive.”
That connection to his family history is physically represented in his most treasured possessions. The first is a framed, post-WWII black-and-white photograph that had belonged to his paternal grandmother, Alice, the family matriarch. The image captures his father as a young boy of seven or eight wearing shorts with his socks fallen down, standing alongside his three sisters, all of whom have since passed away.
As a young boy visiting his grandmother’s flat, Martin would endlessly ask her the same questions about that picture, listening to her recount the history in her distinct Yorkshire accent. When she passed away, she explicitly left the framed photograph to him. “I think that's really cool. I take that with me everywhere,” he says.
His second treasured possession is a pair of cufflinks shaped like clocks, gifted to him on opening night by producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender during the launch of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" at the Palace in London. Timepieces are a central thematic element of the play, but the cufflinks carry an additional layer of personal irony for Martin: “George's first word was clock. I don't know why, but he was looking at the clock, and he said clock. It wasn't mummy or daddy,” he reminisces.
Martin with Barry Manilow.
Martin’s literary tastes are similarly anchored in the atmosphere of historic England. He is a massive Charles Dickens enthusiast. “Sometimes, it can be a bit hard going to read it, but it is very funny, I think, and very evocative,” he says. Martin is also an avid Sherlock Holmes fan, owning an old compendium of The Strand Magazine where Arthur Conan Doyle's original detective stories were first serialized. On screen, his favorite portrayal of the detective belongs to Jeremy Brett.
Beyond the Victorians, Martin has a profound love for epic fantasy and science fiction. Long before it became a cultural phenomenon on television, he tore through the massive tomes of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. “I remember thinking, there's no way this could ever be a TV show, because it's too vast, it's too expensive. About four years later, lo and behold, they did it.” He also devours the pulpy fantasy fiction of the late David Gemmell.
When it comes to live music, his tastes favor story-led, emotional narratives. His all-time favorite song changes, but his current anchor is Pink Floyd's “Wish You Were Here.”
“I find the lyrics so evocative, and you can interpret them in many different ways,” he explains. “And it's a strange song anyway. It's got a really long instrumental, and then just starts and then finishes, which I quite like.”
Martin’s favorite live events reflect that same craving for raw theatrical power. He points to Jamie Lloyd's recent, radically stripped-back reimagining of Sunset Boulevard on Broadway as an absolute standout, closely followed by "Evita" starring an “astonishing” Rachel Zegler. He recalls a poignant moment at the Olivier Awards where musical theatre legend Elaine Paige received a Lifetime Achievement Award while Zegler looked on, describing it as a beautiful passing of the Eva Perón baton.
Martin at the Oliviers.
Yet, some of Martin’s favorite memories involve smaller, intimate musical encounters, like traveling to Paris years ago to see a then-emerging folk-rock band called Mumford & Sons.
“You couldn't get a ticket [at home] ... but you could just go over to Paris, which is very quick for us, and you just waltz into this very small venue, which has since burned down, actually,” he reminisces. “I remember thinking, God, you just can't get this close, because they had had this one album, and then after that, they played much larger venues. I think that kind of folky-type, melodic, story-led sort of music is always great.”
In the acting world, he admires Mark Rylance, whom he has met a few times. Martin watched Rylance closely during his tenure as the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, marveled by his ability to make Elizabethan text feel like natural modern speech.
“What an incredible talent,” Martin says. "All the players were very good, but when he wasn't on stage, you felt a loss. Then he did Jerusalem, which I loved ... His technique is so subtle, but so, so good.”
When it comes to travel, Martin and his wife have historically favored Italy for its seamless blend of food, culture and dramatic scenery. However, their own romantic history is tied to a much flashier destination: Las Vegas. After visiting the city on a whim for their 30th birthdays, they returned a mere eight months later to elope and get married there.
Looking ahead, Martin is eager to explore the vast landscapes of North America. “I'd love to go to Texas or listen to some proper country music,” he says. “I love country music, and certainly the modern country music ... I would also like to see some of the great vistas of scenery. Where else? Australia, haven't been there ... Canada, I think, would be a great place to visit, Montreal, Toronto.”
His dream travel scenario involves escaping urban light pollution: “I'd love to get to see the stars properly. That's the one thing you don't really get in London.”
If he could look back and offer advice to his younger self, Martin’s recommendations are remarkably grounded: save money, invest in property early before the housing market outpaces average salaries and use time wisely. “Time goes by very quickly, so enjoy the moments while you can. Keep your friends,” he urges. “Start your family and have your family, but keep your friends as well, because they're very important to keep your sanity, if nothing else.”
When asked to narrow his life down to three wishes, Martin bypasses material wealth or professional legacy entirely, rolling all three choices into a single, comprehensive focus on well-being.
“I think it all comes down to health at the end of the day,” he reflects. “Health for me, my family and everyone. That's physical health and mental health. You can be as fit as a fiddle marathon runner, but if you're struggling mentally, I can't imagine that anything is worse than that.”
At this stage in his life, true meaning is found in his identity as a husband and a father, alongside the humbling realization that parenting doesn't come with an instruction manual.
“Keeping the two boys alive so far is pretty good, with them being able to speak and get dressed and all the rest of it,” he jokes. “I was quite surprised that there was no expert textbook that told me all of these things in advance, and it doesn't necessarily come naturally. You have to sort of try at it, but the sense of internal reward you get from that is probably more than anything else.”
That same sense of profound gratitude extends to the career he has carefully built over a quarter of a century.
“I do love my work as well, and I feel very fortunate that I've built a career over 25 years that I can say genuinely, for the most part, 90% of the time, I love what I'm doing, and I love the people I'm working with, which makes it all the better, and all the easier,” Martin says. “Fostering that and making that a reality is very important, because you spend so much time at work. You spend almost more time at work than you do with family, and certainly more than you do with friends, and I think it is very important that it brings you joy and meaning.”
With a characteristic flash of humility, he concludes: “Pretty boring, standard answers, but those will be it. I have no epic poems that I'm writing or anything like that.”
Although he isn't writing epic poems, through 25 years of navigating the West End's ticket offices, historic boardrooms and complex ticketing migrations, Martin Crosier has undoubtedly authored a masterpiece of a career. And the curtain is nowhere near coming down.
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