Gillian Lynne

GILLIAN LYNNE's (1926 - 2018) career started at the age of fourteen: leapfrogging from Sadler's Wells Ballet, to Star Dancer at the London Palladium, to a film opposite Hollywood royalty Errol Flynn.

It was her original style and energy that helped make Gillian the leading director/choreographer of her generation, best-known for her groundbreaking staging and choreography for Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She directed over 60 productions in the West End and on Broadway, worked on 21 feature films and hundreds of television productions as producer, director, choreographer or performer.

Gillian received numerous accolades throughout her life including two Olivier Awards; the first an award for Outstanding Achievement for her Choreography of Cats in 1981, and the second a Lifetime Achievement 'Special' Olivier, in 2013. Her other awards include: Vienna's 1983 Silver Order of Merit for the first proscenium arch production of Cats; Golden Rose of Montreux Award for The Muppet Show Series; Engel Television Award (USA) as director for her conceptual drama The Morte d'Arthur, a BAFTA for her dance drama A Simple Man directed for BBC TV and a Moliere Award for Cats in Paris in 1989. The Royal Academy of Dance elected her Vice President in 2012. Gillian was honoured with a CBE (1997) and a DBE in the 2014 New Years Honours List for her services to Dance and Musical Theatre.

In June 2018, Andrew Lloyd Webber officially renamed the New London Theatre after her, the first non-royal woman to be honoured in this way in the West End; The Gillian Lynne Theatre. The grace, energy and spirituality of Gillian Lynne's artistry continues worldwide.