Dame Gillian Lynne | |
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 Gillian Lynne at the Olivier Awards in 2013 | |
| Born | Gillian Barbara Pyrke (1926-02-20)20 February 1926 |
| Died | 1 July 2018(2018-07-01) (aged 92) Marylebone,London, England |
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| Years active | 1963–2011 |
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Dame Gillian Barbara LynneDBE (néePyrke; 20 February 1926 – 1 July 2018) was an English ballerina, dancer,choreographer, actress, andtheatre-television director, noted for her theatre choreography associated with two of the longest-running shows inBroadway history,Cats andThe Phantom of the Opera. At age 87, she was made a DBE (Dame Commander of theOrder of the British Empire) in the2014 New Year Honours List.
The New London Theatre, where the originalWest End production ofCats played, was officially renamed theGillian Lynne Theatre in 2018. This made Lynne the first non-royal woman to have a West End theatre named after her.
Gillian Barbara Pyrke was born inBromley,Kent, and was a precocious dance talent from an early age, teaming with her childhood friendBeryl Grey while still at school, and dancing to blot out the tragedy of the violent death of her mother on 8 July 1939 inCoventry (as a result of a car crash along withEdward Turner's first wife), when Lynne was just 13 years old.[1][2]
Lynne's gift for dancing was discovered by a doctor. She had been underperforming at school, so her mother took her to the doctor and explained about her fidgeting and lack of focus. After hearing everything her mother said, the doctor told Lynne that he needed to talk to her mother privately for a moment. He turned on the radio and walked out. He then encouraged her mother to look at Lynne, who was dancing to the radio. The doctor noted that she was a dancer, and encouraged Lynne's mother to take her to dance school.[3]
While dancing for Molly Lake's Company (theBallet Guild) at thePeople's Palace, Lynne was spotted byNinette de Valois and asked to joinSadler's Wells Ballet duringWorld War II. With the opening of theRoyal Opera House after the War she received her first major solo inSleeping Beauty on the night of her 20th birthday. She went on to become an admired dramatic ballerina in the soon to be renamedRoyal Ballet, renowned for her Black Queen in de Valois'sCheckmate, Queen of the Wilis inGiselle and roles created for her byFrederick Ashton andRobert Helpmann.[citation needed][4]
LeavingSadler's Wells Ballet in 1951 she was an instant success at theLondon Palladium as the star dancer and subsequently in the West End in such roles as Claudine inCan-Can at theColiseum Theatre. She appeared in the filmThe Master of Ballantrae as Mariane, in which she was cast oppositeErrol Flynn and directed byWilliam Keighley.[5] She also appeared as both a dancer and actress on early British Television.[6]
In her long career as a choreographer and director, Lynne worked on many productions including those from theRoyal Opera House,Royal Shakespeare Company andEnglish National Opera as well as many West End and Broadway shows.[2] In 1970 she choreographed and directed the Nottingham Playhouse production of the musical,Love on the Dole. Originally a novel byWalter Greenwood, it was made into a musical starringEric Flynn andAngela Richards. In 1975 she arrived in Australia to createThe Australian Ballet's first work expressly commissioned for television,The Fool on the Hill.[7] She may be best known for her work onAndrew Lloyd Webber's musicalsCats (1981),The Phantom of the Opera (1986) andAspects of Love (1990).
She was also a prolific television choreographer and director notably forThe Muppet Show series and winning the 1987BAFTA Huw Wheldon Award for her direction and choreography ofA Simple Man, which starredMoira Shearer. She choreographed the Royal Shakespeare Company production ofThe Secret Garden, which ran at Stratford in 2000 and then transferred to the West End, running at the Aldwych Theatre from February 2001 to June 2001.[8]
In 2002, Lynne choreographed theSherman Brothers' stage musicalChitty Chitty Bang Bang (based on the1968 film). It played in London, and later on Broadway in 2005, both times successfully.Chitty Chitty Bang Bang brought her back to the London Palladium after 50 years and she rehearsed cast changes for the show's National UK Tour. Lynne choreographed the 90-minute Las Vegas Production ofThe Phantom of the Opera which opened in the Summer of 2006, and directedI Want to Teach the World to Sing! Gala atHer Majesty's Theatre and musically stagedThe Imaginary Invalid for theShakespeare Theatre Company inWashington, D.C. in 2008. In September 2009, she was inNew York City celebrating aPhantom of the Opera milestone at the Majestic Theatre. During this visit, she worked in a rehearsal with the company of the 2009–2010 international tour ofCats, produced by Troika Entertainment.[citation needed]
In October 2011, Lynne choreographed the 25th Anniversary production ofThe Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall. She was both choreographer and director for the musicalDear World, which played an engagement at The Charing Cross Theatre, London, in February and March 2013, and starredBetty Buckley.[9] Her production company[10] continues to produce television, film and stage productions.
Lynne married her second husband, actor/singerPeter Land in 1980.
It was love at first sight: they met when he got a part in a production ofMy Fair Lady that she co-directed in 1978. "He was standing there at the bar, and he was drop-dead gorgeous. We just looked at each other..."
The first volume of herautobiography,A Dancer in Wartime[12] was published on 3 November 2011 in the UK byChatto & Windus.
Lynne died on 1 July 2018 at a London hospital frompneumonia, aged 92.[13][14]
She has won, and been nominated for, numerous awards for her work. She has received the Silver Order of Merit, Golden Rose of Montreux Award, BAFTA, Molière Award and The Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award by theRoyal Academy of Dance (2001). She received a Special Award at the 2013Olivier Awards.[15]
She was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1997 Birthday Honours andDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to dance and musical theatre.[16][17]
Lynne was nominated for theTony Award twice for Choreography, forCats andThe Phantom of the Opera, and for theDrama Desk Award forCats.[18] She received theOlivier Award in 1981, for Outstanding Achievement of the Year in Musicals, forCats.[19]
In 2018, The New London Theatre was renamed theGillian Lynne Theatre, making it the first theatre in theWest End of London to be named after a non-royal woman.[20]
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