 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Steven Pimlott" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Steven Charles PimlottOBE (18 April 1953 – 14 February 2007) was anEnglishopera andtheatredirector, whose obituary inThe Times hailed him as "one of the most versatile and inventive theatre directors of his generation".[1] His output ran the gamut of the theatrical and operatic repertoire, from musicals, such asJoseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, and popular plays, such asAgatha Christie'sAnd Then There Were None,[2] through classics such asShakespeare andMolière, toStephen Sondheim andJames Lapine'sSunday in the Park with George andAlexander Borodin'sPrince Igor.
Pimlott's father worked ininsurance, but Steven was interested in the performing arts from a young age. The first film he saw,The King and I, and first theatre visit, to seeChristopher Plummer inRichard III at Stratford, both made a great impression. He was educated atManchester Grammar School, where he met the youngerNicholas Hytner. They performed together in the school orchestra (Hytner played flute and Pimlott theoboe) and in school plays: Pimlott was an admired Gertrude opposite TV historianMichael Wood's Hamlet. Reading English atSidney Sussex College, Cambridge, Pimlott also acted in university productions with Hytner andDeclan Donnellan.
Pimlott began his career with theEnglish National Opera, where he was Staff Director from 1976 to 1978. He moved toOpera North from 1978 to 1980, directing productions ofPuccini'sLa bohème andTosca,Verdi'sNabucco andMassenet'sWerther, and the British première ofAlexander Borodin'sPrince Igor, which he translated withDavid Lloyd-Jones. He then worked withScottish Opera, directingDon Giovanni, andOpera Australia, and then worked in regional opera houses inManchester,Leeds andSheffield.
While at theCrucible Theatre in Sheffield, he directed productions ofTwelfth Night andThe Winter's Tale. In 1988, he directed a production of theYork Mystery Plays which was staged in the city's Museum Gardens, against the backdrop of the ruinedSt Mary's Abbey, and which featured the Indian actorVictor Banerjee as Jesus. Also in 1988, he directed the British première ofBotho Strauss'sDer Park. The same year he directedSamson et Dalila ofCamille Saint-Saens at theBregenzer Festspiele and subsequently at theDutch National Opera inAmsterdam.[3]
Pimlott developed a wide range of theatrical work, which includedavant garde,Shakespeare and popularmusicals, such as the revival ofJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat withJason Donovan and thenPhillip Schofield at thePalladium in 1991 and onBroadway in 1993,Doctor Dolittle at theHammersmith Apollo in 1998, andBombay Dreams and at theApollo Victoria in 2002 and in New York in 2004. At theNational Theatre, he worked on the British première ofStephen Sondheim andJames Lapine'sSunday in the Park with George in 1990, and a new translation ofMolière'sThe Miser in 1991.
Pimlott directed many works with theRoyal Shakespeare Company, working with RSC artistic directorAdrian Noble, beginning withJulius Caesar in 1991, withRobert Stephens as the lead. He later producedRichard III in 1995, withDavid Troughton as the lead actor;Richard II in 2000 withSamuel West as the title character and David Troughton asBolingbroke; andHamlet at Stratford in 2001 with West again as the lead. For the RSC, he also producedT. S. Eliot'sMurder in the Cathedral in 1993,Tennessee Williams'Camino Real at Stratford in 1997, withLeslie Phillips,Peter Egan andSusannah York, and stagedAntony and Cleopatra at Stratford in 1999, withAlan Bates andFrances de la Tour (although an opening scene that showedoral sex was dropped when the production moved to London). He was Company Director at the RSC in Stratford in 1996 and an Associate Director of the RSC from 1996 to 2002. During his time with the RSC he also hadJason Carr (the composer of incidental music to ten of his RSC plays) commissioned to write a musical adaption ofCharles Kingsley's novelThe Water Babies; in the end the RSC never produced it but Pimlott later had it mounted atChichester where he was Artistic Director, alongside Martin Duncan andRuth Mackenzie, from 2003 to 2005. Pimlott also directed world premières ofPhyllis Nagy'sButterfly Kiss,The Strip andNeverland.
His restaging ofJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was revived in 2007 at London'sAdelphi Theatre withLee Mead in the title role. Before the show opened, booking was so brisk that the musical's originally planned six-month run was doubled. "I suppose he’s a dreamer. Even when things are going really badly he never gives up hope", Pimlott wrote of Joseph in the 1991 production's programme. "We all dream a lot, some are lucky, some are not..."
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(November 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
A lifelongGilbert and Sullivan afficiando, he was the director of the short-lived Savoy Theatre Opera project in 2004, founded byRaymond Gubbay. He took to the stage for theD'Oyly Carte Opera Company in their last season atthe Strand, playing Sir Joseph Porter inH.M.S. Pinafore. With Martin Duncan and Ruth Mackenzie, he was appointed as the joint artistic director of theChichester Festival Theatre between 2003 and 2005, reviving its fortunes.
He directedAgatha Christie'sAnd Then There Were None at theGielgud Theatre in theWest End in 2005, withTara FitzGerald,Gemma Jones andGraham Crowden, andTchaikovsky'sEugene Onegin at theRoyal Opera House in 2006. He was awarded the OBE in the 2007New Year Honours list.
Although he had been suffering fromlung cancer, at the time of his death he was rehearsing a revival ofTennessee Williams'The Rose Tattoo, starringZoë Wanamaker, which was taken over by his friendNicholas Hytner. Also in later years, Pimlott's oboe playing became something more than a hobby, and he played in a number of professional concerts.
He married German soprano Daniela Bechly in 1991. Steven died at home in February 2007. Daniela, along with their two sons, Oskar and Raphael, and daughter, Phoebe, continue living in their family home in Great Horkesley.
