GILLIAN LYNNE has done the lot! Leading soloist in the original Sadler's Wells Ballet, star dancer at the London Palladium, acted opposite Errol Flynn in the movies and danced with all the greats on early TV. She was instrumental in the development of jazz dance in Britain and her distinctive style - a fusion of classical and jazz - led to her groundbreaking work on the world famous Cats (Olivier Award- London, Moliere Award- Paris) and also on Andrew Lloyd Webber's worldwide hit The Phantom of the Opera for which she provided the musical staging and choreography. She received the Mr Abbott Award in 1999. Fifty-plus Broadway and West End shows include - Tonight at 8.30, Love on the Dole, The Match Girls, Tomfoolery, Jeeves Takes Charge, Cabaret, The Roar of the Greasepaint, Pickwick, The Card, Phil The Fluter, Hans Christian Andersen, My Fair Lady, Songbook and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. For the Royal Shakespeare Company- A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Comedy of Errors, The Way of the World, As You Like It, Once in a Lifetime, The Boyfriend and The Secret Garden.

 

Her opera productions are Bluebeard (ENO); The Trojans, The Midsummer Marriage, The Flying Dutchman, and Parsifal (ROH). Her ballets include Breakaway, Lippizaner, The Bröntes, On Such A Night (Northern Ballet) and Journey (Bolshoi).

Her direction for television includes: Morte d'Arthur (Samuel G Engel Award); Australian Ballet's The Fool on the Hill (ABC-TV's Best Musical and Best Production) while her A Simple Man (BBC) won her a BAFTA for direction and choreography. Feature films include A Wonderful Life, Half-a-Sixpence, Man of La Mancha and Yentl. She staged many of the famous Muppet Shows.

Recent projects include Phantom - the Las Vegas Spectacular, The Imaginary Invalid for the Washington Shakespeare Theatre, Triple Sensation for CBC, Now or Never - starring her husband Peter Land at the King's Head/York Theatre NYC, the 25th Anniversary Celebration at the Royal Albert Hall of The Phantom of the Opera and the first volume of her autobiography A Dancer in Wartime was published in November 2011 by Chatto & Windus, now also out in paperback. In 2011 she directed Judith Paris in her One Woman Show Waxing Lyrical at the New Diorama and in 2013 she directed and choreographed Betty Buckley in Jerry Herman's Dear World at the Charing Cross Theatre while appearing in the hugely successful Fabulous Fashionistas (Channel 4).

 

Gillian has received numerous accolades including two Olivier Awards - the first Award for Outstanding Achievement for her Choreography of Cats in 1981, and in 2013 she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Royal Opera House. Other notable awards include Vienna's Silver Order of Merit, Golden Rose of Montreux Award for the staging of The Muppet Show, The Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award and in 2012 she was elected Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Dance. Gillian received a CBE in 1997 and in 2014 she was elevated to DBE.

 

2014 sees Gillian stage a new production of Sir Robert Helpmann's ballet Miracle in the Gorbals for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Gillian will also have a wellness and fitness regime DVD released entitled Longevity through Exercise, and she will be writing the sequel to her recent memoir A Dancer In Wartime, which is soon to be made into a feature film.

 

(from her official website)

Gillian Lynne did not only create the original choreography of CATS, she also worked as a director on several productions. In Vienna, she created the version of CATS the way we know it now and she was and is an incredibly important part of the history of CATS.

Name: Gillian Barbara Lynne (née Pyrke)
Born: 20.02.1926 in Bromley, Kent, UK
Occupation: Ballerina, Dancer, Choreographer, Actress, Director
Husbands: Patrick Back (1949-19??)
          Peter Land (since 1980)

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