Gillian Lynne, the leading British choreographer who created the slinky moves of Macavity, Grizabella and other feline stars of the West End hit Cats, has died aged 92. Lynne, who worked on more than 60 shows in the West End and Broadway, had a long-running collaboration with the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and choreographed The Phantom of the Opera and Aspects of Love. The composer paid tribute to her on Twitter, saying: “Farewell dearest Gillie, three generations of the British musical owe so much to you.”
Choreographer Matthew Bourne tweeted that Lynne “supported and inspired me from the very beginning … [her] spirit and love of dance and dancers lives on in all of us”. The actor Bernadette Peters also paid tribute, writing: “RIP dear Gillian Lynne. Your talents created so much joy for us all.”
Last month, Lynne became the first woman to have a West End theatre named after her when Lloyd Webber renamed his New London theatre. In a ceremony to mark the event, she was carried to the stage on a golden throne, surrounded by dancers from Cats.
Lynne started out as a classical ballerina and was a leading soloist at Sadler’s Wells Ballet as it became the Royal Ballet in the postwar years. She danced at the London Palladium, choreographed her first film and her first ballet in the early 60s and became a prolific director and choreographer for the stage. In film, she acted with Errol Flynn on The Master of Ballantrae, and choreographed for Barbra Streisand on Yentl and Tommy Steele on Half a Sixpence. Her television credits included The Muppet Show and A Simple Man, a ballet about the life of the painter LS Lowry, performed at the Palace theatre in Manchester and broadcast on the BBC. It won a Bafta award for best TV arts programme in 1987.
Cats, an adaptation of TS Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, opened in 1981, and won her an Olivier award. It became one of the longest-running West End shows in history. By the time it closed, 21 years later, it had been performed around 9,000 times.
Lynne received a special Olivier award in 2013 and was made a dame in 2014 for her services to dance and musical theatre. She died on Sunday at the Princess Grace hospital in London. “She leaves behind a huge legacy and was adored by many,” said the actor Peter Land, who she married in 1980. Theatres across London’s West End will dim their lights at 7pm on Monday in her honour.
