Thursday, July 12, 2018

RIP Dame Gillian Lynne, Muppet Show Choreographer.

Dame Gillian Lynne, who served as the choreographer on The Muppet Show on at least 17 episodes has died.


According to IMDB, Lynne choreographed the following episodes of The Muppet Show:

  • Joel Grey 
  • Rita Moreno 
  • Kaye Ballard
  • Nancy Walker
  • Don Knotts
  • Petula Clark
  • Leo Sayer 
  • Gilda Radner
  • Liberace 
  • Alice Cooper
  • Marisa Berenson 
  • Lesley Ann Warren 
  • Spike Milligan
  • Leslie Uggams
  • Jonathan Winters 
  • Diana Ross 
  • Melissa Manchester  

Check out a few sample of her work below: 












In addition to her work on The Muppet Show, Lynne also worked on the Sesame Street specials Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and 
Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake.

She is perhaps best know though for her work on the stage productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Ca
ts and The Phantom of the Opera.



At age 87, Lynne was made a DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2014 New Year Honours List.

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 the Royal Academy of Dance (2001). She received a Special Award at the 2013 Olivier Awards.

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1997 Birthday Honours and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to dance and musical theatre.

Lynne was nominated for the Tony Award twice for Choreography, for Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, and for the Drama Desk Award for Cats. She received the Olivier Award in 1981, for Outstanding Achievement of the Year in Musicals, for Cats.




Just this year The New London Theatre was renamed the Gillian Lynne Theatre, making it the first theatre in the West End of London to be named after a non-royal woman. 

She was 92.

1 comment:

  1. She won the Golden Rose of Montreux Award for her work on the Muppet Show in 1977.

    She is also not listed in the credits for Don't Eat the Pictures, so not sure how reliable IMDb is on her Sesame Street work.

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