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Gillian Lynne, CBE (Original Associate Director and Choreographer) was instrumental in the development of jazz dance in Britian leading to groundbreaking work as a director and choreographer of film, television and stage. Her 50 plus Broadway, West End and Internations shows, films, and TV includ: Tonight at Eight, Cabaret, What the World Needs Now, Gigi, The Roar of the Greasepaint, How Now Dow Jones, My Fair Lady, The Secret Garden, Half-a-Sixpence, Man of La Mancha, Yentl, A Simple Man (1988 BAFTA Award), and Le Morte d' Arthur (Samuel G. Engel Award). Best known for her direction/choreography/staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber's CATS, Phantom of the Opera, and Aspects of Love. Awarded the CBE in 1997. In 2001 Gillian will choreograph and stage Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

-A CATS Playbill

    'The choreographing of CATS is a difficult matter, it itsn't just one of your everyday games.' To borrow from the words of one of T.S. Elito's marvellous poems seems the most apt way to describe my task of staging the songs and dances for CATS. Our exceptional teams of dancer-singer-actors often regarded me as a mad-cat myself when I explained the physical needs we should try to conqure in the initial stages of rehearsal.
    For instance the degree of strength and sensitivity needed in the stomach and spine (cats seem, without doubt, boneless!) and teh degree of daring necessary, cats will after all attempt almost anything physically. Most importantly with all those disciplines intact the kind of feline movement and reactions I felt were needed, that could also interpret human emotions accurately. I didn not want to use totally accepted and known dance styles but find something and an energy we would call our own. This meant vigorous exercises of unusual nature leading eventually to total freedom in what we could attempt physically.
    Having observed that cats are at once aloof, hypersensual, cold, warm, completely elastic, and mysterious, the goals we set ourselves physically were daunting in their attempt to translate those wonderful words in an exciting theatrical and witty way. I fell in love with Andrew's music the minute I heard it and building the pivotal 'Jellicle Ball' with him was hard and thrilling work for we knew that were were to achieve our aim of producing an explosive dance musical we had to succeed there or die. The number is based on the 'Jellicle Cats' poem but I knew I had to extend it and find a dance poem where we could create a piece of exciting theatre whilst showing the cats at the height of their passion dancing their most private, energetic, and anarchic rituals.
    Making a worthy attempt at the exotic theatre of 'Growltiger's' dreams of Siamese, building a savage and believable cat-fight for 'Macavity,' trying to make the cockroaches succeed in a Beatle's Tattoo that might have echoes of Busty Berkeley, finding dance characters for the 'Tugger,' the 'Pekes and Pollicles,' and a sad memory of the Ball for 'Grizabella' while lighting the jazz-classic fireworks for 'Mr. Mistoffelees', indeed, trying to do justice to the variety of T.S. Eliot's characters in as wide a span of dance styles has been a facinating and frighting task. But with such brilliant teams of performers and the joy of working with our production team, one of the most exciting and rewarding I can remember.

-Gillian Lynne

    ...Staging, such a seemingly all-purpose word, is taken to mean many things to many men. In my case what you see is what I begat. The process towards this birth meant certain limitations and pecularities for my choreography (and staging) as one of its duties was to tell clearly the story of each song and not interpret it at will, because the book of the show must live within the songs and dances. Sometimes I thought my mind would burst with the pressure of the invention needed in two and a half hours of staging. The rainge necessary to satisfy the eye and the mind yet remain true to the titled characters had to be conjured from my past and future, and not to be swayed by my ever-present nightmares. I wanted to use known and accepted dance forms in a different way; as it were putting a feline wash over them, and adapting them to a style and energy we could call our own. This meant vigorous exercises of an unusual nature, leading eventually to total freedom of what we could attempt physically. Having observed that cats are at once aloof, hypersensual, cold, warm, completely elastic, and mysterious, the goals we set ourselves physically were daunting in their attempt to translate T.S. Eliots words in an exciting, theatrical, witty, yet feline, way.
    I fell in love with Andrew's music the minute I heard it, and building the numbers with him, where the music needed extending to allow more dance, was hard and thrilling work. Sometimes I could not always explain what I wanted convincingly enough and then I and my little skeleton crew would dance my ideas flat out for him, trying often to look like twenty-five people. A choreographer working out the numbers for a new musical needs a skeleton crew just as a writer needs pen and ink. This little band usually consists of one's assistant, a boy and a girl dancer, the dance captain (male or female) who will then remain and take care of the show, and of course a billiant and creative pianist. It is meticulous, nerve-wracking (will the ideas come up out of the blue?) and tiring work, mentally and physically, for this is the time when all the movement styles for each character have to be discovered, and many of the ideas for the staging and graph of each number start to be built in. I was lucky with the original London production of CATS; my crew were so sympathetic, patient, and tireless. Lindsay Dolan, my assistant, and Finola Hughes and John Thornton, who were in the show, put up with my endless probings, frustrations, despair, breakthroughs, joy and long, long hours of work, and I shall be grateful to them always. Equally I struck lucky with my American crew, Bonnie Walker, Rene Cebellos, and Tim Scott, whose support and dynamism were an inspiration. Joanne Robinson, who looked after the London CATS became my right arm on the American production; she is an indefagitable friend as well as a brilliant assistant.
    Creating the Jellicle Ball was the hardest and most exciting task of all. Firstly the poem 'The Song of the Jellicle' places such an intriguing set of images in the mind, secondly the Ball is pivotal to our show, and we knew in the beginning that if we were to achieve our aim of producing England's finest dance musical, we had to succeed there or die. I knew I had to extend T.S. Elito's beautiful poem and find a dance poem that carried on the ideas he suggested, to become a piece of exciting theatre whilst showing the cats at the height of their passion, dancing their most privat, energetic and anarchic rituals. The day when my crew and I danced the whoe thing for Andrew and Trevor, playing all the parts, trying to show the total excitment and mystery were were hoping to create, indicating where the acrobatic trics would come (we couldn't quite manage those!) and when eventually they saw what I was after and agreed to it was an incredibly tense and rewarding occasion and worth every bit of the sweat and exhaustion that inevitably followed. John Napier's and Trevor Nunn's brilliant conception of the world in which we were to make CATS come alive was full of such exciting possibilities and also some difficulties. Dancing in the round, which was the shape of our London auditorium, can sumetimes create havoc in the push and thrust of section, as you have to turn the corner at the end of it just as the climax is reached. Also, as we have no wings as such everyone has to be choreographed for every minute-you can't happily reassemble them inthe wings for their next leap-ons. On the other hand, the immediacy of the space means the audience can feel the energy of the performers and become part of it. At the Winter Garden John created another phantasmagorical world, wonderful to explor but demanding different textures from the staging. The thrust stage makes energy excitingly apparent, but it follows that the shadowy moments where our cats must be remot, wary, and introspective are harder to achieve.
    Making a worthy attempt at the exotic theatre of 'Growltiger's' dreams of Siamese, building a savage and believable cat-fight for 'Macavity,' trying to make the cockroaches succeed in a Beatle's Tattoo that might have echoes of Busty Berkeley, finding dance characters for the 'Tugger,' the 'Pekes and Pollicles,' and a sad memory of the Ball for 'Grizabella' while lighting the jazz-classic fireworks for 'Mr. Mistoffelees', indeed, trying to do justice to the variety of T.S. Eliot's characters in as wide a span of dance styles has been a facinating and frighting task. But with such brilliant teams of performers and the joy of working with our production team, one of the most exciting and rewarding I can remember.

-Gillian Lynne