Keith & Pimlott Get New Year Honours, Stage 100Date: 2 January 2007
Actors Penelope Keith (pictured) and John Wood were named this weekend in the New Year Honours List, the annual gift of HM The Queen for notable achievements in all areas of public life, including the arts. Amongst the other theatre names honoured were directors Steven Pimlott and Terry Hands, designer Sue Blane and producer and Old Vic theatre chief executive Sally Greene.
Well known for her classic TV sitcom roles in The Good Life and To the Manor Born, Penelope Keith, who was awarded a CBE, is an accomplished stage actress whose many credits include Time and the Conways, Star Quality, On Approval, Relatively Speaking, How the Other Half Loves, Glyn and It, Mrs Warren's Profession and Good Grief. She was seen most recently in the West End in Blithe Spirit at the Savoy in 2004/5 and, this past summer at Chichester Festival, premiered Richard Everett’s comedy Entertaining Angels, which she reprised on tour in the autumn.
John Wood, who also received a CBE, made his first appearance on the Old Vic stage in 1954 before spending several seasons with the RSC. His many theatre credits since have included Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (original cast), Travesties, Tartuffe, Deathtrap, Amadeus, The Invention of Love and No Man’s Land. Wood was due to appear in last year’s ill-fated UK premiere of Arthur Miller’s Resurrection Blues, directed by the late Robert Altman at the Old Vic, but pulled out at the start of rehearsals, citing illness. He was most recently seen on the London stage in the National 2005 mounting of Henry IV Parts 1 & 2. Wood’s screen credits include Longitude and Love in a Cold Climate.
Director Steven Pimlott – who, suffering from cancer, had to withdraw from directing last summer’s West End premiere of Kate Betts’ On the Third Day, the winner of Channel 4’s The Play’s the Thing competition – was given an OBE. In August 2005, Pimlott stepped down as joint artistic director of Chichester Festival Theatre, prior to which he was an associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company where his many productions included Hamlet with Samuel West and Antony and Cleopatra with Alan Bates and Frances De La Tour. His other credits include Bombay Dreams and Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and more than 30 operas around the world. Following his illness, he returns to work in March, directing Tennessee Williams’ 1951 play The Rose Tattoo, starring Zoe Wanamaker, the first production in the National’s annual £10 Travelex season in the NT Olivier.
Director Terry Hands, who received a CBE, remains best known to theatregoers for his time at the RSC. He joined the company in 1966 to run its touring arm, Theatregoround, became joint artistic director (with Trevor Nunn) in 1978 and briefly artistic director on his own in 1986. His many RSC credits included award-winning productions of Tamburlaine the Great and Cyrano de Bergerac (for which he personally nabbed a Best Director Olivier). Since 1997, Hands has been running Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Wales.
Sally Greene, who was appointed OBE, is the proprietor of the Old Vic and Criterion Theatres and, previously, Richmond Theatre. In 1993, she and Richard Attenborough launched Criterion Productions, renamed Old Vic Productions plc in 1999. To date, the company has over 700 investors and has backed over 70 productions including the multi award-winning screen-to-stage musical Billy Elliot. In 2000, Greene appointed Kevin Spacey as artistic director of the separate Old Vic Theatre Company, which programmes in-house productions at the landmark theatre. Last year, she also became proprietor of the renowned Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. Greene’s future plans include building a new theatre on the site of the Collins Music Hall in Islington, north London.
Costume and set designer Sue Blane was given an MBE. Is best known for her costume contributions on myriad productions including Cabaret (Donmar Warehouse), The Mikado, Carmen, Rosenkavalier (all for ENO) and, currently in the West End, The Rocky Horror Show at the Comedy Theatre and Porgy and Bess at the Savoy. In 2002, she won a Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Award for her set design of The Relapse at the National Theatre.
Other artists named in this year’s New Year Honours included actor-comedian Hugh Laurie (whose rare stage appearances include Ben Elton’s Gasping in the West End in 1990) and musician Rod Stewart (whose back catalogue formed the basis for the 2003 West End musical Tonight’s the Night).
In other annual arts-related honours lists, Andrew Lloyd Webber has climbed back to the number one spot in The Stage 100, the industry newspaper’s breakdown of the most influential people in UK theatre. Last year, after five years on top, Lloyd Webber was surpassed by Live Nation supremo David Ian, his co-producer for the recent revival of The Sound of Music, with whom he appeared on How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, the TV reality show to find a star for the West End musical. In the new Stage 100, Lloyd Webber and Ian share the number one spot. This year, the pair go their separate ways to back rival reality TV shows, Any Dream Will Do and You’re the One That I Want, to find leads for new West End productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Grease respectively (See News, 21 Dec 2006).
The Stage’s top 20 list entrants are as follows:
1. Joint = Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Ian
3. Cameron Mackintosh - producer
4. Howard Panter/Rosemary Squire - Ambassador Theatre Group
5. Nica Burns/Max Weitzenhoffer - Nimax
6. Michael Boyd – Royal Shakespeare Company
7. Nicholas Hytner – National Theatre
8. Jude Kelly - South Bank Centre (returns to top 20 after five-year absence)
9. Bill Kenwright – producer
10. Michael Grandage – Donmar Warehouse
11. Sonia Friedman - producer
12. Harold Pinter – playwright and performer
13. Nick Thomas/Jon Conway - Qdos Entertainment
14. Kevin Spacey/Sally Greene – Old Vic
15. David Lan – Young Vic (New Entry)
16. Graham Sheffield – Barbican Centre
17. Vicky Featherstone/John Tiffany – National Theatre of Scotland (New Entry)
18. Jonathan Church – Chichester Festival Theatre (New Entry)
19. Rufus Norris – director (New Entry)
20. Dominic Cooke – director (New Entry)
Also featuring in the full list of 100 are Tom Stoppard, Elton John, Judi Dench and How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? winner Connie Fisher, who has also been nominated for two trophies – Best Actress in a Musical and London Newcomer of the Year (See News, 1 Dec 2006) – in Whatsonstage.com’s Theatregoers’ Choice Awards (click here to vote now!).
- by Terri Paddock
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