Sarah Brightman was among the many figures paying tribute to director and lighting designer Hugh Wooldridge recently.
Posting on Facebook, the singer and actress wrote: “I was very saddened to hear that my dear friend Hugh Wooldridge passed away a few days ago.
“Hugh directed me in Nightingale at the Buxton Festival many years ago, and we went on to work together on concerts I performed in throughout the UK.
“He went on to direct many concerts, theatre productions and events all over the world. He was a kind man, full of energy, with a natural gift for energising, teaching and directing young people entering the performance world.
He will be greatly missed. Sarah.”
Following his training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Hugh Wooldridge started as an assistant stage manager in Canterbury rep and working for Peter Saunders and Michael Codron in the West End.
He made his West End debut as an actor in The Dame of Sark with Celia Johnson and Tony Britton, before appearing with English National Opera in Il Trovatore and Salome and with the London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) in the world premiere production of Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev.
He began his career as a professional theatre director by assisting leading UK directors including Alan Ayckbourn, Michael Blakemore, Philip Grout, Frank Hauser and Eric Thompson.
In the first 10 years of his career he directed more than 60 productions in London and throughout the UK. He was the resident director at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester and the Thorndike Theatre, Leatherhead, and the staff director at London’s Old Vic Theatre.
Alongside his directing work he developed an international reputation as a lighting designer for dance, creating lighting for new choreography with companies including the Royal Ballet, Dance Theatre London, Rambert Dance Company, the National Youth Ballet, the English National Ballet and DASH – Wayne Sleep and Friends.
Throughout his career Wooldridge directed numerous premieres and productions in theatre and music theatre including the world premieres of the Graham Collier/Malcolm Lowry jazz suite Under a Volcano and The Undisput’d Monarch of the English Stage at The Old Vic, Nightingale with Sarah Brightman and Peter Knapp at the Buxton Opera Festival and Francis Wyndham’s Abel and Cain at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester with Peter Eyre and Sean Baker.
His work also included directing and lighting the original Olivier Award-winning production of Jeeves Takes Charge with Edward Duke at the Lyric Hammersmith, the first productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats at the Sydmonton Festival, the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Don Black song cycle Tell Me On a Sunday starring Marti Webb at the Royalty Theatre (now the Peacock Theatre), and Lloyd Webber’s Variations at the Royal Festival Hall (later combined with Tell Me On a Sunday to become Song and Dance). He also directed Just Liz, Liz Robertson’s one-woman show compiled by Alan Jay Lerner at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London.
Other major productions include the workshop production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton film screenplay for The Phantom of the Opera; the first large-scale revival of the Rice/Lloyd Webber musical Evita with a cast of 125 at the Grand Theatre, Leeds; the UK tour of the Rodgers and Hammerstein revue Something Wonderful; the all-star Noël Coward – The Centenary Celebration at the Savoy Theatre; and a major revival of Peer Gynt for orchestra, chorus, dancers and actors at the University of Illinois. He also devised and directed Sondheim Tonight at the Barbican Centre; and he created and directed the original UK and US productions of The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
He staged the UK tour of The Magic of the Musicals starring Marti Webb; the 20th anniversary tour of Jesus Christ Superstar – In Concert starring the original Jesus, Paul Nicholas; and two large-scale US productions of Jesus Christ Superstar that toured throughout Europe. He recently directed a revival of Jeeves Takes Charge at the Mayflower Studios in Southampton starring Sam Harrison.
Hugh Wooldridge passed away on 3 October, aged 74. He is survived by his sister, actress Susan Wooldridge who paid tribute to her brother, writing: “All through his career, Hugh was passionate about the meticulous training of young performers. Right up to the end, he was creating new work, sharing his experience and knowledge with young and older performers alike.”
- Musical Theatre Review editor Lisa Martland has fond memories of interviewing Hugh Wooldridge in 1998 about his expertise in directing epic musical concerts and galas (see below). Lisa and everyone at Musical Theatre Review send condolences to the director’s family and friends.
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