Chichester Festival Theatre’s hugely successful production of Gypsy has won this year’s Best Musical Revival Award.
The Imelda Staunton-led musical, which won a string of five star reviews when it transferred to the Savoy Theatre last April, triumphed in a category also including the Lyric Hammersmith’s high profile Bugsy Malone, fellow Chichester transfer Guys And Dolls and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, which played at the multi Olivier Award-winning venue Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
Jonathan Kent’s production of the Stephen Sondheim classic earned the most nominations at this year’s awards, racking up mentions in an impressive eight categories.
Telling the story of Momma Rose and her determination to launch her two daughters into a world of fame and fortune, Staunton was supported by a cast also including Lara Pulver and Peter Davison for its limited West End run.
The show was much lauded when it opened to the press last spring, with The Guardian describing it as a “gorgeous pleasure of an evening that both celebrates showbiz and at the same time exposes the psychotic nature of addiction to stardom”.
Speaking to Official London Theatre shortly after the show had found out it had been nominated for eight awards, Staunton commented: “We worked very hard on Gypsy and it had a wonderful response…, so it feels right that that work has been recognised. The pressure was on with Gypsy because it’s such an iconic musical and it hadn’t been on outside of Broadway… it wasn’t all easy peasy but I think we pulled it off.”
