Trevor Nunn

Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is an English theatre director and lyricist. He has been the artistic director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal Haymarket. He has directed dramas for the stage, including Macbeth, as well as opera and musicals, such as Cats and Les Misérables (1985).

Nunn has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, winning Tonys for Cats, Les Misérables, and Nicholas Nickleby and the Olivier Awards for productions of Summerfolk, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida, and Nicholas Nickleby. In 2008, The Telegraph named Nunn among the most influential people in British culture. He has also directed works for film and television.

Early years Trevor Nunn was born on 14 January 1940 in Ipswich, England, to Dorothy May Piper and Robert Alexander Nunn, a cabinetmaker. As a small boy, Trevor loved reading but his parents had little money for books. However, an aunt had more books, including the complete works of Shakespeare which he read whenever the family visited her. In the end, his aunt gave it to him.

He was educated at Northgate Grammar School, Ipswich, and Downing College, Cambridge. He also won a director's scholarship, becoming a trainee director at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry.

Career In 1964, Nunn joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and in 1968 he was appointed its artistic director, a position he held until 1986 (latterly with Terry Hands from 1978). Nunn directed the RSC production of Macbeth starring Ian McKellen in the title role and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth in 1976. Nunn staged the action of the drama with not only the paying audience, but also the audience of all of the actors in the production not in the ongoing scene—they sat on wooden crates just beyond the main playing space.

Nunn became a leading figure in theatrical circles, and was responsible for many significant productions, such as the RSC's version of Dickens's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, co-directed with John Caird,

A director of musicals in the non-subsidised sector, Nunn directed Cats (1981), formerly the longest running musical in Broadway's history, and the first English production of Les Misérables in 1985, also with John Caird, which ran in London until the summer of 2019. Nunn also directed the little-known 1986 Webber–Rice musical Cricket, at Windsor Castle. Besides Cats and Les Misérables, Nunn's other musical credits include Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard. In September 1997, he became the Royal National Theatre's artistic director, South Pacific (at the Royal National Theatre), The Woman in White, Othello and Acorn Antiques: The Musical! (2005), The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Rock 'n' Roll and Porgy and Bess in 2006 at the Savoy Theatre (an abridged version with dialogue instead of recitatives, unlike Nunn's first production of the opera).

He directed We Happy Few, a play by his third wife Imogen Stubbs, in 2004. Stubbs often appears in his productions, including the 1996 Twelfth Night film. Nunn directed a modern production of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 2004, which starred Ben Whishaw in the title role, and Imogen Stubbs as Gertrude, and was staged at The Old Vic theatre in London.

In 2007, he directed the RSC productions of King Lear and The Seagull, which played at Stratford before embarking on a world tour (including the Brooklyn Academy of Music) and then playing at the New London Theatre from November 2007. The two plays both starred Ian McKellen, Romola Garai, Frances Barber, Sylvester McCoy, and William Gaunt. Nunn's television production of King Lear was screened on Boxing Day, 2008 with McKellen in the title role.

In 2008, he returned to the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry (the theatre where he started his career) to direct Joanna Murray-Smith's adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film Scenes from a Marriage, starring Imogen Stubbs and Iain Glen. Nunn's musical adaptation of Gone with the Wind opened at the New London Theatre in April 2008 and, after poor reviews, closed on 14 June 2008 after 79 performances. In December 2008, he directed a revival of A Little Night Music at the Menier Chocolate Factory, which transferred to the West End at the Garrick Theatre in 2009. The production transferred to Broadway, opening in November 2009, with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree Armfeldt and Angela Lansbury as Madame Armfeldt. Other members of the original London cast also transferred with the production. The production closed in January 2011 after 425 performances.

In 2010, Nunn directed a revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Aspects of Love from July to September 2010 at the Menier Chocolate Factory and the play Birdsong, which opened in September 2010 at the Comedy Theatre, based on the Sebastian Faulks novel of the same title.

Nunn marked his debut as artistic director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket with a revival of Flare Path (as part of the playwright, Terence Rattigan's, centenary year celebrations). The production, starring Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith, opened in March 2011 and closed in June 2011, and was followed by productions of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, (June–August 2011) and The Tempest, starring Ralph Fiennes (September–October 2011). His final production at the Haymarket, The Lion in Winter (November 2011 – January 2012), starred Joanna Lumley and Robert Lindsay.

Nunn returned to the Haymarket in 2014 to direct the play Fatal Attraction.

For Christmas 2018, Nunn directed a revival of Fiddler on the Roof at the Menier Chocolate Factory, before transferring to the Playhouse Theatre in London's West End for a limited season in spring 2019. The production starred Andy Nyman as Tevye and Judy Kuhn as Golde.

In 2020, he was due to direct a new musical Identical based on The Parent Trap. It was due to have its world premiere at the Nottingham Playhouse before transferring to the Theatre Royal, Bath, over the summer of 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the production was delayed until August 2022.

In 2023 he directed Oliver Cotton's play The Score at the Theatre Royal, Bath, with Brian Cox playing Johann Sebastian Bach. The production and cast transferred to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in 2025.

Film and opera Nunn has directed opera at Glyndebourne. He re-staged his Glyndebourne production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess for television in 1993,

He has directed for film, including Lady Jane (1986), Hedda, an adaptation of Hedda Gabler, and a 1996 film version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Personal life Nunn has been married three times and has five children. He was married to actress Janet Suzman from 17 October 1969 until their divorce in 1986. They have one son. From 1986 until their 1991 divorce, he was married to Sharon Lee-Hill, with whom he has two children, including Laurie. In April 2011 Stubbs announced their separation.

Nunn was in a brief relationship with Nancy Dell'Olio in 2011.

In 1998, Nunn was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party. In 2002, he was knighted.

Credits

Broadway Source: Internet Broadway Database

A Midsummer Night's Dream (as original producer) – 20 January 1971 – 13 March 1971 Old Times (as original producer) – 16 November 1971 – 26 February 1972 London Assurance (as original producer) – 5 December 1974 – 12 January 1975 Sherlock Holmes (as original producer) – 12 November 1974 – 4 January 1976 Piaf – 5 February 1981 – 28 June 1981 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby – 4 October 1981 – 3 January 1982 All's Well That Ends Well – 13 April 1983 – 15 May 1983 Good (as original producer) – 13 October 1982 – 30 January 1983 André De Shields' Harlem Nocturne (featuring songs with lyrics by Trevor Nunn) – 18 November 1984 – 30 December 1984 Cyrano de Bergerac (as original producer) – 16 October 1984 – 19 January 1985 Much Ado About Nothing (as original producer) – 14 October 1984 – 16 January 1985 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby – 24 August 1986 – 12 October 1986 Chess – 28 April 1988 – 25 June 1988 Starlight Express – 15 March 1987 – 8 January 1989 Aspects of Love – 8 April 1990 – 2 March 1991 Arcadia – 30 March 1995 – 27 August 1995 Sunset Boulevard – 17 November 1994 – 22 March 1997 Amy's View (as original producer) – 15 April 1999 – 18 July 1999 Closer (as original producer) – 25 March 1999 – 22 August 1999 Not About Nightingales – 25 February 1999 – 13 June 1999 Rose written by Martin Sherman (as original producer) – 12 April 2000 – 20 May 2000 Cats – 7 October 1982 – 10 September 2000 Copenhagen (as original producer) – 11 April 2000 – 21 January 2001 Noises Off (as original producer) – 1 November 2001 – 1 September 2002 Vincent in Brixton (as original producer) – 6 March 2003 – 4 May 2003 Les Misérables – 12 March 1987 – 18 May 2003 Oklahoma! – 21 March 2002 – 23 February 2003 The Woman in White – 17 November 2005 – 19 February 2006 Rock 'n' Roll – 4 November 2007 – 9 March 2008 Les Misérables (revival) – 9 November 2006 – 6 January 2008 A Little Night Music – 13 December 2009 – 11 January 2011 Cats – 31 July 2016 – 30 December 2017

West End Source: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Cats – 1981 Starlight Express – 1984 Les Misérables – 1985 Chess – 1986 The Baker's Wife – 1989 Aspects of Love – 1989 Sunset Boulevard – 1993 Oklahoma! – 1998 South Pacific – 2001 My Fair Lady – 2001 Anything Goes – 2002 The Woman in White – 2004 We Happy Few - 2004 Acorn Antiques: The Musical! – 2005 Porgy and Bess – 2006 Royal Hunt of the Sun - 2006 King Lear – 2007 The Seagull – 2007 Gone with the Wind – 2008 A Little Night Music – 2009 Inherit the Wind – 2009 Birdsong – 2010 Aspects of Love – 2010 The Lion in Winter – 2011 Flare Path – 2011 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - 2011 The Tempest - 2011 A Chorus of Disapproval – 2012 Fatal Attraction – 2014 Fiddler on the Roof – 2019 Identical - 2022 The Score - 2025

Film Source: Contemporary British and Irish Film Directors

Awards and nominations 1975 London Assurance Drama Desk Award Unique Theatrical Experience 1977 Macbeth Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director 1979 Once in a Lifetime Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director 1980 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director 1981 Cats Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director 1982 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play 1983 All's Well that Ends Well Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play 1983 All's Well that Ends Well Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play 1983 Cats Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical 1987 Les Misérables Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical 1987 Starlight Express Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical 1989 Othello Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director 1990 Aspects of Love Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical 1994 Arcadia Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director 1995 Sunset Boulevard Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical 1995 The Merchant of Venice / Summerfolk Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director 1995 Sunset Boulevard Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical 1995 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement 1999 Not About Nightingales Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play 1999 Not About Nightingales Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play 1999 Oklahoma! Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director 2000 Summerfolk / The Merchant of Venice / Troilus and Cressida Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director 2001 The Cherry Orchard Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director 2002 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement 2002 Oklahoma! Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical 2002 Oklahoma! Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical 2012 Induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame 2020 Fiddler on the Roof Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director

Sources: Internet Broadway Database, Drama Desk History, Olivier Awards: Past Nominees and Winners