Imelda Staunton Wins UK Theatre Award

Imelda Staunton (Professor Dolores Umbridge) has won a UK Theatre Award for Best Performance in a Musical for her role as Momma Rose in the Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of Gypsy. The production also took home the award for Best Musical Production at Sunday’s ceremony in London. Staunton was not present to pick up her award because she was saving her voice on her day off, according to Chichester artistic director Jonathan Church. Accepting the award on her behalf, he said,

UK Theatre embraces the whole range of theatres she feels passionately she created some of her finest performances in. And of course the subsidy that enables those theatres to exist is important to her – she wanted that message to be heard.

Written in the 1950s with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Gypsy opened in Chichester a year ago and has since transferred to London’s West End, where it is currently playing at the Savoy Theatre until November 28. Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that BBC has recorded the show for transmission at a later date. You can check out a trailer for the West End production below:

For more information about the show or to purchase tickets, head over to the official production website here. Have you been to see Gypsy, or are you planning a visit? Let us know your thoughts!