May 2026

When Andrew Lloyd Webber renamed the New London Theatre in Gillian's honour in 2018, he gifted her a beautiful key to the building. It was his way of saying that this theatre, and everything that happened within it, belonged to her.

To mark her centenary, that gesture has been given a new life. A presentation key, inspired by the original, will be presented to the choreographer of each new production that comes into the Gillian Lynne Theatre, and passed on when the next production arrives. Each choreographer will also receive a smaller keepsake version of the key, something to keep long after the production has closed and the key has moved on.

It is a tradition that does two things at once. It honours Gillie and the legacy she left in the theatre, and it celebrates the choreographer standing in front of it. Choreography is so often the invisible art, the work that audiences feel without always knowing they are feeling it. The key is a recognition of that work and the people who do it, a reminder that every choreographer who steps into the Gillian Lynne Theatre is part of something that began with one of the greatest creative forces theatre has ever known.