Nicholas Hytner and Patrick Stewart Knighted in New Year’s Honours List
The Queen’s New Year’s Honours list includes a number of high-profile theatre leaders and stars.
Acclaimed stage and screen actor Patrick Stewart and National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner both receive knighthoods in recognition of their services to drama.
Also Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd, actress Margeret Tyzack, Barbican Centre artistic director Graham Sheffield, founder of the National Youth Music Theatre Jeremy James Taylor and director and arts chief Graham Devlin are appointed CBEs. Artistic director of Northern Ballet Theatre David Nixon and Manchester Royal Exchange artistic director Braham Murray are appointed OBEs.
Nicholas Hytner was said to be “delighted and flattered” to receive a knighthood. He has been artistic director of the National Theatre since 2003, with many direction credits including The History Boys, The Habit of Art, The Madness of King George and Miss Saigon.
Patrick Stewart, who received an OBE in 2001, is perhaps best known for his screen roles in Star Trek and The X Men. He recently appeared in Waiting for Godot at the Theatre Royal Haymarket alongside Sir Ian McKellen. He said, that, “this is an honour that embraces those actors, directors and creative teams who have in these recent years helped fill my life with inspiration, companionship and sheer fun.”
Phyllida Lloyd directed both the stage and screen productions of international hit musical Mamma Mia! and said that her CBE was “a complete surprise. I feel humbled”.
Margeret Tyzack is a veteran theatre performer who most recently starred alongside Helen Mirren in Phedre at the National Theatre. Last year she appeared in Enid Bagnold’s The Chalk Garden at the Donmar Warehouse, for which she won the Best Actress award in the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards and the 2009 Olivier Award for Best Actress.
