Trevor Nunn

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Sir Trevor Nunn CBE (born 14 January 1940) is a stage director and film director. He has held both the posts of Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Director of the Royal National Theatre, following in the footsteps of Sir Peter Hall.

He was born in Ipswich, England and educated at Downing College, Cambridge, where he began his stage career. In 1968, he was appointed Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a position he held until 1986. His second wife, Janet Suzman, appeared in many of his productions. Nunn became a leading figure in theatrical circles, and was responsible for many ground-breaking productions, such as the RSC's version of Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, co-directed with John Caird. A very successful director of musicals, in the non-subsidised sector, Nunn was responsible for 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.

He has also directed opera at Glyndebourne, and began directing for television with Antony and Cleopatra (starring Suzman) in 1974. He re-staged his highly successful Gyndebourne production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess for television in 1993, and it was more favorably received than the 1959 Samuel Goldwyn - Otto Preminger film version of the opera. He has occasionally ventured into film directing, such as Lady Jane (1986), Hedda (film), an adaptation of Hedda Gabler, and a 1996 film version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (play). He is currently married to actress Imogen Stubbs, whose play We Happy Few was the last new play directed by Nunn, and who often appears in his productions, including the Twelfth Night mentioned above. He was knighted by the Queen in 2002.

When Nunn spoke out against the use of the term "luvvie" in Britain, which he regarded as insulting to thespians, Private Eye took to calling its Luvvies section Trevvies.

Recent and current London productions include Les Miserables, My Fair Lady, The Woman In White, Starlight Express, Sunset Boulevard, Othello and Acorn Antiques. New productions currently playing in London include The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Rock 'N' Roll and Porgy and Bess (an abridged version with dialogue instead of recitatives, unlike Nunn's first production of the opera).