British theater director Pimlott dies

COLCHESTER, England, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Steven Pimlott, a British director known for his U.S. production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," died at his Colchester home in England.

Pimlott, 53, died of lung cancer, his agent said.

Since 2002, Pimlott was an artistic director at the Chichester Festival Theater in England, where he was directing rehearsals of Tennessee Williams's "Rose Tattoo," The New York Times said Monday.

Theater officials said the production still will open in March.

Pimlott "embraced opera, Shakespeare, bold new writing, the new European classical repertoire, Gilbert and Sullivan, and the popular modern musical," Michael Boyd, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, said in a statement. Pimlott was an associate director for the company from 1996-2002.

Queen Elizabeth II in January named Pimlott an officer of the Order of the British Empire for his "services to drama."

In 1993, Pimlott directed the Broadway revival of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," one of the first collaborations of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. He also directed Broadway's "Bombay Dreams," a tale of India's Bollywood scene.

Pimlott, who died Wednesday, is survived by his mother, his wife, a sister, two sons and a daughter.