Hugh Wooldridge has directed, produced, devised and designed lighting for productions worldwide...


Having trained at LAMDA, Hugh Wooldridge started his career by assisting leading UK directors including Alan Ayckbourn, Eric Thompson, Frank Hauser and Michael Blakemore; however, he has been directing plays professionally in his own right since the age of 17.

In the first 10 years of his career Hugh directed more than 60 productions in London and throughout the UK – from Alan Ayckbourn to Rene de Obaldia, and Pam Gems to Athol Fugard.  He was a resident director at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester; the Thorndike Theatre, Leatherhead, and the Old Vic Theatre, London.

During the next 10 years, he ran his own multi-media company, The Jolly Good Production Company, which produced plays and TV programmes, managed artistes and published books.   During this time he was also responsible for music programmes and programming in the ITV network, specifically in the south and south east of England (TVS).  He devised and was the Creative Consultant of BBCTV’s Saturday night, prime-time TV programme, Challenge Anneka.

Around this time Hugh Wooldridge also directed international tours of Jesus Christ Superstar and The Rocky Horror Show as well as national tours of musicals and plays by Noël Coward, Daphne du Maurier, Dylan Thomas and Rodgers and Hammerstein.

For the past twenty-five years Hugh Wooldridge has specialised in devising, directing and producing large-scale events around the world including the Richard Rodgers Award celebrating Andrew Lloyd Webber in Pittsburgh; An Evening with Hal Prince in Munich and London; Sondheim Tonight in New York and London; Who Could Ask For Anything More? – the centenary celebration of Ira Gershwin at the Royal Albert Hall, London; and the star-studded centenary celebration of Noël Coward at the Savoy Theatre, London.

Since 1999, he has produced, devised and directed The Night of 1000 Voices and The Night of 1000 Stars at the Royal Albert Hall, London.  In 2013, the production celebrated the great Broadway producer and director Harold 'Hal' Prince at the Royal Albert Hall, London hosted by Alan Titchmarsh and Gloria Hunniford.  In 2014 the 15th Anniversary of The Night of 1000 Voices was for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research and introduced by Hugh Bonneville.

He co-devised with Trevor Nunn and directed the Golden Wedding Anniversary Celebration of Her Majesty the Queen and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, co-produced by the Royal Festival Hall and the Earl of Wessex.

In May 2008 he adapted and directed Chess in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall with Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Kerry Ellis, Clarke Peters and Marti Pellow, introduced by Sir Tim Rice.

During 2011/3, Hugh Wooldridge was the Beatrice Carr and Ray Wallace Visiting Professor at the A. Max Weitzenhoffer Familly College of Fine Arts based at the University of Oklahoma where he created and directed  the 21st Anniversary production of The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and There Is More To Love..., a contemporary revue of the love songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

In the past few years Hugh Wooldridge has directed the UK Tour for Bill Kenwright Ltd of The Haunting, an adaptation of short stories by Charles Dickens with Paul Nicholas, Sean Maguire and Charlie Clements, then with David Robb and James Roache and various ghosts; ANTHEMS: The Concert with Kerry Ellis, Brian May, Adam Pascal and Escala at the Royal Albert Hall - which won the Jo Hutchinson International Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Solo Performance in 2012; an all-star version of the Jeremy Lloyd classic, The Wonderful World of Captain Beaky and his Band, for UNICEF with Sir Roger Moore, Vanessa Redgrave, Joanna Lumley, Alan Titchmarsh, Hugh Bonneville and many others; the Gala Celebration of the Original Calendar Girls, Seasons of Love, at the Royal Albert Hall for the benefit of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research with John Alderton, Lynda Bellingham, Janie Dee, Patrick Doyle, Patricia Hodge, Tim Firth, Sue Holderness, Celia Imrie, Lesley Joseph, Willy Russell, Christopher Timothy, Stephen Tompkinson, Stilgoe & Skellern, Julie Walters and many more;

In 2013/4 he directed the European and US production of BelCanto in conjunction with Luigi Caiola and the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation, Italy which was first seen at the New York City Center in November 2013 and subsequently in Naples, Rome and Paris.  In 2016, he directed the brand new production of Twist of Lemmon at The Other Palace, London, with Christopher Lemmon portraying his father, the great Jack Lemmon.

In 2017 he conceived, wrote and directed an exciting new production for the Young Artists of America celebrating the songs of Tim Rice, hosted by Sir Tim, The Circle of Life, which was first seen at the Strathmore Center, Maryland, and was later aired on PBS in the US.  This MPT programme was nominated for three local Emmy Awards - Best Artistic Program, Best Lighting and Best Direction.  It won the Emmy for Best Lighting.

In 2018, aside from his international masterclass and teaching commitments, Hugh Wooldridge directed Play On Words - a celebration of PG Wodehouse and his fellow Wordsmiths on Broadwaywith Hal Cazalet at Live at Zedel/Crazy Coqs and New York - and a brand new production of Jesus Christ Superstar at Teatru Astra, Gozo/Malta with David Michael Johnson playing Jesus, Rachel Fabri as Mary, Chris Greck as Judas; also featuring Roger Tirazona, Noel Galea and Chris Dingli.

In 2019, The Night of 1000 Voices was rebooted for a younger audience as The Best of Rock Musicals at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, London and was a fund-raiser for the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust - a young person's suicide-awareness organisation.  This first concert was introduced by Sir Tim Rice and Christopher Biggins and featured VIP performers from the US and Europe (www.thebestofmusicals.com).  The 2020/2021 productions of The Best of Rock Musicals has been postponed because of the global coronavirus pandemic.

During the pandemic of 2020/2021, he produced and directed 28 short films about Osteopathy – Discovering Osteopathy  and a season of new play readings, presented live and streamed globally from the Riverside Studios in London – Riverside Reads.

Most recently, in 2023, Hugh Wooldridge has directed A Murder Has Been Arranged for Bill Kenwright Ltd and written a play with music with Nicholas Bromley about a girl band, Heads Up!  He continues with his teaching and masterclass commitments whenever possible and has just returned from a US Tour with Trevor Nunn, publicising their Shakespeare Marquee TV series, A Man For All Time.

Hugh Wooldridge has directed many showcase, workshops and first productions of new writing, and has been much in demand helping others to improve their own productions - he is mentoring four authors, two composers and a producer.  He hopes to direct a production every year at a drama school in the US, UK or Denmark - as at BADA with his own adaption of Under Milk Wood with music by Julie Cooper.

In the future, in addition to his commitment to working on large-scale productions, Hugh Wooldridge hopes to spend more time directing smaller projects similar to those he thrived on during his first 10 years, and being available to help others achieve their goals.