Lloyd Nicholson most recently won acclaim for Royal City's 2008 revival of West Side Story and for the Playhouse's award-winning production of The Drowsy Chaperone. (Courtesy of the National Arts Centre)

Lloyd Nicholson, a prominent figure on the West Coast theatre scene, died suddenly Wednesday morning in Ottawa, where he has been overseeing a remount of The Drowsy Chaperone.

Alberta-born Nicholson, the musical director of the Vancouver Playhouse, was 57. No cause of death has been announced.

Max Reimer, Nicholson's longtime friend and artistic managing director of the Vancouver Playhouse, made the announcement Wednesday evening, a few hours after the National Arts Centre cancelled a preview performance of the award-winning musical.

The centre's remount of the acclaimed Vancouver Playhouse production of The Drowsy Chaperone is scheduled to open Friday.

"Lloyd was the personification of musical theatre in Vancouver," Reimer said in a statement.

"I've known and worked with him for 25 years and his knowledge of and passion for the art form was a continual source of inspiration for me."

An esteemed musical theatre figure who grew up in Jasper, Alta., and studied theatre at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Nicholson developed his career working with troupes across the country.

In addition to his post with the Vancouver Playhouse, he was also artistic director of Royal City Musical Theatre in New Westminster, B.C., and was an instructor at Studio 58, the professional theatre training program at Vancouver's Langara College.

He most recently won acclaim for Royal City's 2008 revival of West Side Story and for the Playhouse's award-winning production of The Drowsy Chaperone, which he had just accompanied for a run at Edmonton's Citadel Theatre before the scheduled Ottawa opening.

"As great a loss as this is to our community, I am so grateful that Lloyd was doing what he loved most and having a wonderful time with the Drowsy Chaperone company when he passed away," Reimer said.

"I've never seen him so happy and relaxed, and I’m thrilled that he lived long enough to receive this national and international recognition for his work."

Nicholson had been scheduled to return to work on the Vancouver Playhouse's production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels later this month.

Memorial details have yet to be released.