Sandy Wilson
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Alexander Galbraith "Sandy" Wilson (19 May 1924 – 27 August 2014) was an English composer and lyricist, best known for his musical The Boy Friend (1953).[1]
Biography
Wilson was born in Sale, Greater Manchester and was educated at Harrow School and Oriel College, Oxford. During the war he served in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Great Britain, Egypt and Iraq. While at Oxford he wrote revues for the Oxford University Experimental Theatre Club and then attended the Old Vic Theatre School on a production course.[2]
Most of his work for the stage was material for revues, such as Hermione Gingold's Slings and Arrows, Laurier Lister's Oranges and Lemons, and See You Later, starring such performers as Peter Cook. He wrote the book, music and lyrics for The Boy Friend for the Players' Theatre in 1953. Its success resulted in a longer version being produced in the West End at Wyndhams Theatre. After its opening in January 1954, over 2,000 performances were put on there. It opened on Broadway in 1954, at the Royale Theater, and introduced Julie Andrews in her Broadway debut.[1] The show ran on Broadway for over 480 performances.[2]
Wilson wrote the musical Valmouth in 1958, based on a Ronald Firbank novel set in a seaside resort. In 1964 he wrote Divorce Me, Darling!, a sequel to The Boy Friend.[2]
He died in Taunton, England in 2014, aged 90.[2] He donated his papers to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.[3] His autobiography, published in 1975, is titled I Could Be Happy.[4]
Wilson was a member of the Labour Party.
Musicals
- Caprice (1950)
- The Boy Friend (1953)
- The Buccaneer (1955)
- Valmouth (1958)
- Pieces of Eight (1959)
- Divorce Me, Darling! (1964)
- As Dorothy Parker Once Said (1969)
- His Monkey Wife (1971)
- The Clapham Wonder (1978, based on the novel The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns Carr)
- Aladdin (1979)
Notes
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- Gale, Steven. Encyclopedia of British Humorists: Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese, Volume 2, Taylor & Francis, 1996, ISBN 0-8240-5990-5, p. 1216.
External links
- Sandy Wilson at the Internet Broadway DatabaseLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Sandy Wilson Neglected master of the British musical
- Sandy Wilson at The Playwrights Database
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- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Daniel E. Slotnik, "Sandy Wilson, Composer and Writer of ‘The Boy Friend,’ Dies at 90", New York Times, 31 August 2014
- ↑ "Sandy Wilson:A Preliminary Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center" utexas.edu, retrieved 9 March 2010
- ↑ Beck, Andy and Fisher, Brian. Broadway for Two, Alfred Music Publishing, 2007, ISBN 0-7390-4477-X, p. 82
- Pages with reference errors
- Use dmy dates from May 2012
- Use British English from May 2012
- 1924 births
- 2014 deaths
- Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford
- English musical theatre composers
- English male composers
- People educated at Harrow School
- People from Sale, Greater Manchester
- Musicians from Greater Manchester
- British military personnel of World War II
