Sandy Wilson

Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Short description {{#invoke:Other people|otherPeople}} Template:Infobox person 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).<ref name="Stevens">Template:Cite book</ref>

Biography

Wilson was born in Sale, Cheshire, England,<ref name="Larkin50">Template:Cite book</ref> and was educated at Harrow School. In 1942 he won a State Scholarship for a wartime course at SOAS and was assigned to study Japanese. He was thus one of the so-called 'Dulwich Boys' who studied at SOAS and boarded at Dulwich College. While there he put together a satirical review titled 'A Matter of Course' based on his experiences on the Japanese course.<ref>Sandy Wilson, I Could be Happy: An Autobiography (London: Joseph, 1975), p. 75.</ref><ref>Peter Kornicki, Eavesdropping on the Emperor: Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britain's War with Japan (London: Hurst & Co., 2021), p. 57.</ref> He was one of the few not to complete the course and he subsequently served in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Great Britain, Egypt and Iraq. After the war he went to Oriel College, Oxford and while a student wrote revues for the Oxford University Experimental Theatre Club and then attended the Old Vic Theatre School on a production course.<ref name=nyt/>

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,<ref name="Larkin50"/> starring such performers as Peter Cook. He wrote the book, music and lyrics for The Boy Friend for the Players' Theatre in 1953.<ref name="Larkin50"/> Its success resulted in a longer version being produced in the West End at Wyndham's Theatre.<ref name="Larkin50"/> 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.<ref name="Stevens"/> The show ran on Broadway for over 480 performances.<ref name=nyt/>

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.<ref name=nyt/> His last work was a version of Aladdin (1979) for the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.<ref name=guardian>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

His autobiography, published in 1975, is titled I Could Be Happy.<ref>Beck, Andy and Fisher, Brian. Broadway for Two, Alfred Music Publishing, 2007, Template:ISBN, p. 82</ref>

Sandy Wilson died in Taunton, England in 2014, aged 90.<ref name="nyt">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His longtime partner was Chak Yui.<ref name=guardian/> Wilson was a member of the Labour Party and contributed to the Elizabethan magazine during his years of greatest fame.Template:Citation needed

In 1999, Wilson donated his papers to the Harry Ransom Center.<ref>"Sandy Wilson:A Preliminary Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center", Utexas.edu, retrieved 9 March 2010</ref> The papers include produced and unproduced plays, mostly musicals but also plays for stage and TV, as well as drafts of Wilson's published and unpublished works including an autobiography, illustrated book, novels, articles, and short stories, along with correspondence.

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)
• Aladdin (1979)

References

• Gale, Steven. Encyclopedia of British Humorists: Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese, Volume 2, Taylor & Francis, 1996, Template:ISBN, p. 1216.

External links

• Sandy Wilson Papers at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
• {{#if: {{#property:P1220}}

| [https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/{{#if:

 | {{{id}}}
 | Template:First word
 }} {{#if: 
 | {{{name}}}
 | Template:PAGENAMEBASE
 }}] at the Internet Broadway DatabaseTemplate:EditAtWikidataTemplate:WikidataCheck{{#ifeq:0|0|{{#if:||}}}}

| {{#ifeq:0|0|}}

}}

• Sandy Wilson Neglected master of the British musical [Cached page retrieved from Archive.org]
• Sandy Wilson at The Playwrights Database