Richard Maltby Jr.

Last updated
Richard Maltby Jr.
Born
Richard Eldridge Maltby Jr.

(1937-10-06) October 6, 1937 (age 86)
Ripon, Wisconsin, United States
Nationality American
Occupation(s) Theatre director, producer, lyricist, screenwriter
Parent(s) Richard Maltby, Sr.
Virginia (née Hosegood)

Richard Eldridge Maltby Jr. [1] (born October 6, 1937) is an American theatre director and producer, lyricist, and screenwriter. He conceived and directed the only two musical revues to win the Tony Award for Best Musical: Ain't Misbehavin' (1978: Tony, N.Y. Drama Critics, Outer Critics, Drama Desk Awards, also Tony Award for Best Director) and Fosse (1999: Tony, Outer Critics, Drama Desk Awards).

Contents

Life and career

Maltby was born in Ripon, Wisconsin, the son of Virginia (née Hosegood) and Richard Maltby, Sr., a well-known orchestra leader. [1]

Maltby and David Shire started working together as students at Yale University (where he was a member of Manuscript Society); their first Broadway credit was in 1968, when their song "The Girl of the Minute" was used in the revue New Faces of 1968 . In 1977 the Manhattan Theatre Club produced a revue of their earlier songs, written for other works, finally titled Starting Here, Starting Now . [2] With composer Shire, Maltby was the director and lyricist for Baby , (1983, book by Sybille Pearson) and the lyricist for Big (1996, book by John Weidman). Also with Shire, he conceived and wrote the lyrics for Take Flight (book by John Weidman), which had its world premiere in July 2007 at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. [3]

He was director/co-lyricist for the American version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance , (1986) starring Bernadette Peters. He was co-lyricist for Miss Saigon (Evening Standard Award 1990; Tony nomination: Best Score, 1991).

He also conceived and directed Ring of Fire , a musical about Johnny Cash, which ran on Broadway in 2006. He is co-bookwriter/lyricist for The Pirate Queen (2007). [4] He was most recently represented on Broadway as the director of the new, original musical The Story of My Life by composer/lyricist Neil Bartram and book writer Brian Hill. That musical had a brief run at the Booth Theatre in February 2009. [5] and received a 2009 Drama Desk Award nomination for outstanding production of a musical.

Since 1976 he has constructed the monthly cryptic crossword puzzles for Harper's Magazine , formerly in collaboration with E. R. Galli. He constructed cryptic crosswords for New York Magazine in the early 1970s.[ citation needed ]

Personal life

Maltby married twice: first to Barbara Black Sudler on June 5, 1965 (they had two children, Nicholas and David), and second, in 1987, to Janet Brenner (they had three children, Jordan, Emily, and Charlotte). He now has seven grandchildren: Liam, Owen, Matt, Aidan, Emma, Lionel, and Jesse Maltby.

Work

Broadway
Off-Broadway
Regional
Film

Awards and nominations

Awards
Nominations

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