#1
Wendy Toye.
Equally at home in Shakespeare and musicals, she had four productions
running simultaneously in London in 1972
Wendy Toye made her first stage appearance at the Albert Hall at the
age of 3, and went on to develop a career of extraordinary diversity,
as a dancer and choreographer, actress and director of opera and stage
plays. She was also one of Britains few female film directors.
Tough, charming and inexhaustibly energetic, she was an esteemed
professional of professionals, never daunted and always calm under
stress. A ready performer herself, she could order the stage for any
type of production; she would plan intricately and possessed a precise
feeling for period. She could take on almost anything, from a complex
musical to Shakespeare, opera and pantomimes.
In the 1950s she made several feature films, and if she was obliged to
do her best with mostly unchallenging material, merely taking the
directors chair in a male-dominated industry was an achievement in
itself.
Born in London in 1917 to a mother who was a dance fanatic, she began
to dance as a child and soon emerged as a precocious talent. In one of
Ellen Terrys last West End appearances, when the great actress was
nearly blind, the young Toye had to lead her on stage. Toye recalled:
I sat on a little stool beside her and when she had to speak I had to
squeeze her hand. Because I seemed so tiny I was known to the press by
the ghastly name of The Pocket Wonder.
At 9 Toye won a charleston contest run by the impresario Charles B.
Cochran and judged by, among others, Fred Astaire and Florenz
Ziegfeld. Cochran forgot about her but some years later, while she was
rehearsing as a dancer for his show The Miracle, it dawned on him who
she was. He even recalled her number in the contest 66.
She made her first professional stage appearance in 1929, aged 12, as
Peasblossom in A Midsummer Nights Dream at the Old Vic in a cast
which included John Gielgud as Oberon and Donald Wolfit. At 14 she was
principal dancer in Hiawatha at the Albert Hall and she played
Marigold in a Christmas production of Toad of Toad Hall.
In the early 1930s she performed and choreographed for the Carmargo
Society of Ballet. At the age of 15 she went to Denmark as principal
dancer with the British Ballet, organised by Adeline Gene. One of
those to spot Toyes potential early was Ninette de Valois and Toye
became a member of de Valoiss original Vic Wells Ballet (later the
Royal Ballet). In 1934 she was principal dancer in de Valoiss The
Golden Toy at the Coliseum.
In 1934-45 she toured with Anton Dolins company and she became
principal dancer and choreographer for the company run by Dolin and
Alicia Markova. At 18 she choreographed Aucassin and Nicolette for
them. From 1938 to 1945 she arranged the dances and ballets for most
of the shows for the West End impresario George Black, including Black
Velvet at the Hippodrome in which she was also principal dancer.
It was through Cochran that she made her debut as a director, when he
offered her the A. P. Herbert-Vivian Ellis musical comedies Big Ben,
Bless the Bride and Tough at the Top. All were staged at the Adelphi
in the 1940s, immaculately imagined and realised. Toye continued her
parallel career as a performer, playing Winnie in the hit US musical,
Annie Get Your Gun, at the Coliseum in 1947.
In 1950, with John Burrell, she co-directed and choreographed a New
York production of Peter Pan with Jean Arthur and Boris Karloff. Back
in England she directed some minor straight plays and arranged the
dances that were part of a Joyce Grenfell show, Joyce Grenfell
Requests the Pleasure.
At Sadlers Wells in 1957 she staged the one-act operas, Menottis The
Telephone and Bartoks Bluebeards Castle.
Toye first worked in the cinema in the 1930s as a dancer and directed
dance sequences in films such as The Thief of Baghdad, South American
George with George Formby, Carol Reeds The Young Mr Pitt and
Piccadilly Incident starring Anna Neagle. Her first film as a director
was The Stranger Left No Card (1952), a teasing tale of a man bent on
murderous revenge which she shot in 13 days in Windsor. The film won
the award for Best Short at the Cannes Film Festival and brought her a
contract with Alexander Korda. She contributed the first and best
segment to a compendium picture, Three Cases of Murder, before taking
on a Francis Durbridge thriller, The Teckman Mystery.
Another short, a ballet film On the Twelfth Day, won a nomination at
the Venice Film Festival in 1955 and in the same year she made her
most successful feature, Raising a Riot, bringing pace and mischievous
humour to the story of a naval man (the jocular Kenneth More) trying
to cope with boisterous children while his wife is away.
After Kordas death Toyes contract passed to Rank, for which she made
All for Mary, based on a long-running West End farce about two young
men in pursuit of a girl who come up against a formidable nanny played
by Kathleen Harrison. True as a Turtle (1955) and We Joined the Navy
(1962), again with More, were undemanding comedies and her final film
was The Kings Breakfast (1963), a short dance and mime version of an
A. A. Milne poem. She adapted the poem herself for dance while the
production was designed by Ronald Searle.
Toye tended to be dismissive of her films: I suppose to have done it
at all is something I ought to be pleased about; that I actually got
asked to do it, did it, didnt go over budget and brought it in on the
day I was supposed to. But I really have not done anything
exceptional. But to have achieved what she did in the mans world of
the 1950s was exceptional.
Her film directing petered out but she kept busy in opera and theatre.
For Sadlers Wells she staged sparkling revivals of Die Fledermaus, La
Vie Parisienne and Orpheus in the Underworld and at the Old Vic she
directed Judi Dench in As You Like It. Dench later wrote: I dont
particularly like As You Like It but I had a wonderful time being
directed by Wendy.
She switched effortlessly to West End musicals such as Robert and
Elizabeth (Lyric, 1964), with June Bronhill, The Great Waltz (Drury
Lane, 1970) and Showboat (Adelphi, 1971). In 1972 she had four
productions running in London simultaneously.
At the Mermaid Theatre in the 1970s she directed Cowardy Custard, a
revue based on songs by Nol Coward, and Oh Mr Porter, a similar
celebration of Cole Porter. Her five productions at the Chichester
Festival Theatre included John Vanbrughs late-Restoration comedy, The
Confederacy (1974) and Once More With Music (1976), with Cicely
Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert. Her revival of The Italian Girl in
Algiers (1982) for the English National Opera filled the Coliseum.
In 1983 she was associate producer of Singin in the Rain at the
London Palladium. Five years later she was brought in to pep up
another Palladium show, Ziegfeld, but she was unable to save Britains
most expensive musical which closed after six months.
At the Palace Theatre, Watford, she revived J. B. Priestleys Laburnum
Grove and Somerset Maughams little-seen Mrs Dot and put on the
theatres pantomime in 1989-90, Cinderella.
She worked into her late seventies. She staged a revival of The Sound
of Music at Sadlers Wells (1992), while Under Their Hats (Kings
Head, 1994) was a tribute to Michael Flanders and Donald Swann which
also played in Vienna. Much of her later work was for the Watermill
Theatre, Newbury, including the farce See How They Run, William
Douglas-Homes Lloyd George Knew My Father and the musical Rogues to
Riches (1996).
She was appointed CBE in 1992. Her marriage to Edward Selwyn Sharp was
dissolved in 1950.
Wendy Toye, CBE, dancer, choreographer, actress and theatre and film
director, was born on May 1, 1917. She died on February 27, 2010, aged
92
Posted: 2/28/10 at 12:16pm
Wendy Toye.
Equally at home in Shakespeare and musicals, she had four productions
running simultaneously in London in 1972
Wendy Toye made her first stage appearance at the Albert Hall at the
age of 3, and went on to develop a career of extraordinary diversity,
as a dancer and choreographer, actress and director of opera and stage
plays. She was also one of Britains few female film directors.
Tough, charming and inexhaustibly energetic, she was an esteemed
professional of professionals, never daunted and always calm under
stress. A ready performer herself, she could order the stage for any
type of production; she would plan intricately and possessed a precise
feeling for period. She could take on almost anything, from a complex
musical to Shakespeare, opera and pantomimes.
In the 1950s she made several feature films, and if she was obliged to
do her best with mostly unchallenging material, merely taking the
directors chair in a male-dominated industry was an achievement in
itself.
Born in London in 1917 to a mother who was a dance fanatic, she began
to dance as a child and soon emerged as a precocious talent. In one of
Ellen Terrys last West End appearances, when the great actress was
nearly blind, the young Toye had to lead her on stage. Toye recalled:
I sat on a little stool beside her and when she had to speak I had to
squeeze her hand. Because I seemed so tiny I was known to the press by
the ghastly name of The Pocket Wonder.
At 9 Toye won a charleston contest run by the impresario Charles B.
Cochran and judged by, among others, Fred Astaire and Florenz
Ziegfeld. Cochran forgot about her but some years later, while she was
rehearsing as a dancer for his show The Miracle, it dawned on him who
she was. He even recalled her number in the contest 66.
She made her first professional stage appearance in 1929, aged 12, as
Peasblossom in A Midsummer Nights Dream at the Old Vic in a cast
which included John Gielgud as Oberon and Donald Wolfit. At 14 she was
principal dancer in Hiawatha at the Albert Hall and she played
Marigold in a Christmas production of Toad of Toad Hall.
In the early 1930s she performed and choreographed for the Carmargo
Society of Ballet. At the age of 15 she went to Denmark as principal
dancer with the British Ballet, organised by Adeline Gene. One of
those to spot Toyes potential early was Ninette de Valois and Toye
became a member of de Valoiss original Vic Wells Ballet (later the
Royal Ballet). In 1934 she was principal dancer in de Valoiss The
Golden Toy at the Coliseum.
In 1934-45 she toured with Anton Dolins company and she became
principal dancer and choreographer for the company run by Dolin and
Alicia Markova. At 18 she choreographed Aucassin and Nicolette for
them. From 1938 to 1945 she arranged the dances and ballets for most
of the shows for the West End impresario George Black, including Black
Velvet at the Hippodrome in which she was also principal dancer.
It was through Cochran that she made her debut as a director, when he
offered her the A. P. Herbert-Vivian Ellis musical comedies Big Ben,
Bless the Bride and Tough at the Top. All were staged at the Adelphi
in the 1940s, immaculately imagined and realised. Toye continued her
parallel career as a performer, playing Winnie in the hit US musical,
Annie Get Your Gun, at the Coliseum in 1947.
In 1950, with John Burrell, she co-directed and choreographed a New
York production of Peter Pan with Jean Arthur and Boris Karloff. Back
in England she directed some minor straight plays and arranged the
dances that were part of a Joyce Grenfell show, Joyce Grenfell
Requests the Pleasure.
At Sadlers Wells in 1957 she staged the one-act operas, Menottis The
Telephone and Bartoks Bluebeards Castle.
Toye first worked in the cinema in the 1930s as a dancer and directed
dance sequences in films such as The Thief of Baghdad, South American
George with George Formby, Carol Reeds The Young Mr Pitt and
Piccadilly Incident starring Anna Neagle. Her first film as a director
was The Stranger Left No Card (1952), a teasing tale of a man bent on
murderous revenge which she shot in 13 days in Windsor. The film won
the award for Best Short at the Cannes Film Festival and brought her a
contract with Alexander Korda. She contributed the first and best
segment to a compendium picture, Three Cases of Murder, before taking
on a Francis Durbridge thriller, The Teckman Mystery.
Another short, a ballet film On the Twelfth Day, won a nomination at
the Venice Film Festival in 1955 and in the same year she made her
most successful feature, Raising a Riot, bringing pace and mischievous
humour to the story of a naval man (the jocular Kenneth More) trying
to cope with boisterous children while his wife is away.
After Kordas death Toyes contract passed to Rank, for which she made
All for Mary, based on a long-running West End farce about two young
men in pursuit of a girl who come up against a formidable nanny played
by Kathleen Harrison. True as a Turtle (1955) and We Joined the Navy
(1962), again with More, were undemanding comedies and her final film
was The Kings Breakfast (1963), a short dance and mime version of an
A. A. Milne poem. She adapted the poem herself for dance while the
production was designed by Ronald Searle.
Toye tended to be dismissive of her films: I suppose to have done it
at all is something I ought to be pleased about; that I actually got
asked to do it, did it, didnt go over budget and brought it in on the
day I was supposed to. But I really have not done anything
exceptional. But to have achieved what she did in the mans world of
the 1950s was exceptional.
Her film directing petered out but she kept busy in opera and theatre.
For Sadlers Wells she staged sparkling revivals of Die Fledermaus, La
Vie Parisienne and Orpheus in the Underworld and at the Old Vic she
directed Judi Dench in As You Like It. Dench later wrote: I dont
particularly like As You Like It but I had a wonderful time being
directed by Wendy.
She switched effortlessly to West End musicals such as Robert and
Elizabeth (Lyric, 1964), with June Bronhill, The Great Waltz (Drury
Lane, 1970) and Showboat (Adelphi, 1971). In 1972 she had four
productions running in London simultaneously.
At the Mermaid Theatre in the 1970s she directed Cowardy Custard, a
revue based on songs by Nol Coward, and Oh Mr Porter, a similar
celebration of Cole Porter. Her five productions at the Chichester
Festival Theatre included John Vanbrughs late-Restoration comedy, The
Confederacy (1974) and Once More With Music (1976), with Cicely
Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert. Her revival of The Italian Girl in
Algiers (1982) for the English National Opera filled the Coliseum.
In 1983 she was associate producer of Singin in the Rain at the
London Palladium. Five years later she was brought in to pep up
another Palladium show, Ziegfeld, but she was unable to save Britains
most expensive musical which closed after six months.
At the Palace Theatre, Watford, she revived J. B. Priestleys Laburnum
Grove and Somerset Maughams little-seen Mrs Dot and put on the
theatres pantomime in 1989-90, Cinderella.
She worked into her late seventies. She staged a revival of The Sound
of Music at Sadlers Wells (1992), while Under Their Hats (Kings
Head, 1994) was a tribute to Michael Flanders and Donald Swann which
also played in Vienna. Much of her later work was for the Watermill
Theatre, Newbury, including the farce See How They Run, William
Douglas-Homes Lloyd George Knew My Father and the musical Rogues to
Riches (1996).
She was appointed CBE in 1992. Her marriage to Edward Selwyn Sharp was
dissolved in 1950.
Wendy Toye, CBE, dancer, choreographer, actress and theatre and film
director, was born on May 1, 1917. She died on February 27, 2010, aged
92
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