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Wendy Toye

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Wendy Toye
Born(1917-05-01)1 May 1917
London, England
Died27 February 2010(2010-02-27) (aged 92)
London, England
Occupation(s)Dancer/Choreographer/Actress/Film, television and stage director
Years active1929–1997
Spouse(s)Edward Selwyn Sharp
(1940–1950)

Wendy Toye, CBE, (1 May 1917 – 27 February 2010) was a British dancer, stage and film director and actress.[1][2][3]

Beryl May Jessie ("Wendy") Toye was born in London. She initially worked as a dancer and choreographer both on stage and on film, collaborating with the likes of directors Jean Cocteau and Carol Reed. She directed the original production of Bless the Bride in 1947.

Toye's debut film short, The Stranger Left No Card (1952), won the Best Fictional Short Film prize at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, while her Christmas-themed short On the Twelfth Day… (1955) received an Oscar nomination in the Best Short Subject category. She directed films from the early 1950s until the early 1980s.

She was the head of the jury at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival in 1963.[4] Toye also was an advisor to the Arts Council and lectured in Australia.[5]

She was attacked and robbed in her maisonette in Westminster on 27 November 1956. Two men stole jewellery and money.[6]

On 6 January 1958 she appeared as Roy Plomley's Guest on the BBC programme "Desert Island Discs". Her choices were wide-ranging, including Bach, Mahler and Lena Horne.[7]

Toye married Edward Selwyn Sharp in 1940; they divorced in 1950.[8] She was awarded the Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, and appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1992 for services to the arts.[9] She was made an honorary D. Litt. in 1996 by the City University.[10]

She died on 27 February 2010 at Hillingdon Hospital, Greater London.[5]

Among the many charities supported by Dr Toye were the Theatrical Guild (formerly the Theatrical Ladies' Guild), where she helped backstage and front-of-house staff, and became president, and the Actors' Charitable Trust, to which she was recruited by Noel Coward, and of which she was vice president.

She refused to write or authorise a biography during her lifetime, in spite of encouragement by her friends and family.

Her theatrical archive is mostly in the Wendy Toye Archive, V&A Theatre & Performance Department, THM/343 of the Victoria and Albert Museum, with some items in the University of Bristol Theatre Collection.

Selected work

This list is a collation from,,,[10][11][12] [13] and the information web sites from some of the theatres.

Early career

  • Produced a ballet on the colours of the rainbow at the London Palladium aged 10 1927-8[13]
  • 1st professional appearance: Moth Midsummer Night's Dream Old Vic April 1930 [14]
  • Winner, European Championship Solo Amateur competition at C. B. Cochrane's Charleston Ball at the Albert Hall 1926 [13]

Dancer, choreographer, actor

  • choreographer Mother Earth (Savoy) 1929
  • Marigold (later Phoebe) & produced dances Toad of Toad Hall 1931-2
  • danced and choreographed for Camargo Society, Sadler's Wells Ballet, Rambert, British Ballet 1930's (early)
  • Danced in The Miracle (Lyceum Theatre) 1932
  • Masked Dancer in Ballerina (Gaiety Theatre) 1933
  • Member of Ninette de Valois' original Vic-Wells ballet. Principal Dancer in The Golden Toy (Coliseum) 1934
  • Toured with Anton Dolin's Ballet 1934-5
  • Dancer in Tulip Time (Alhambra) 1935
  • Touring as principal dancer & choreographer with Markova-Dolin ballet 1935
  • Love and How to Cure it (Globe) 1937
  • Choreographer for George Black's productions (including Black and Blue, Black Velvet, Black Vanities, Strike a New Note, Strike it Again) 1937-44
  • Gay Rosalinda (Palace Theatre) 1945-8
  • Follow the Girls 1945
  • Principal Girl in pantomime Simple Simon (Birmingham)1947
  • Winnie Tate in Annie Get your Gun (London Coliseum) 1947
  • Ballet-hoo de Wendy Toye (Paris) 1948
  • Three's Company in Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure (Fortune) (choreography) 1954

Stage director

London

  • Big Ben, Bless the Bride, Tough at the Top (Adelphi for C. B. Cochrane) 1946
  • And So to Bed (New) 1951
  • Second Threshold (Vaudeville) 1950's???
  • Wild Thyme (Duke of York's) 1955
  • Lady at the Wheel (Lyric, Hammersmith) 1958
  • As you like it (Old Vic) 1959
  • Majority of One (Phoenix) 1960
  • Virtue in Danger (Mermaid and Strand) 1963
  • Robert & Elizabeth (Lyric) 1964
  • On the Level (Saville) 1966
  • Show Boat (Adelphi) 1971
  • She Stoops to Conquer (Young Vic) 1972
  • Soldiers Tale (Young Vic & Edinburgh Festival) 1967
  • The Great Waltz (Drury Lane) 1970
  • Cowardy Custard (Mermaid) 1972
  • Stand and Deliver (Roundhouse) 1972
  • The Englishman Amused (Young Vic) 1974
  • Follow the Star (Westminster) 1976
  • Oh Mr. Porter (Mermaid) 1977
  • Colette (Comedy) 1980
  • This Thing called Love (Ambassadors) 1984
  • Barnum (Victoria Palace) (assoc producer) 1985
  • Singin' in the Rain (London Palladium) (assoc producer) 1983
  • Get the Message (Molecule) 1987
  • Ziegfield (London Palladium) 1988
  • Family and Friends (Sadler's Wells) 1988
  • Till we Meet Again concert (Royal Festival Hall) 1989
  • Captain Beaky's Heavens Up (Palace) 1990
  • The Sound of Music (Sadler's Wells) 1992
  • Under their Hats (King's Head) 1994
  • Gala (Last night of old Sadler's Wells Theatre) 1996

Chichester Festival

  • R loves J 1973
  • The Confederacy 1974
  • Follow the Star 1974
  • Made in Heaven 1975
  • Make me a World 1976
  • Miranda 1987

Watermill Theatre, Newbury

  • Gingerbread Man 1981
  • Songbook 1988
  • Moll Flanders 1990
  • The Drummer 1991
  • See How they Run 1992
  • The Anastasia File 1994
  • Lloyd George Knew My Father 1995
  • Warts and All, Rogues to Riches 1996
  • 30 Not Out 1997

Other UK

  • Boots with Strawberry Jam (Nottingham Playhouse) 1968
  • Once more with Music (Theatre Royal, Brighton) 1976
  • Barnum (Manchester Opera House) (assoc producer) 1984
  • Laburnum Grove (Watford Palace) 1987
  • Mrs. Dot (Watford Palace) 1988
  • Cinderella (Watford Palace) 1989
  • Penny Black (Wavendon) 1990
  • Mrs. Pat's Profession (workshop with Cleo Laine) 1991

Unknown location

  • Dance for Gods, Conversations (??Stephenville) 1979
  • Gala tribute to Joyce Grenfell 1985

Foreign

  • Feu d'artifice, Marigny Theatre, Paris (co-director & choreographer) date unknown
  • Peter Pan, (Imperial, New York) (co-director & choreographer) 1950
  • Shakespeare Quatercentenary Latin American tour 1964
  • Noel and Gertie (Princess Grace Theatre Monte Carlo) 1984
  • Celimar (Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada) 1984
  • Madwoman of Chaillot (Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada) 1985
  • Torville & Dean Ice Show World Tour (assoc producer) 1985
  • Kiss me Kate (Aarhus & Copenhagen) 1986
  • Unholy Trinity (Stephenville Festival) 1986
  • When that I was (Manitoba Theater Center) 1988
  • Oh! Coward (Playhouse Hong Kong) 1989
  • The Kingfisher (Vienna English Theatre) 1993
  • The Sound of Music (Vienna English Theatre) 1993
  • Under their Hats (Vienna English Theatre) 1995

Operas

  • The Seraglio (Bath Festival) 1967
  • The Impresario, Don Pasquale (Phoenix Opera) 1968
  • The Mikado (Ankara) 1982
  • Der Apotheker, la Serva Padrona (Aix-en-Provence festival) 1991

Sadler's Wells Opera/ENO

  • Bluebeard's Castle 1957
  • The Telephone 1957
  • Russalka 1959
  • Die Fledermaus 1959
  • Orpheus in the Underworld 1960
  • La Vie Parisienne 1961
  • The Italian Girl in Algiers 1968

ENO North

  • La Cenerentola, The Merry Widow 1979
  • Orpheus in the Underworld 1981

TV

  • Esmi Divided 1957
  • Cliff in Scotland c. 1965
  • Girls Wanted - Istanbul (BAFTA nomination) 1969
  • Trial by Jury 1982

Films

Director

References

  1. ^ Obituary The Times, 1 March 2010.
  2. ^ Obituary London Guardian, 1 March 2010.
  3. ^ Obituary London Independent, 2 March 2010.
  4. ^ "Berlinale: Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2010-02-13.
  5. ^ a b "British film-maker Wendy Toye dies aged 92". BBC News Online. 28 February 2010. Retrieved 28 February 2010.
  6. ^ "Miss W. Toye attacked and robbed". The Times. No. 53701. London. 29 November 1956. col A, p. 7. template uses deprecated parameter(s) (help)
  7. ^ "BBC - Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Wendy Toye".
  8. ^ "Decree Nisi Against Miss Wendy Toye". The Times. No. 51634. London. 8 March 1950. col D, p. 3. template uses deprecated parameter(s) (help)
  9. ^ "No. 52952". The London Gazette (invalid |supp= (help)). 12 June 1992.
  10. ^ a b Who's Who 2010 Page 2316
  11. ^ Debrett'sPeople of Today 2010
  12. ^ The International Who's Who 2004
  13. ^ a b c Clarke, Mary (April 2010). "Obituary". Dancing TImes. 100 (1196). London: 82.
  14. ^ Programme in Bristol University Theatre Collection

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