Dick Vosburgh

Article writer, broadcaster, and lyricist Dick Vosburgh remains to be most widely known in theatrical circles for the Tony Award-winning 1979 music humor PER DAY in Hollywood, A Evening in the Ukraine. A world-renowned wit and bon vivant, he also added gags to comic abilities spanning from Bob Desire to John Cleese. Delivered in Elizabeth, NJ, on August 27, 1929, Vosburgh spent nearly all his early youth in Washington, D.C., after his dad, a reporter, got a staff placement with Country wide Geographic. A lifelong film aficionado who frequently accompanied his mom to the neighborhood cinema, Vosburgh later on attended boarding college in Miami, partly to fight his asthma, keeping a journal of short film critiques and clipping photos of his preferred celluloid celebrities. Upon time for D.C., he started composing dramas for regional radio and by 15 was the principle creative force in back of a normal series, Youth Theatre Workshop. Pursuing his parents’ 1948 divorce Vosburgh was delivered to research in London, where he moonlighted by adding lyrics and skits to Western End stage productions. As term of his abilities pass on, in 1953 he was appointed mind writer on Breakfast time with Braden, a radio series spotlighting Canadian humorist Bernard Braden. Vosburgh also published for the film fan journal Picturegoer and sometimes acted, showing up as an American POW inside a London creation of Stalag 17. After years in radio, highlighted with a stint composing for The Display Band Present, Vosburgh transitioned into tv. In the years to check out, he was a prolific and respectable presence, adding to series including Alfred Marks Period, Bresslaw and Close friends, The Stanley Baxter Display, and Frost Over European countries. He also dabbled in film, especially composing several gags for the 1963 Bob Wish vehicle Contact Me Bwana, and also collaborated with comedians including Ronnie Corbett, Stanley Baxter, Lenny Henry, and Roy Hudd. In 1968, Vosburgh made an appearance onscreen in the John Cleese automobile How exactly to Irritate People, and in addition turned up within an bout of Monty Python’s Soaring Circus. He actually contributed towards the tone of voice of Captain Larry Dart in the cult puppet series Space Patrol. Vosburgh’s very best achievement continues to be the 1979 musical EACH DAY in Hollywood, a Night time in the Ukraine. Written in tandem with acting professional and composer Frank Lazarus, the play thought Anton Chekhov’s theatre The Bear like a long-lost Marx Brothers humor, and became a massive commercial and essential strike upon premiering in the Mayfair Theater. The creation received the Evening Regular and Takes on and Players honours in 1979, and a yr later on scooped up a set of Tony Honours during its two-year operate on Broadway. Vosburgh and Lazarus later on resumed their cooperation via The Snark and How exactly to Hunt It, and in addition contributed materials to the air system Flywheel, Shuster and Flywheel, predicated on a lost-lost Marx Brothers series. Jointly they also co-starred in the two-man revue The Globe Is normally My Ulcer, and made an appearance contrary Jessica Martin in the Moss Hart tribute Prince of Broadway. For 1982’s Windy Town — an version of Ben Hecht’s common The Front Web page — Vosburgh teamed with composer Tony Macauley, earning the Ivor Novello and Night time Standard honours for Greatest Musical. In old age Vosburgh mostly joined pushes with vocalist and pianist Denis Ruler, a cooperation that released with the tv screen series NOT REALLY MUCH a Programme, Even more a means of Lifestyle and continuing in 1999 using the Hollywood musical satire A Saint She Ain’t. Vosburgh and Ruler also co-starred contrary celebrity Tamsin Outhwaite in the revue Two Beards and a Blonde, afterwards resurfacing in the like-minded Beauty as well as the Beards alongside Sarah Redmond. Together with the rest, Vosburgh was a normal contributor towards the obituary web pages of The Unbiased, chronicling the lives of stars, composers, and lyricists frequently little-known to everyone. In early 2007 he and Ruler reunited for the revue The Un-American Melody Book, among the final productions installed at London’s Theater Museum. Vosburgh passed away on Apr 18, 2007.