The Neighborhood Playhouse at 340 East 54th Street (near 1st Avenue) in New York City will be holding a memorial to honor Tony award winning director Vivian Matalon on Monday, October 8 at 7:00pm. Due to the limited size of the theatre reservations are required. The Centenary Stage Company box office will be handling reservations for the evening’s memorial. To reserve contact the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979 – 0900 or make reservations on-line by visiting centenarystageco.org.
Vivian Matalon, born October 11, 1929 in Manchester, England, is best known for directing the 1980 Broadway revival of Morning’s at Seven which earned him a Tony Award. A versatile director of stage and screen Mr. Mataln began his theatre career as a performer and studied at The Neighborhood Playhouse in the early 1950s where his artistic life began. He then returned to England and had a successful career as an actor on stage, television and film before teaching at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Mr. Matalon worked with a host of stage legends in the U.K., including Noel Coward. The two collaborated on Suite in Three Keys. In 1967 Mr. Matalon made his Broadway directorial debut with After the Rain. A year after Coward’s death in 1973, Mr. Matalon directed two of the three part collection of Noel Coward in Two Keys on Broadway. After winning the Tony Award, Mr. Matalon was again nominated in 1984 for the Henry Kriefer, Robert Lorick, and Charles Blackwell musical The Tap Dance Kid. Other credits include the 1980 revival of Brigadoon, Arthur Miller’s The American Clock, and The Corn is Green among an impressive host of West End, New York and regional credits.
Mr. Matalon passed on August 15 at the age of 88 as a result of complications due to diabetes, confirmed to The New York Times by his partner, Stephen Temperley. Temperley wrote the Florence Foster Jenkins – centered play Souvenir, which marked Mr. Matalon’s final Broadway credit in 2005.
The memorial is free of charge and will be held at The Neighborhood Playhouse at 340 East 54th Street in New York City on Monday, October 8 at 7:00pm. To reserve call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979 – 0900 or on-line at centenarystage.org. To reserve online visit the website, click tickets and then scroll down to “Vivian Matalon Memorial”. To reserve it says “BUY” but the event is free and there is no charge. Donations can be made directly to The Neighborhood Playhouse by visiting their website at neighborhoodplayhouse.org.
