Vivian Matalon, a British theatre director whose work on the 1980 Broadway revival of Morning’s at Seven earned him a Tony Award, died August 15 at the age of 88. His death, the result of complications due to diabetes, was 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.
Born October 11, 1929, in Manchester, England, Mr. Matalon began his theatre career as a performer before teaching at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, forming his path to directing.
Mr. Matalon first directed on Broadway with 1967’s After the Rain, following an already established career working with myriad stage luminaries in the U.K., including Noël Coward. The two collaborated on the triple bill Suite in Three Keys the year prior to Matalon’s Broadway debut; a year after Coward’s death in 1973, Mr. Matalon directed two of the collection’s three titles on Broadway as Noël Coward in Two Keys.
After winning the Tony for Morning’s at Seven, Mr. Matalon was again nominated in 1984 for the Henry Kriefer, Robert Lorick, and Charles Blackwell musical The Tap Dance Kid. His additional credits included the 1980 revival of Brigadoon, Arthur Miller’s The American Clock, and The Corn Is Green.
