Richard Maltby, Jr.
It’s About Time Tony Award winner Richard Maltby, Jr. joins us on the couch this week, right as his newest show, aptly titled About Time, which he directed and wrote the lyrics for, opens at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater this weekend! Maltby and his music partner David Shire, who composed About Time, have been working together for over 70 years since their days at Yale, with credits such as Big and Baby, as well as Maltby’s work on Miss Saigon, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and Fosse. Maltby & Shire bring their signature wit and naughty humor to About Time, continuing their triptych beginning with Starting Here, Starting Now and continuing with Closer Than Ever. Read our full interview with this legend below.
What do you consider to be your best asset?
I’m not a musician, but I have an ear for musical structure which I think I got from attending my father’s recording sessions when I was a kid. His arrangements always had a kind of mathematical balance to them, and just being around them imparted that structural sense to me. He never talked about structure. It just entered through my skin, by osmosis.
What was your proudest moment?
The first preview on Broadway of Ain’t Misbehavin’ — which only six months earlier had been a stack of sheet music in a cabaret space — hit a Broadway audience, and they leapt to their feet and screamed for ten minutes. My first Broadway show.
What is your favorite drink?
Champagne.
What is your favorite food?
Lamb chops. Don’t ask me why.
What is your favorite condiment?
The mint jelly that goes with them. Heaven!
What is your current obsession?
David Shire’s and my new musical revue About Time, which joins our first two revues Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever to make a kind of mega-musical, a triptych that to our astonishment holds together as a kind of legacy of our song-writing career.
If you could give up one of your vices, what would it be?
Procrastinating
What is the one professional accomplishment you long for most?
I would like to have done an animated movie.
What is the one thing you waste too much money on?
I have to have the NY Times delivered outside my door every morning. It is very expensive, and these days it’s an actual luxury. But I need it.
What is the one activity you waste too much time doing?
I invent cryptic puzzles for Harpers Magazine, and have been doing so for 50 years. Writing them takes way too much time, but they relax me.
What do you consider to be the single greatest threat to your health?
I fear falling and breaking something.
What’s the single best trait you inherited or learned from your parents?
A sense of humor. My father found the world funny.
What’s the single worst trait you inherited or learned from your parents?
A sense of humor. Some things AREN’T funny.
What in the world most thrills you?
The moment when all the elements of a musical show come together and what I call “the miracle” happens.
What current trend in popular culture most irritates you?
Modern young songwriters have to work in a culture that doesn’t honor melody. I feel sorry for them.
What was the most embarrassing moment you’ve ever experienced on the job?
I was once in a car with a famous playwright whose most famous play had just received a second-rate TV production. I spouted out: that’s such a great play, but why did you allow it to be done so badly? Who directed it? And the writer said “I did”
What is your favorite place in the world?
Radio City Music Hall
What is the most important trait you seek in a romantic partner?
A sense of humor. If you don’t find sex funny, you’re not for me.
Do you prefer the company of dogs or cats?
Dogs, I don’t get cats.
What would have to happen to make today the best day of your life?
My whole family would have to come together, for a cookout.
What is your personal motto?
It will all work out.