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Biographical / Historical

Charles Zwar (10 April 1911 – 2 December 1989) was an Australian songwriter, composer, lyricist, pianist and music director who was largely associated with the British revue and musical comedy industries between the late-1930s and 1960s.

He was born and educated in Melbourne completing Law and Arts at Trinity College, Melbourne University in 1932. Zwar was involved in student productions at the College and University as both a performer and music director. The earliest theatrical production he has been linked with was the 1933 revue Stude Prunes, and he made his first appearance on radio at this time, billed as a "novelty entertainer." Zwar's growing reputation also saw him invited to contribute additional lyrics for F. W. Thing's 1933 production of the T. Stuart Gurr and Varney Monk musical comedy Collits' Inn. The following year Zwar contributed most of the music and lyrics for another university revue, Swots Next (18 April) while also collaborating with J. C. Bancks (creator of the Ginger Meggs ) on the musical comedy, Blue Mountain Melody (1934), which was produced by J. C. Williamson.

Zwar left Australia for Britain in 1936 and carved out a career there as a composer and musical director for musical comedies and revues that lasted more than three decades. In 1938 he married Isobel Shead, a children's author, also an Australian.

Zwar and Shead are believed to have separated in the early 1950s. In 1955 he remarried, his second wife being Diana Plunkett (1918–92), a theatrical technician and manager at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith. At the time of the marriage he was musical director of Sandy Wilson's musical The Buccaneer. The couple had one child, a daughter.

Zwar's longest and most successful collaboration was with writer/lyricist Alan Melville. He also wrote songs with Kenneth Leslie-Smith, Diana Morgan, Robert MacDermot (1910–1964) and Australian Lance Mulcahy. Although his professional career was undertaken almost exclusively in the United Kingdom, Zwar's music did make it to the USA. He is included, for example in the credits for the 1960 Broadway revue, From A-Z (Plymouth Theatre). Premiering on 20 April, the show also included contributions from Woody Allen, Jerry Herman and Jay Thompson.

Zwar reconnected with the Australian theatre several times during the 1950s and 1960s, contributing material for such shows as Sweetest and Lowest: A Revue in Time (Minerva Theatre, Sydney; 5 December 1947); Metropolitan Merry-Go-Round (Metropolitan Theatre, Sydney; 12 February 1953); and the 1964 Phillip Theatre (Sydney) revue, Is Australia Really Necessary? (Syd; 3 Oct.).

Charles Zwar died on 2 December 1989 at Oxford (England).