Noel Coward Totally Explained

Everything about Noel Coward totally explained

Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899 – 26 March 1973) was an English actor, playwright and composer of popular music, who received an Academy certificate of merit at the 1943 Academy Awards for "outstanding production achievement in 'In Which We Serve.'"

Early life

He was born in Teddington, Middlesex, England to Arthur Sabin Coward (1856–1937), a clerk, and his wife Violet Agnes (1863–1954), daughter of Henry Gordon Veitch, captain and surveyor in the Royal Navy. He was the second of their three sons, the eldest of whom had died in 1898 at the age of six. He began performing in the West End at an early age. He was a childhood friend of Hermione Gingold, whose mother warned her against him.
   A student at the Italia Conti Academy stage school, Coward’s first professional engagement was on 27 January, 1911, in the children’s play The Goldfish. After this appearance, he was sought after for children’s roles by other professional theatres. He was cast as the Lost Boy Slightly in the 1913 production of Peter Pan.
   At the age of 14, he became the lover of Philip Streatfeild, a society painter who took him in and introduced him to high society in the form of Mrs. Astley Cooper. She gathered a salon of artists and invited him to live on her property at Hambleton, Rutland, but on the farm rather than in the Hall, due to his lower social class. Streatfeild died from tuberculosis in 1915.
   He played in several productions with Sir Charles Hawtrey, a Victorian actor and comedian, whom he idolized and to whom he virtually apprenticed himself until he was 20. It was from Hawtrey that Coward learned comic acting techniques and playwriting. He was drafted briefly into the British Army during World War I but was discharged due to ill health. Coward appeared in the D. W. Griffith film Hearts of the World (1918) in an uncredited role. He found his voice and began writing plays that he and his friends could star in while at the same time writing revues.

Success

He starred in one of his first full-length plays, the inheritance comedy I'll Leave It To You, in 1920 at the age of 20. The following year he completed a one-act satire, The Better Half, about a man's relationship with two women, and it had a short run at the Little Theatre, London in 1922. The play was thought to be lost until a typescript was rediscovered in 2007 in the archive of the Lord Chamberlain's Office, which at that time licensed all plays for performance in the UK, and imposed cuts or complete bans.
   After he enjoyed some moderate success with the Shaw-esque The Young Idea in 1923, the controversy surrounding his play The Vortex (1924), which contains many veiled references to drug abuse and homosexuality, made him an overnight sensation on both sides of the Atlantic. Coward followed this with three more major hits, Hay Fever, Fallen Angels (both 1925) and Easy Virtue (1926).
   Much of Coward's best work came in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Enormous (and enormously popular) productions, such as the full-length operetta Bitter Sweet (1929) and Cavalcade (1931), a huge extravaganza requiring a very large cast, gargantuan sets and an exceedingly complex hydraulic stage, were interspersed with finely-wrought comedies such as Private Lives (1930), in which Coward himself starred alongside his most famous stage partner, Gertrude Lawrence; and the black comedy Design for Living (1932), written for Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.
   Coward again partnered Lawrence in (1936), an ambitious cycle of ten short plays that were randomly "shuffled" to make up a different playbill of three plays each night. One of these plays, Still Life, was expanded into the 1945 David Lean film Brief Encounter. He was also a prolific writer of popular songs, and a lucrative recording contract with HMV allowed him to release a number of recordings, many now reissued on CD. Coward's most popular hits include the romantic I'll See You Again and Dear Little Café; and the comic Mad Dogs and Englishmen, The Stately Homes of England and (Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage) Mrs Worthington

World War II

The outbreak of World War II in 1939 saw Coward working harder than ever. When the war started he'd only just left Paris. He took time off from writing to perform for the troops, but after was eager to return. Alongside his highly-publicised tours entertaining Allied troops, he was also engaged by the British Secret Service MI5 in intelligence work. He was often frustrated by the criticism he faced for his ostensibly glamorous lifestyle, apparently living the high life while his countrymen suffered - especially his trips to America to sway opinion formers there. He was unable, however, to defend himself because he couldn't reveal that he was working for the Secret Service. George VI, a personal friend, encouraged the government to award Coward a knighthood for his efforts in 1942. This was blocked by Winston Churchill, who disapproved of Coward's flamboyant lifestyle. and another lengthy one with the stage and film actor, Graham Payn, for almost 30 years until his death. Payn later co-edited with Sheridan Morley the collection of his diaries, published in 1982. He was also connected to composer Ned Rorem, with details of their relationship published in Rorem's diaries.
   Coward refused to acknowledge his sexual orientation, wryly stating, "There is still a woman in Paddington Square who wants to marry me, and I don't want to disappoint her." From his youth Coward had a distaste for penetrative sex and held the modern gay scene in disdain.
   He was the president of The Actors' Orphanage, an orphanage supported by the theatrical industry. In that capacity he befriended the young Peter Collinson, who was in the care of the orphanage, becoming Collinson's godfather and helping him get started in show business. When Collinson was a successful director he invited Coward to play a role in the film The Italian Job; Graham Payn also played a small role.
   Coward was a neighbour in Jamaica of James Bond's creator Ian Fleming and his wife Anne, the former Lady Rothermere. Though he was very fond of both of them, the Flemings' marriage wasn't a happy one, and Noel eventually tired of their constant bickering, as recorded in his diaries. When the first film adaptation of a James Bond novel, Dr. No was being produced, Coward was approached for the role of the villain. He is said to have responded, "Doctor No? No. No. No."
When speaking to Peter O'Toole about his performance in Lawrence of Arabia, he said "If you'd been any prettier, it would have been 'Florence of Arabia'."
When someone pointed out a rising young actor at a party with the words "Keir Dullea" Coward's instant reply was "Gone tomorrow."
The Papers of Noel Coward are held in the University of Birmingham Special Collections.
   On the BBC Midweek television programme on 11 October 2006 Hunter Davies revealed that Coward had told him during an interview that he liked to attend and watch hospital operations in his spare time; apparently when Davies started to push this line further Coward clammed up on the subject and wouldn't elaborate.

Parodies and popular culture

Parodies of and homages to Coward and his style include:

The character of Beverly Carlton in the 1939 Broadway play The Man Who Came to Dinner was based on Coward. He was portrayed by Reginald Gardiner in the 1942 film of the play.
In the 1982 film Better Late Than Never, David Niven played Nick Cartland, an aging cabaret artiste, whose showpiece is I've Been To A Marvellous Party.
Jon Wynne-Tyson's play Marvellous Party, about a middle-age reunion in Las Vegas of Coward and his collaborator Esmé Wynne-Tyson was broadcast by the BBC World Service in May 1994, starring Stanley Baxter as Coward and Dorothy Tutin as Wynne-Tyson.
In 1998 was released. The album contains Coward's songs performed by Sting, Elton John, Pet Shop Boys, The Divine Comedy, Vic Reeves, Paul McCartney and others.
Coward appeared as a regular character in the fifth and sixth series of the BBC sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart.
Coward is the leading figure in Jeremy Kingston's comedy, Making Dickie Happy, also featuring Agatha Christie and Louis Mountbatten (the 'Dickie' of the title), first staged at the Rosemary Branch Theatre in London in September 2004.
The name of the men's clothing line 'Godspeed the Well-Dressed Man' came from the closing of one of Coward's letters.
Monty Python parodied Noel Coward in the Penis Song segment of their 1983 movie, The Meaning of Life and in their album Monty Python Sings as Penis Song (Not the Noel Coward Song).
The Doctor Who novel Mad Dogs and Englishmen features a version of Coward who has allied himself with alien poodles and gained time travel technology.
The opening to the song "The Lady Is a Tramp" includes the line "Alas, I missed the Beaux Arts Ball, and what is twice as sad I was never at a party where they honored Noel Ca-ad (Coward)".
Coward's play Private Lives is parodied in the off-Broadway musical revue Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know in a short scene entitled "Private Wives".
Marcy Kahan's Noel Coward quintet for BBC Radio 4 dramatises Coward as a detective in "Design For Murder" (2000), "A Bullet at Balmain's" (2003) and "Death at the Desert Inn" (2005), and as a spy in "Blithe Spy" (2002) and "Our Man In Jamaica" (2007). The cast of the quintet includes Malcolm Sinclair as Coward, Eleanor Bron as his secretary and Tam Williams as Cole Lesley.
'Two Old Queens' (2007), Perth, Western Australia, starring Edgar Metcalf as the Queen Mother and John Michael Swinbank as Coward, is a conversation between the two at the unveiling of the statue of Coward in Poets' Corner.
In the (1969) classic English film Kes a man inquires about his interest in Coward's autobiography Present Indicative.

Plays

The Last Chapter (Ida Collaborates) (1917), one-act comedy, co-written with Esmé Wynne under their joint pen name Esnomel, first performed 1917

Woman and Whisky (1918), one-act play, co-written with Esmé Wynne, fp 1918

The Rat Trap (1918), play in four acts, fp Everyman, Hampstead 1926, revived Finborough, London 2006

I'll Leave It To You (1919), light comedy in three acts, fp 1920

The Young Idea (1921), comedy of youth in three acts, fp 1922

The Sirocco (1921), play in three acts, revised and fp 1927

The Better Half (1921), comedy in one act, fp 1922

The Queen Was in the Parlour (1922), play in three acts, fp 1926

Mild Oats (1922), play in one act, unproduced

Weatherwise (1923), comedy in two scenes, fp 1932

Fallen Angels (1923), comedy in three acts, fp 1925

The Vortex (1923), play in three acts, fp 1924

Hay Fever (1924), comedy, fp 1925

Easy Virtue (1924), play in three acts, fp 1925

Semi-Monde originally Ritz Bar (1926), play in three acts, fp Glasgow Citizens 1988

This Was a Man (1926), comedy in three acts, fp 1926

The Marquise (1926), comedy in three acts, fp 1927

Home Chat (1927), play in three acts, fp 1927

Private Lives (1929), intimate comedy in three acts, fp 1930

Post-Mortem (1932), play in eight scenes, fp King's Head, London, 1992

Cavalcade (1930, 1931), play in three parts, fp 1931

Design For Living (1932), comedy in three acts, fp 1933

Point Valaine (1934), play in three acts, fp 1934

Tonight at 8.30 (1935, 1936), three programmes of one-act plays, fp 1935

We Were Dancing, The Astonished Heart, Red Peppers
Hands Across the Sea, Fumed Oak, Shadow Play
Ways and Means, Still Life, Family Album
Star Chamber (one performance only, 1936)

Present Laughter (1939), play in three acts, fp 1942

This Happy Breed (1939), play in three acts, fp 1942

Blithe Spirit (1941), improbable farce in three acts, fp 1941

Peace In Our Time (1946), play in two acts, fp 1947

Long Island Sound (1947), comedy adapted from his short story What Mad Pursuit?, fp 1989 (Windsor gala performance)

South Sea Bubble, Island Fling in USA, (1949), comedy in three acts, fp 1951

Relative Values (1951), comedy in three acts, fp 1951

Quadrille (1951-2), romantic comedy in three acts, fp 1952

Nude With Violin (1954), comedy in three acts, fp 1956

Look After Lulu! (1958), three act farce adapted from Feydeau, fp 1959

Volcano (1957), play in two acts, Mill at Sonning, staged reading 1989

Waiting in the Wings (1959-60), play in three acts, fp 1960

(1965), a trilogy, fp 1966

Star Quality (1967), Coward's last play, comedy in three acts, fp Bath, 1985

Revues, musicals and operetta

London Calling! (1922, 1923), revue in collaboration with Ronald Jeans, fp 1923

On With the Dance (1924, 1925), revue, fp 1925

This Year of Grace (1927, 1928), revue, fp as Charles B Cochrane's 1928 Revue

Bitter Sweet (1928, 1929), operetta, fp 1929

Words and Music (1932), revue, fp 1932

Conversation Piece (1933), comedy with music, fp 1934

Operette (1937), musical play, fp 1938

Set to Music (1938), revue, fp 1938

Sigh No More (1945), revue, fp 1945

Pacific 1860 (1946), musical romance, fp 1946

Ace of Clubs (1949), musical play, fp 1950

After the Ball (1953), musical based on Lady Windermere's Fan, fp 1954

Sail Away (1959-61), musical comedy, fp 1961

The Girl Who Came to Supper (1963), musical comedy based on Terence Rattigan's The Sleeping Prince, fp 1963

Oh, Coward! revue fp 1972

Cowardy Custard revue fp 1972

Filmography

Hearts of the World (1918, uncredited)

Across the Continent (1922, uncredited)

The Scoundrel (1935)

In Which We Serve (1942, also director/screenwriter)

Blithe Spirit (1945, as narrator)

The Astonished Heart (1949)

Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)

Our Man in Havana (1959)

Surprise Package (1960)

Paris - When It Sizzles (1964)

Present Laughter (1964, TV)

The Vortex (1964, TV)

Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)

Androcles and the Lion (1967, TV)

Boom! (1968)

The Italian Job (1969)Further Information

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