"To be young, good-looking, healthy, famous, comparatively rich and happy is surely going against nature." When Joe Orton (1933-1967) wrote those words in his diary in May 1967, he was being hailed as the greatest comic playwright since Oscar Wilde for his darkly hilarious Entertaining Mr. Sloane and the farce hit Loot, and was completing What the Butler Saw; but less than three months later, his longtime companion, Kenneth Halliwell, smashed in Orton's skull with a hammer before killing himself. The Orton Diaries, written during his last eight months,...

In five dexterously argued chapters, John Lahr investigates all the major plays and many of Noel Coward's lesser-known pieces. "Hay Fever, Private Lives, "and "Design for Living, "for instance, make a fascinating group of "Comedies of Bad Manners." "Blithe Spirit "and "Relative Values "raise the "Ghost in the Fun Machine." And Lahr explores the "politics of charm" oozing through "The Vortex, Easy Virtue, "and "Present Laughter. "Further chapters consider the patriotic plays like "Cavalcade "and "This Happy Breed "and examples of Coward's later work, such as "Waiting in the Wings "and "A Song...