This first volume in the Coward Collection contains four plays written within a two year period when Coward and the century were still in their 20s. The volume is introduced by Sheridan Morley, Coward's first biographer.
Hay Fever, a comedy of bad manners, concerns a weekend with friends of the Bliss family, who have all been invited independently for a weekend at their country house near Maidenhead. The Vortex was a controversial drama in its time, introducing drug-addiction onto the stage at a time when alcoholism was barely mentioned. Fallen Angels, which is...
This first volume in the Coward Collection contains four plays written within a two year period when Coward and the century were still in their 20s...
The third volume of Coward's plays contains some of his best work fromthe thirties.
Design for Living - is about a triangular alliancebetween two men and a woman, based on friends of Coward's, which hewaited to write "until she and he and I had arrived by different roadsin our careers at a time and a place when we felt we could all threeplay together with a more or less equal degree of success." Cavalcadewas Coward's most ambitious stage project, set during the Boer War, which cost 30,000 in its day and which includes scenes of the reliefof the sinking of the Titanic...
The third volume of Coward's plays contains some of his best work fromthe thirties.
Design for Living - is about a triangular allianc...
Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Don't Put your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs Worthington and over 250 more lyrics from Coward's musical masterpieces.
Noel Coward is one of the greatest lyricists of the twentieth century. Songs such as A Room with a View, The Stately Homes of England, Mad Dogs and Englishmen and Mrs Worthington are known, sung and loved the world over. This edition gathers together over 250 of Coward's lyrics, arranged in chronological order and grouped by show. In addition, these masterpieces of verse are accompanied by an...
Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Don't Put your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs Worthington and over 250 more lyrics from Coward's musical...
The eighth volume in the Coward Collection includes I'llLeave It To You and The Young Idea, the first of Coward's plays ever tobe produced. These were, as he said, "enthusiastically acclaimed by thecritics and ran five weeks and eight weeks respectively. In both ofthem I appeared with the utmost determination."
This Was a Man, aslightly later play, was written in 1926, after the successes whichmade his name. It was originally banned by the Lord Chamberlain "forfacetious adultery."
The eighth volume in the Coward Collection includes I'llLeave It To You and The Young Idea, the first of Coward's plays ever tobe pro...
"I will ever be grateful for the almost psychic gift that enabled me to write "Blithe Spirit" in five days during one of the darkest years of the war."-Noel Coward. Written in 1941, "Blithe Spirit" remained the longest-running comedy in British Theatre for three decades. Plotted around the central role of one of Coward's best loved characters, a spirit medium Madame Arcati (originally performed by Margaret Rutherford) Coward's play is an escapist comedy about a man whose two previous wives return to haunt him.
"I will ever be grateful for the almost psychic gift that enabled me to write "Blithe Spirit" in five days during one of the darkest years of the war....
At the centre of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs. His line in harmless, infatuated debutantes is largely tolerated but playing closer to home is not. Just before he escapes on tour to Africa the full extent of his misdemeanours is discovered. And all hell breaks loose. Noel Coward's Present Laughter premiered in the early years of the Second World War just as such privileged lives were threatened with fundamental social change.
At the centre of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs. His ...
Coward's tribute to theatre is set in a retirement home for actresses, all former stars. Jealousies abound, especially between Lotta and another who was also married to her former husband. A tragedy brings them to their senses and a new solarium brings out everyone's good nature. Lotta chooses to stay with her old friends rather than go live with her son.
"Should rejoice those of us who still have hearts." London News Chronicle.
Comedy / 4m, 14f / Int.
Coward's tribute to theatre is set in a retirement home for actresses, all former stars. Jealousies abound, especially betw...
Editor Barry Day has collected the definitive edition on Noel Coward's verse including all the work in the three-volumes published in Coward's lifetime plus rare, previously unpublished material Coward sent to family and friends. This new edition paints a more full and vivid portrait of this totally unique writer, known for his quick wit and insatiable interest in people and his skillful rendering of their public and private lives on stage.
The book is arranged in theme chapters on a wide variety of chapters including: war, theatre, love, friends, travel, and God and the infinite...
Editor Barry Day has collected the definitive edition on Noel Coward's verse including all the work in the three-volumes published in Coward's life...
Coward's wit and precision as a modern dramatist is nowhere better exemplified than in this classic modern play from 1930. Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne (originally played by Gertrude Lawrence and Noel Coward), recently divorced from one another five years previously, arrive coincidentally at the same French hotel. They are honeymooning with their respective new spouses. Encountering one another by chance, each is at once horrified and fascinated by the other. Together they leave for Paris and begin a roundelay of quarrels and love intrigues that culminate in their getting back together.
Coward's wit and precision as a modern dramatist is nowhere better exemplified than in this classic modern play from 1930. Elyot Chase and Amanda Pryn...
