A MAGAZINE ABOUT THE LIFE AND WORK OF SIR NOËL COWARD • MAY 2012

News and views of the Star Quality exhibition - and the ‘Noël Coward in New York’ festival.

GOLDENHURST LunEch wnith cJuoliaun Cnlatry eatr Geodldenhurst and a review of his recently-published novel ‘Briefs Encountered’.

Noël Coward at ‘Look Out’ - Firefly, Jamaica

PRODUCED AND PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL NOËL COWARD SOCIETY - 1- www.noëlcoward.net hat an amazing month March was! Apart from reasonable weather, two of the most significant events for me marked an early opening of Spring EDITORIAL long before an Easter chick was a wink in a cockerel’s eye. Out of the blue came a charming invitation from Julian Clary for the officers of the Society to visit The Old Manor - but forever Goldenhurst in the eye of the Coward faithful - for lunch and a celebration of the completed renovation of Noël’s country retreat in Kent and the publication of Julian’s novel Briefs Encountered. As Daniel Massey said once about an invitation to Noël’s for lunch, “Well, you don’t turn that down!” And we didn’t! More on the visit in this edition. The climax of the month was the opening of Star Quality - The World of Noël Coward at the Lincoln Center in New York. This exhibition has been rightly trumpeted in Home Chat for the past few editions and the result did not let the herald down. This really is an impressive achievement. As a result of an initial partnership between the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (NYPL) and The Noël Coward Foundation (NCF) the idea was born - and together with other partners - the exhibition was created. The whole exhibition owes much to the working relationship between the NYPL and NCF and the commitment of Jacqueline Z. Davis (Executive Director NYPL for the Performing Arts), Alan Brodie (Chair of The Noël Coward Foundation) but most of all to its curator Brad Rosenstein. Rosy Runciman assisted Brad in the later stages of assembling the exhibition and Barry Day and Geoffrey Johnson were both major supporters of the exhibition and organisers of the ensuing Noël Coward Festival that runs for most of the year in New York. My thanks also go to our own Ken Starrett who provided members with additional information on access and timings of events and NCS support - in so many ways the NCS provides an active and eager audience for Coward activities, productions and events provided by the NCF and independent theatre and arts groups in New York. The opening event of the exhibition on Sunday 11th March featured guests Elaine Stritch and Tammy Grimes and provided a platform for a welcome from the NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, with a Mayoral Declaration that March 11 would from now on be known as Noël Coward Day . Lastly we hope we have improved on some of the layout issues that affected the last issue. My thanks to those who wrote in expressing concern about how difficult it was to read some of the back page of the last edition and that for some the small font size used in the credits under photographs in the piece on Peace In Our Time proved almost impossible to read. Let’s hope this edition fares better on this front! John Knowles

CONTENTS Briefs Encountered - Review 13 Editorial 2 Australia Revisited 14 The Grand Tour 3 Ben Stock in Noël & Gertie 18 Star Quality The World of Noël Coward 4 Society Evening at the Café de Paris 19 A Curator’s Notes on Star Quality 5 A Chance Not To Be Missed! 21 All the Fun of the Coward Festival 6 O-Kay With Noël 22 Noël Coward Cabaret Award Winner 8 Jeffery Holmesdale on Gladys Calthrop 24 Maria Aitken Noël Coward at Juilliard 9 Lean and Clean 26 The Vortex in Chicago 10 LuckyOrphan and more . . . 27 Goldenhurst Encountered 11 What’s On? 28

Home Chat is a magazine produced by The Noël Coward Society , funded through the generosity of The Noël Coward Foundation. Noël Coward Ltd. Chairman: Robert Gardiner Directors: Denys Robinson, Stephen Greenman and John Knowles, Company Secretary: Graham Martin. The Noël Coward Society: President: HRH The Duke of Kent Vice Presidents: Maria Aitken, Barry Day OBE, Stephen Fry, Tammy Grimes, Penelope Keith CBE Organising Committee: Chairman and General Secretary: John H. Knowles, Finance and Resources: Stephen Greenman, Events Organiser: Denys Robinson, Membership : Stephen Duckham, Media and Theatre: Michael Wheatley-Ward, North American Director : Ken Starrett, US West Coast Liaison : Kathy Williams, NCS in Australia : Kerry Hailstone, NCS in France : Hélène Catsiapis Home Chat: Editor: John H. Knowles, US NCS news: Ken Starrett, Publication and Distribution: Stephen Greenman Assistant Editors and Proofing: Kathy Williams and Ken Starrett, Music correspondent: Dominic Vlasto. Details of productions and events are as received, with our thanks, from: Samuel French (Play Publishers and Author’s Representatives), Ken Starrett (US), Alan Brodie Representation (Professional Productions), NCS members and theatre companies. NCS website: www.noëlcoward.net Unless otherwise stated all images and text are copyright to NC Aventales AG Key Addresses: Committee Chairman & General Secretary: John Knowles, 29 Waldemar Avenue, Hellesdon, Norwich, NR6 6TB, UK [email protected] +44 (0) 1603 486 188 Finance & Resources: Stephen Greenman, 64 Morant Street, London, E14 8EL [email protected] Events Secretaries: Denys Robinson [email protected] and Geoffrey Skinner [email protected] Membership Secretary: Stephen Duckham, 47 Compass Court, Norfolk Street, Coventry,West Midlands, CV1 3LJ [email protected] +44 (0) 2476 229 502 Media and Theatre: Michael Wheatley-Ward, Chandos House, 14 Vale Square, Ramsgate, Kent CT11 9DF [email protected] North American Director : Ken Starrett, 49 West 68th Street, Apt 1 R New York, New York, 10023, USA [email protected] US West Coast Liaison : Kathy Williams, 141 Stonegate Road, Portola Valley, California 94028-7648 USA kathywilliams@noëlcoward.net NCS in Australia : Kerry Hailstone, 10A Westall Street, Hyde Park, South Australia, 5061 Australia [email protected] NCS in France : Hélène Catsiapis, 115, Boulevard de Port-Royal F-75014 Paris, France [email protected]

- 2- THE GRAND TOUR BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME SATURDAY 30th JUNE 2012

ince announcing this event we have been overwhelmed by the response. Thank you to everyone who has signed up. Additional places can now be made available until the 31st of May, so if you still wish to be part of this special occasion please send your name, address and contact telephone number together with details of which option you would like and the number of people in your party to Stephen Duckham (address on Page 2). Also please enclose a cheque for the full amount made out to ‘The Noël Coward Society.’

OPTION 1 FULL DAY: • Birmingham University visit to view the Noël Coward Collection. Transport leaves from outside New Street Station at 10.30am. • After the University visit there will be Lunch at the Birmingham Hippodrome followed by a Matinee Performance by Birmingham Royal Ballet, programme, interval refreshments with an optional backstage tour after the performance. • £65.00 per person

OPTION 2 LUNCH and MATINEE: • Lunch at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Meet at 1.15pm in Foyer. • Matinee Performance by Birmingham Royal Ballet, programme, interval refreshments with an optional backstage tour after the performance. • £55.00 per person

OPTION 3 MATINEE: • Meet at 2.15pm in the Foyer. Matinee Performance by Birmingham Royal Ballet, programme, and interval refreshments with an optional backstage tour after the performance. • £35.00 per person

THE GRAND TOUR REMINDS US OF NOËL AS A DANCER

ith the 2012 revival of The Grand Tour one is reminded that Noël Coward was trained in dance from the age of 8. Although ultimately he was to become in demand all over the world, in his youth, work was sometimes scarce, and exhibition and demonstration dancing were often the source of income. Noël writes in Present Indicative: “In the summer of 1916 Robert Courtneidge engaged me to play a small part in a new musical comedy, The Light Blues, which was to be tried out for tPhlreeaes ew seenksd iyno Cu arredqiuffe, sNt eawncda cshtleq auned t oG: lasgow, before coming to the Shaftesbury TheSaTtrEe.P . H. EN DUCKHAM . . . The play opened in London wit4h7 t CheO mMaPrkA SofS d CeaOtUh RemT blazoned upon it, and although there were calls for authoNrO aRndF sOeLveKr aSlT pReoEpEleT made speeches, it actually ran only two weeks. COVENTRY Just after this I became, briefly, a professiCoVna1l 3dLaJncer. Not in the true ‘gigolo’ sense, for alas, my adolescence was too apparent, my figure too gangling and coltish to promote evil desire in even the most debauched night- club habitués. I partnered a girl named Eileen Dennis, and we were engaged by the Elysée Restaurant (now the Café de Paris) to appear during dinner and supper. A slow waltz, a tango, and a rather untidy one-step made up our programme. Later, owing to popular demand (from Eileen Dennis’s mother), we introduced a pierrot fantasia for which we changed into cherry-coloured sateen and tulle ruffs. No South African millionaires threw diamond sunbursts at Eileen’s feet. We were neither of us ever invited to appear naked out of pies at private supper parties, in fact the whole engagement from the point of view of worldly experience was decidedly disappointing. ”

With thanks to Peter Tod and the Cadbury Research Library : Special Collections, University of Birmingham .

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tar Quality lies in abundance at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center where Star Quality: The World “Star quality: I don’t know of Noël Coward , a major exhibition focusing on Coward as what it is, but I’ve got it.” playwright; composer; director; stage, screen, cabaret performer; and international celebrity runs thru August 18, 2012 in the Donald and Mary Noël Coward Oenslager Gallery. The exhibition is only part of a New-York-wide festival of Coward and his works: Noël Coward in New York that brings together public bodies, agencies, theatre companies, actors, directors, historians, writers, student bodies, cabaret artists, publishers and media producers. These include: The New York Public Library; The Noël Coward Foundation; Samuel French Inc.; The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; The Ten Chimneys Foundation; The University of Bristol Theatre Collection (Mander & Mitchenson); Le Caprice; DreamWorks; The Drama Book Shop; and Warner Chappell. On the following pages you will find a ‘A Curator’s Notes on Star Quality’ by Brad Rosenstein and reports on some of the activities and events that have already taken place plus details of those to come, introduced by Barry Day. The celebrations really got underway at an opening reception on 11 March when invited guests including Elaine Stritch, Tammy Grimes, Chris Blackwell, Danny Lopez (British Consulate-General), Robert Osborne, Jim EXHIBITION PHOTOS: Shevett Studios, photography by Anita and Steve Shevett Dale and Tony Walton heard a Mayoral Declaration making 20 East 17th Street, New York, NY 10003 212-627-1247 [email protected] March 11 ‘Noël Coward Day’ in the City of New York. Jacqueline Z. Davis with Alan Brodie (Chair of the Noël Coward Foundation) receiving the Mayoral Declaration for Noël Coward Day from Marybeth Ihle, Press Manager, NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment.

- - 4-4- A CURATOR’S NOTES ON STAR QUALITY by Brad Rosenstein

s Home Chat readers know better than most, the New and fortunately that was never in short supply. York mounting of Star Quality: The World of Noël I’ve been mounting performing arts exhibitions for Coward is the exhibition’s fifth incarnation to date, and years, and The Noël Coward Foundation is, quite the third in which I’ve been involved as curator. You’d simply, the finest artist’s estate I’ve ever encountered. It is think by the third time around, the subject might be beginning administered with such loving and knowledgeable care, to pall – and with some exhibitions I’ve done in the past, that boundlessly energetic and enthusiastic, and refreshingly might well have been the case! But not with Noël. My enthusiasm for the man and his work feels inexhaustible, and my fascination and admiration only continues to grow over time. Just when I think I’m finally beginning to get a handle on the guy, I turn a corner – and there are six new glittering facets waiting to be explored. One of the most thrilling aspects of working on this project has been to see my own endless fascination mirrored again and again in visitors to the show. The first time around for me was at the Museum of Performance & Design in San Francisco. While we fully expected for the exhibition to resonate with an older audience who had grown up with Coward’s work, we were blown away to find about half of our visitors were in their 20s and 30s. For many of them Coward was just an image of cool sophistication, swathed in a silk dressing Brad Rosenstein (Curator), Jacqueline Z. Davis (Executive Director NYPL for gown and smoking a cigarette, and a few the Performing Arts), and Alan Brodie (Chair, Noël Coward Foundation) knew of him from a play or two or from his later “cult” film appearances, but it was enough to get them in insistent on quality while remaining open to new ideas. the door. When they saw the full breadth of his life and work The Coward Foundation is also continually amassing a laid out in the exhibition, they were hooked – and then they spectacular Coward archive, and many gems in the exhibition couldn’t get enough. come from its collections. My being given the opportunity to Over the five months of programming for the exhibition in delve into “Mum’s suitcase” and turn up, for instance, Noël’s San Francisco, every single Coward event was beyond sold earliest theatrical contract as a boy actor with Charles Hawtrey out, and we were turning people away. And fully half that in The Great Name , or to pore over The Master’s original audience was under 35, arriving almost giddy with enthusiasm manuscript for Design for Living represented much more than at each new event, hungry to learn more and more. What is it just personal thrills. These “discoveries” immeasurably enrich about this remarkable man that still generates so much the exhibition and put visitors directly in touch with Noël’s excitement and interest nearly forty years after his death? world. I asked our visitors, both younger and older, that question – The thrill of the curatorial hunt has extended from London and got strikingly similar answers from every demographic. to Los Angeles, and working on the show’s previous They love his wit and verbal acuity, his style and his incarnation at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and romanticism – qualities in achingly short supply in Sciences led me not only to hours of blissful research in the contemporary entertainment. There is a huge younger market Academy’s beautiful Herrick Library, but doing deep detective hungry for an alternative to Adam Sandler and fart jokes, and work into the whereabouts of the elusive Cavalcade Oscars they were almost delirious to discover Coward’s world, a place (one of which is now on display in New York). The journey has where everyone looks fabulous and speaks beautifully and still taken me as far afield as Florida, digging through a costume manages to be hilariously funny – and often deeply moving warehouse to find Florence Henderson’s long-lost Irene Sharaff too. Young hip hoppers are as delighted by the proto-rap of gown from The Girl Who Came to Supper , and as close as ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ as their grandparents were. across the street from Lincoln Center, where a private Coward clearly still speaks to everyone – directly and collection furnished up a beautiful Doris Zinkeisen scenic powerfully, no translation required – precisely because he painting for After the Ball . And my wonderful colleagues with doesn’t feel like a museum piece. He is our eternal The Coward Foundation have of course done their own contemporary. massive digging, from Les Avants to Firefly to Geoffrey Our aim with the exhibition has of course never been to put Johnson’s exceptional collection in New York, to glean the Coward in a historical straitjacket, but to provide a helpful crème de la crème of original Coward goodies. context so viewers can understand and to some extent even Hopefully the result represents much more than a gathering experience the milieu in which Coward’s talents came to of interesting objects, but brings an extraordinary life into fruition. For that you need Lots of Great Stuff – the real thing – - 5- focus, and allows visitors to immerse themselves in Noël’s personal and imagined worlds. On opening night in New York in March, I saw the same giddy excitement among the guests that I’ve seen in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the same thrill of discovery. But perhaps the finest and most meaningful accolade came from the legendary Elaine Stritch, I took her on a tour of the whole exhibition, and at the end she turned to me and told me a story of the last night she saw Noël, toward the very end of his life, when they both knew it was close to the end. They dined together as they had many times before, and Noël who was usually so merry burst into tears. “Are you afraid of dying?” she asked him. “No,” Coward said, “I’m afraid of not being remembered.” Then she turned and gestured to the entire gallery and said simply “Noël would have loved this.” © 2012 by Brad Rosenstein Elaine Stritch

ALL THE FUN OF THE COWARD FESTIVAL Barry Day sets the scene for the Coward Festival, introduces and provides reports on events so far with from Geoffrey Johnson, Alan Pally and Ken Starrett hen we decided to organise a Noël Coward Festival to All;’ Marti Stevens singing ‘You Were There;’ Jim Dale's complement the Star Quality exhibition,we had no idea version of ‘London Pride;’ and Edward Hibbert's squiffily what we were unleashing. Quite apart from the events we hilarious rendition of ‘I've Been to a Marvelous Party.’ The intended to stage, we've found ourselves deluged - and happy audience was also treated to a rare scene from Age Cannot to be so! - with plans and projects from every corner of the Wither , performed by Kim Cattrall, Rosemary Harris, and Sally city. In this and subsequent editions of ‘Home Chat’ we'll try Ann Howes; as well as scenes from Blithe Spirit , Present and give you some idea of what ‘Dad's New York Renaissance’ Laughter , and Private Lives . The grand finale featured Nancy meant... Anderson leading the entire cast and audience in ‘The Party’s Over Now.’ The memorable evening was presented by the Our Gala opening of the exhibition was on Sunday March Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center in collaboration 11. On the following day the Festival kicked off with an with the American Associates of the National Theatre. evening at AMPAS (The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - home of the 'Oscars'. We'd worked closely with On April 1 The Marquise : there was an opportunity to see a AMPAS during the Los Angeles version of the exhibition and rarely performed Coward play. The Marquise hadn't been seen the relationship has grown deeper with the New York version. in New York since its 1927 premiere. This production was The Academy showed a beautifully restored print of staged by Brave New World Repertory Theatre at the Brooklyn CAVALCADE - the 1933 Oscar winner for Best Picture - in Lyceum. their Manhattan theatre. Brad Rosenstein, the Curator of our exhibition, introduced the film and conducted an interview Ken Starrett writes . . . with Broadway actress Dana Ivey,who has contributed to many Coward projects in recent years. Founded in 2003, Brave New World Repertory Theatre is a company of professional actors in Brooklyn, New York March 19 saw Curtain Up!... On Noël Coward , a show at the dedicated to promoting a love of theatre by bringing classic Library's Bruno Walter auditorium that I had put together from plays, as well as new works, to various communities play excerpts, verse, letters and songs. I've never found it hard throughout Brooklyn. In the past, they have concentrated to assemble a stellar cast when Noël's material is on offer but primarily on Shakespearean plays and American classics. Their this one was exceptional with Rosemary Harris, Sally Ann production of The Marquise is the first time they have Howes, Jim Dale, Kim Cattrall, Tammy Grimes, Marti Stevens, presented a play by Noë Cloward. Edward Hibbert, Michael Siberry, Nancy Anderson, John The play was written in late 1926 as a promise to Marie Behlmann and Jill Tanner. Tempest, a popular British star, who had scored a great success in Coward's Hay Fever . It is the only period play he ever Coward Foundation Trustee, Alan Pally writes . . . wrote. His “eighteenth century joke” takes place in 1735 in a chateau not far from Paris. The basic plot concerns Raoul Curtain Up! ... on Noël Coward , a joyous celebration of The arranging the marriage of his daughter, Adrienne to Miguel, the Master, devised and narrated by Barry Day with songs and son of his good friend Esteban. Neither of the children wants scenes performed by luminaries from the world of theater. this marriage as they are both in love with other people. Musical highlights included Nancy Anderson's rendition of Arriving on the scene is the Marquise Eloise de Kestournel, ‘Alice Is at It Again;’ Tammy Grimes moving ‘If Love Were who in the past was a lover of both Raoul and Esteban.

- 6- Through her manipulations everyone finally ends up with the been recorded or cut from person they really love. The Marquise , the least revived of any shows on the road. (All of Coward play, was presented on Broadway in 1927 starring them, incidentally, are to be Billie Burke, but only lasted for 80 performances. Since then, it found in the ‘Complete has not been seen in New York until this staged reading by Lyrics.’) Brave New World Repertory. There were curiosities Presented in a raw open space of an old, gutted out public such as ‘Morganatic Wife,’ a building, there were none of the usual theatrical trappings such 1923 collaboration with as scenery or lighting. It was not the conventional reading done Jerome Kern for an by actors sitting on stools at lecterns. With minimal props, and unproduced show called Jeanne Lehman and Steve Ross a few chairs, director Kevin Hogan, created clever staging to Tamaran ... Noël's version of suggest the setting and period of the play. Occasionally in a Charles Trenet song (‘Why Do You Pass Me By ?’)... a some of the bigger dramatic moments, the performances trilogy of waltzes... an early version of ‘What's Going to suddenly became very realistic in contemporary terms, Happen to the Tots ?’... and songs cut from The Girl Who betraying the manners of the period and the style of the play. Came To Supper and Sail Away . Particularly interesting was But on the whole, this excellent company of actors had exactly Noël's one contribution to High Spirits - a trio called ‘What the proper light touch for a Noël Coward comedy. Has Happened to Charles ?’ Some highlights of the evening were the scene in which Steve was accompanied by Jeannie Lehman and Lisa Riegl Adrienne and Miguel discover they do not love each other, the and the applause from a ‘Standing Room Only’ audience was opening of the third act when Raoul gets drunk with the butler, both deafening and gratifying. Luckily, the event was recorded and the sword duel between Raoul and Esteban which is and we hope to make the recording available in due course. presided over by The Marquise. The enthusiastic audience was thoroughly delighted by this play and clearly found it the April 16 A trio of Coward in three different locations. charming, entertainment that Coward intended it to be. Almost certainly a record. The Acting Company held a staged reading, directed by April 5. At the Drama Book Shop - which is the focus of all Maria Aitken, of Noël's last play - A Song at Twilight . publications by and about Noël - I put on a brief entertainment, Carlotta, a retired actress, pays a surprise visit to her former of which lover, the eminent writer, Sir Hugo Latimer - a combination of Somerset Maugham and Max Beerbohm, originally played by Coward Foundation Trustee, Geoffrey Johnson wrote... Noël - in his Swiss hotel suite with a disquieting proposition.

Unfortunately I became caught in cross-town Geoffrey Johnson reports... Easter/Passover traffic so was a bit late for the Drama Book Shop Noël Coward Festival tribute to the overwhelming Last night's A Song at Twilight went really well. Maria's amount of books that have been written by and about The direction with some prudent cutting was excellent. The play Master. The entertainment in the shop's subterranean theatre really worked for me although Barry claimed several times it is was s.r.o. so I had to pay for not leaving home hours earlier and not the best of Coward. It certainly kept me absorbed for the I stood at the back of the packed house to watch some entire evening. wonderful entertainers do Coward. John Glover who plays Highlights of the program were Simon Callow, who Willy Loman's brother, Ben, in bounced over from B.A.M. where he is doing the compelling the current revival of Death of one man show, Being Shakespeare . He was just as skillful as a a Salesman , was off-beat Noël Coward interpreter as he has been with the great Will casting in the role of Hugo. Far himself. On stage with him were expert pianist/songster Steve from the Coward or even Ross along with Edward Hibbert doing his hilarious Noël party Maugham mould physically, piece, ‘I Have Been To A Marvelous Party’ for one thing. he is such a good actor, he Not left in the dust at all by the gentlemen was the lovely brought something fresh to the and humorous Dana Ivey who showed her extreme talent in part of the distinguished writer every Coward piece she chose to do. Conceived and narrated covering up his past sexuality. by Barry Day, the brief entertainment was an overwhelming Maria was very pleased with success. him. Afterwards, upstairs in the shop, Barry was kept busy Marthe Keller was perfect signing the just published ‘The Treasures of Noël Coward’ casting and outstanding as edition of a fabulous new oversized book which is a must for Hilde I thought. Once the all Coward collectors while beautiful and heavily accented Simon was busy signing his almost-star film actress years own book. Not necessary to ago in such movies as Bobby say, I must say, an incredibly Deerfield opposite Al Pacino, good time was had by all! Marathon Man , Billy Wilder's Fedora , and on Broadway in April 9. Back to the Library Judgement At Nuremberg , for Steve Ross's Noël Keller played the turn-around Coward: Off the Record . at the end of the play Steve had delved into the Lisa Riegel and Steve Ross beautifully. She is now based Archive and picked a handful of songs that had either never - 7- in Paris so we were lucky to have her for the reading. member KT Sullivan, accompanied by NCS member William Lisa Banes, a superior actress, was also very good as Zeffiro, began the evening with their delightful performance of Carlotta but did lack the faded glamour that I think the songs by Coward. character demands. However, she certainly made all of her To present this rarely-seen 1924 play that made Coward a acting points. star, the producers assembled a cast of solid professional actors The small role of the Beau Rivage waiter, Felix, was played – all with a long list of impressive credits. This dark play well by a hunky Nicholas Carrière, a young and fairly recent dealing with drug addiction, which has flashes of the expected Yale Drama School graduate. Coward wit, was expertly handled by Suzanne Bertish as Florence, the vain possessive mother, Bobby Steggert as her Noël and Company - The Vortex disturbed son Nicky, Matthew Cowles, as Florence’s husband, Noël and Company was founded by Keith Merrill, Artistic KT Sullivan as Helen, Florence’s close friend, Edward Hibbert Director and Mary Ellen Ashley, Producing Director. Their as Pawnie, a sharp-witted sophisticated friend of Florence, goal is to present readings of plays by Noël Coward, along Keith Merrill as Tom, Florence’s lover, Mary Ellen Ashley as with the best of British theatre from the past century. A pre- Clara, a high-strung concert singer who is a friend of Florence, show concert of Coward music by popular entertainer and NCS Rachel Pickup as Bunty, Nicky’s fiancé, Jane Strauss as member Steve Ross introduced their opening production in Preston, Florence’s maid, and Jerry Richardson, as Bruce March, 2012 of Coward’s Design for Living . It played to a Fairlight, a playwright. Though restricted by a small playing sold-out house, as did their second presentation in April of area, the three act play was ably staged and guided by director Coward’s The Vortex . Favourite cabaret performer, and NCS Gabriel Barre.

At the Arclight Theatre - Gotham Radio Theatre - JEFF HARNAR NOËL COWARD Blithe Spirit CABARET AWARD WINNER From the 1930s until the early 1960s, radio as a dramatic medium, enjoyed great popularity with such programs as Lux The Mabel Mercer Foundation in association with the Noël Radio Theatre or Theatre Guild on the Air. Adaptations of Coward Foundation in London is pleased to announce the Broadway plays and films, sometimes with the original stars, very talented Jeff Harnar as the winner of the third Noël were often presented in a theatre before a live audience. Over Coward Cabaret award competition which took place at the the years many of Noël Coward’s plays have been presented on Laurie Beechman theatre in New York on April 24, 2012. the radio. Coward himself, along with Gertrude Lawrence, This year’s competition was hosted by popular cabaret appeared in 1936 on Rudy Vallee’s Royal Gelatin Hour in a peformer, KT Sullivan. Mr. Harnar performed ‘Mrs. production of Red Peppers . Worthington’ and ‘Sail Away’ and was selected by a panel A company called Gotham Radio Theatre, whose intention of five judges who were independent of both organizations. is to revive the experience of vintage radio, presented on April He will receive the $5000 cash prize award on stage at the 16, 2012 a radio broadcast of Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit annual Cabaret Convention in October at the Rose Theatre, before a live audience. In the manner of radio from a bygone Jazz at Lincoln Center. era, actors played multiple roles, sound effects were created live and original music was used. They even included radio Mr. Harnar is no stranger to the music of Coward, having commercials (“brought to you this evening by Wings appeared in the Coward Centennial Gala at Carnagie Hall cigarettes”). Four very talented actors, Michael Iannucci, in 1999. In 2005 he appeared with KT Sullivan and Karen Valerie Gilbert, Victor Barbella, and Laura Leopard, using Kohler in a highly acclaimed Noël Coward revue call A different voices, played all the roles in the play. They are Marvelous Party. He has performed at major cabaret clearly very adept in the technique of radio acting. The venues all across America, and created and hosted three adaptation by Sydnie Grosberg Ronga was very faithful to seasons of T he American Songbook in London at The Noël Coward’s play. This unique presentation provided a Jermyn Street Theatre and Pizza on The Park in London. thoroughly entertaining evening.

Ken Starrett Website: www.gothamradiotheatre.com/blithe-spirit.html

The National Arts Club On Thursday, April 19, 2012, a packed house in the grand gallery of the National Arts Club enjoyed a program of Coward history, anecdotes, and music presented by historian and author David Garrard Lowe and pianist/singer Bobby Nesbitt. This presentation was part of the 2012 Noël Coward New York Festival. The sparkling melodies, wit, and style of The Bobby Nesbitt and David K T Sullivan, Jeff Harner and Ken Starrett Master were enjoyed by all. Garrard Lowe at the Awards Photo by Russ Weatherford. Photo by Rose Billings - 8- Alan Pally writes about A Cavalcade of Coward . . .

On April 23, the Paley Center for Media presented its offering in the Festival. A Cavalcade of Coward , devised and narrated by Barry Day, featured screenings of video clips from the Paley's archive as well as performances by Anna Bergman, Simon Jones, Steve Ross, and Amanda Squitieri. Highlights included Ms. Squitieri's exquisite medley of songs from Bitter Sweet ; Ms. Bergman's performance of ‘Men About Town;’ Mr. Ross's moving ‘London Pride;’ and Mr. Jones's rendition of ‘Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans.’ The rarely seen clips from the Paley's archive were dazzling, particularly footage of The Master as well as a truly amazing montage of performances of ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen,’ featuring Carol Channing and John Gielgud; Terry Thomas, Judy Garland, and Lena Horne; and the Muppets! More to come. . . ! Tammy Grimes, Geoffrey Johnson and Alan Brodie at the opening of Star Quality. MARIA AITKEN On teaching Noël Coward master classes at Juilliard

have taught several Noël Coward workshops at Yale and more visceral. What they might NYU and in England, but an invitation to do one at the have thought was going to be an Juilliard School of Drama was particularly intriguing. exhumation turned out to be These are mostly younger students and academic demanding and stimulating. qualifications are not the yardstick for their acceptance; you Persuading them that you need to can be pretty sure they’re talented, but they may not have light a little flame under yourself heard of Design for Living or the Lunts, or seen a Greta Garbo in the wings, to come on at a movie. slightly higher temperature, In the event, they surprised me. They entered into the resulted in some lovely energy. worlds of the three plays we tackled: Hay Fever , Private They enjoyed cranking Lives and Design for Living . Even if they sometimes found the their brains to work quicker, so that they could trampoline off amorality of the characters unsympathetic, they abandoned their cues, they enjoyed changing moods on a dime - and most their own prejudices with the sensation of being on vacation. of all they enjoyed letting the words lead the way. American actors are often brilliant at “acting in the gaps”, sometimes less “Join in the customs of the place and you’ll have a better likely to mine the signals contained in the text first. And they time ”, I kept saying. took enthusiastically to a very British practice - cloaking your real emotions; using tactics to achieve dominance. Playing “the truth” is not always a matter of being straightforward! I think there are some hurdles for actors to overcome in order to inhabit Coward’s world. But these Juilliard students began to sniff that it might be worth it to embrace flippancy, to abandon the idea that good manners are a virtue - in order to experience the pace, the wit, the volatility, the apparent effortlessness that’s required in performance. They had the equipment, they just hadn’t realized to what extent the plays demanded it. But what fertile ground there was in that class, and what a small step to their understanding. After all, this is what Coward had to say about American actors in The Juilliard the 20s and 30s: “…whenever I was about to do a new production in England, I always used to go to new York for a fortnight and go to every single play, because the tempo and the wonderful speed and vitality of the They didn’t fall into the commonest trap - camping about theatre was far superior to the British then.” using a too-posh voice, treating the words as though they were in aspic. They were delighted to find that things are altogether

- 9- Brad Rosenstein introduces ‘Noël’ at the AMPAS showing of the restored 1933 film ‘Cavalcade.’

THE VORTEX IN CHICAGO A newly-formed theatre company in Chicago called the Dead Writers Theatre Collective, is a performing arts collective comprised largely of Chicago-based directors, designers, actors and playwrights producing and performing works either by or about dead writers. The first production of this new company will be Noël Coward’s 1924 play, The Vortex . In London at that time, it was considered shocking and scandalous. It made Coward a major name in the theatre. Following a successful run on Broadway, Coward himself performed The Vortex in Chicago in 1926 and it has rarely been seen there since. It will be directed by Jim Schneider, the Artistic Director and Founder of the Collective and featured in the two lead roles will be actors from the Collective, Bonnie Hilton and Kaelan Strouse.

The production will be presented at The Greenhouse Theatre, 2257 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, from July 12 through August 26, 2012. For ticket information, call 773/404-7366 or go to www.deadwriters.net

Jim Schneider is a long-time loyal member of the Noël Coward Society. He has a long list of impressive directing credits which include several productions of Coward plays. Jim’s 2005 Circle Theatre production of Noël Coward’s Design for Living was selected by Chicago Sun Time’s theatre critic Hedy Weiss as one of the best of the top 10 productions in Chicago for 2005. His 2008 production of Hay Fever was also highly acclaimed. For the Circle Theatre he has also directed The Women , Philadelphia Story , Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , and An Chicago premiere of Paul Prince’s In Apartment 3D at Ideal Husband . He directed Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Café Voltaire, the professional world premiere of Neil Fan for Theatre of Western Labute’s dark comedy, Lepers (later to become the Springs, The Gondoliers for the movie, Your Friends and Neighbors ) and the Chicago Evanston-based Savoyiares, and at premiere of the Harold Arlen musical revue, Sweet & the City Lit Theatre Festival, the Hot . world premiere presentation of Originally from Houston, Texas Jim is a graduate of Ernest Hemingway’s Hills like the University of Houston with an M.F.A. in directing. White Elephants , adapted by He studied with legendary playwright Edward Albee and Adam Pasen, a member of the the late, Jose Quintero, the founder of Circle-in-the- Dead Writers Theatre Collective. Square Theatre in New York. He founded Horizon’s Other directing credits include the Showcase Theatre where, working with the author, he Chicago premiere of three beach- produced and directed Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story themed one-acts by Edward Albee and The American Dream . With the assistance of Mr. under the banner title of Sand at Foote, he directed the premiere production of Horton the Theatre Building, with the Foote’s Courtship . assistance of Mr. Albee, the Ken Starrett

- 10 - A romantic country idyll: lunch with GOLDENHURST Julian Clary at Goldenhurst Encountered ‘A romantic country idyll of weathered brickwork, old timbers bedroom and many other of the rooms. The Kentish farmhouse and a lush green garden.’ This is Julian Clary’s own is rambling, and timber-framed. While it is spacious, it always description of Goldenhurst, the Kent farmhouse which Noël manages to feel cosy and intimate. Coward owned through three decades. Very much the way it Restoring the Old Manor has been demanding and looked as I manoeuvred the car into the front courtyard – fascinating.” A house like this, you don’t feel that you own it, comfortable, settled and unassertive – not at all the trophy you just have the keys and you preserve it.” A great deal of house of a ‘celeb’. work was needed, on the roof, the gutters, the window frames. Four of us from the Noël Coward Society committee had Julian rapidly became aware of the house’s personality. A been very kindly invited to lunch there on a rainy Saturday in friend with divining rods insisted there were several ghosts – early March. Goldenhurst was divided into two properties after not least Noël Coward’s. Pictures fell off the bedroom walls in Coward sold it in 1956, and a little while ago Julian Clary the middle of the night, and the ancient boiler in the cellar was bought the one now called The Old Manor, closer to the a ‘mad old dragon.’ byroad. John Knowles, Stephen Greenman, Stephen Duckham After Julian had done what he modestly describes as ‘a and I were now his guests. little bit of research’, he saw that when Coward bought Julian Clary warmly welcomed each of us, and in no time Goldenhurst it was just after he started his relationship with we were seated in front of a most welcome log fire in the Jack Wilson. Their relationship spanned the period of Coward’s beamed drawing room sipping pink champagne. Our host was ownership of the house. Clary the novelist began to realise quietly dressed in black, and though charming and attentive, there was a book in the drama which started with a rural seemed a little shy. Not a sequin in sight, and very far from the hideaway and ended in sorrow and anger when Coward faced ‘annoying camp comic and renowned homosexual’ he portrays the truth that Jack Wilson had been defrauding him for years. on stage. It quickly became clear that he is fascinated by – and So it was that his third novel Briefs Encountered came to be very knowledgeable about - Noël Coward. written. We were within three weeks of the book launch. John Knowles came bearing gifts from the Society. These “The house is the star of the book really. The whole ‘included CDs of ‘A Talent To Amuse’ and Noël Coward His business of the ghosts here: I’d been aware as soon as I moved Voice in Verse;’ some prints of Noël, Graham Payn and Cole in of noises and strange things. If I was stuck with a bit of plot Lesley at Goldenhurst; a 1st edition book; the ‘Noël Coward or I needed something to happen then sure enough the house Songbook’ and ‘The Unknown Noël’ signed by Graham Payn would provide, there would be a bang or a crash or a flood in and exclusive to NCS. Julian was somewhat overwhelmed, not the cellar or just something to make me focus on it.” least because he knows enough to appreciate the significance Julian explained to us that his life now swings between of what John had chosen. Sipping champagne in front of a log periods of peace and quiet at the Old Manor while he writes, fire was the ideal setting to look through one of Noël’s 3D and touring his one-man shows and the panto season. In private viewers at some of the stereoscopic slides John had brought he is gently self-deprecating, somewhat rueful, and not a little with him for Julian to share. None of us had seen these before anxious that the Noël Coward Society might rise in its wrath at so it was a joyful if somewhat frustrating circular dash for us his ‘cheek’ in writing fictional Coward dialogue. all to see the most significant slides. Before long Julian was Over lunch we met the jazz singer Ian Shaw, a friend of explaining to us how he came to buy the house, and we did ‘the Julian Clary’s from Folkestone, excellent company and of guided tour,’ seeing the study where Noël Coward worked, his whom more later. After we had feasted on an excellent

The Old Manor (Goldenhurst)

- 11 - shepherd’s pie cooked by Clary’s very competent friend David, “You look at this ancient gin bottle and imagine some drunk we took advantage of the sunnier weather and went for a walk party-goer just chucking it over their shoulder.” in the garden and grounds surrounding both the properties. Back in the warmth of the drawing-room, Julian told us he Julian confided that he’d never imagined he could become has been offered a chance to 'buy back' the grand piano that rustic in any way. “ I thought it was all mud and misery. And Noël owned at Goldenhurst - now purchased since our visit. He there is a lot of mud, but you just get the appropriate footwear.” is keen to try and bring the entrance to the house back to the The views to the south from Goldenhurst are breathtaking, way it was in Noël's day by acquiring some additional land. especially in the luminous sunlight filtered through the Julian very kindly signed pre-release copies of Briefs rainclouds that afternoon. The house sits on an upland on the Encountered for us. As a final treat in what had already been a very edge of Romney Marsh and we could see across this splendid day, Ian Shaw sang some Coward songs for us - one enchanted landscape through the sunlit mists. You were aware sight-read from the Coward Songbook we gave Julian - and of the peace and remoteness and what Coward must have played on the cutest portable piano, coloured duck-egg blue. valued so much about the place. It’s very clear that Julian is a devoted guardian of It wasn’t peace all the time: Julian reminded us of the many Goldenhurst and very much in spirit with its previous owner. house parties and guests like Vivien Leigh and Marlene We were very grateful indeed for his gracious hospitality and Dietrich – “just anyone you could name really, through the we feel that the Noël Coward Society has a serious and warm- Twenties or Thirties”. He still digs up gin bottles in the garden: hearted friend.

Graham Payn, Kay Thompson and Cole Lesley Julian Clary at the same spot at The Old Manor

Julian Clary by the duck pond at The Old Manor Ian Shaw, Denys Robinson, Stephen Duckham, Julian and Stephen Greenman

- 12 - “A Domineering Lover”

Denys Robinson reviews Julian Clary’s new novel ‘Briefs Encountered’, which will either entertain or enrage all those who admire Noël Coward.

Denys Robinson

ulian Clary’s third novel Briefs Encountered enters fascinating if dangerous territory for members of the Noël Coward Society, or indeed any admirers of Coward and his work. Clary’s inspiration comes in part from having bought Coward’s rural retreat, Goldenhurst. His researches led him to realise that Coward’s relationship with his American lover, Jack Wilson, spanned almost exactly the period during which Coward owned the 15th century Kentish farmhouse. Clary has developed a moving if necessarily imagined account of Coward’s ill-fated relationship with Wilson, which ended in 1956 when he finally faced up to the truth that Wilson had been defrauding him for years. Clary interleaves and contrasts this with a modern day relationship also taking place under the Goldenhurst roof – between his entirely fictional characters, Richard Stent, a famous actor past his prime, and his younger long-term male partner Fran Chilman. This relationship is put at risk when Albie, the 19-year old son of Jess, his female PA, seduces the much older Richard. The novel’s structure alternates chapters of past and present – a design which reminded me strongly of a favourite novel of mine, William Corlett’s Now and Then . Past and present illuminate each other, though it is a tribute rather than a criticism to say that at times when a chapter ends with a cliffhanger you want to skip forward several pages. Clary has said in an interview “the house is the star of the tutting.” I felt that most of the Coward lines were pitch- book really”. He is understandably intrigued by the ghostly perfect. Charged by his devoted secretary Lorn with looking happenings at Goldenhurst, and they are woven into the fabric ‘all thin and pale’, Clary has Noël reply “I may well break in of the novel, since his storylines include one murder and a two like a cheese biscuit”. One can almost hear the intonation. scene of ultimately fatal torture and humiliation. Society members will undoubtedly look for evidence of The fictional Richard Stent writes that “the house rules my material that led to Coward’s best known pieces. Perhaps the life like a domineering lover”. When Julian Clary spoke success of Hay Fever (1924) made Coward look for his own recently at the Cambridge Spring Wordfest, I asked him country house where all sorts of people could come down for whether he was conscious of an overriding theme in the novel the weekend; the presence of a variety of ghosts and a medium of famous performers (Noël and Richard) being dominated and explicitly pre-figures Blithe Spirit (Goldenhurst is indeed an manipulated by their attractive lovers (Jack Wilson and Albie). easy drive from Folkestone). Alice the maid is at once the He accepted that the theme was there, but insisted that he wayward girl of the song ‘Alice Is At It Again’, and Edith, the writes instinctively, almost allowing the characters to ‘take maid in Blithe Spirit who turns out to have hidden depths. charge’. My chief problem with Clary’s novel is that he seems There are many sections of this novel that are moving and uncertain what kind of book he is trying to write. The very title altogether believable in their portrayal of emotion and desire. suggests the kind of outrageous satirical send-up so beloved by Clary clearly has the creative skill and sensitivity to write a the audiences of Clary’s one-man shows, and there is enough serious (though never solemn) novel. His description of the of that in the novel to make some readers blench. However, it whirlwind romance between famous actor and teenage ex- is also by turns a ‘whodunnit’, a ghost story, at least two love schoolboy (where the boy has very much the upper hand) is stories and a thriller. To my mind, Clary is at his best when he brilliantly captured. is writing seriously about personal relationships. Possibly he Clary has a remarkably accurate ear for dialogue. So good underrates his own very real abilities as a writer. is it indeed that he really must stop adding in adverbs to Those readers who regard Coward’s homosexuality as an describe how a particular line is delivered. The quality of the unfortunate drawback to an otherwise brilliant career had dialogue makes them redundant. There are enough adverbs probably better avoid this book. For the rest of us, Clary has here to keep the game portrayed in Act 2 of Hay Fever going written a hugely entertaining novel shedding an amusing and for several hours. sometimes hilarious light on Noël Coward. I don’t think he Clary has admitted that he was especially nervous about needs to fear Coward’s ghost. writing lines for Noël Coward: “it seemed a bit of a cheek really – you imagine Noël is breathing down your neck Denys Robinson

- 13 - AUSTRALIA REVISITED On a recent trip to Australia our editor went south to Adelaide to meet Kerry Hailstone, who looks after the interests of the Society in that great island continent, and NCS member Martin Wright and his family who live in Truro some 80km north-east of Adelaide. Kerry founded The Noël Coward Appreciation Society of South Australia a year before our own Society - with a strong emphasis on enjoying and performing The Master’s works. It had its own popular magazine edited by Kerry that celebrated Coward’s relationship with Australia. This trip opened our editor’s eyes to the enormous amount of information Kerry, Martin and others had gathered and published during the decade when The Noël Coward Appreciation Society thrived.

In recent years, past Chairman Barbara Longford developed a good relationship with Kerry and his fellow Coward devotees that led to the relationship we enjoy now in the International Noël Coward Society and Coward community. As part of our desire to strengthen our ties with our Australian members we will be dedicating a regular section of Home Chat to Coward in Australia - this is not so much a gift to them but to us - allowing us to profit from all the research and work carried out by Kerry and the Australian society to find out so much more about Noël in the Antipodes. The first article is taken from ‘Woman’s Day and Home’ dated March 29 1954 (also published in Future Indefinite ) where Noël details his trip in 1940. Its is sub-headed: The world’s most successful playwright continuing his amazing life story, now tells us of his experiences in Australia and New Zealand during his memorable tour in 1946. Woman’s Day is privileged to be the first in Australia to publish this intriguing new story. “They shouted me down in Melbourne” arrived in Sydney Harbor to begin my tour of Australia townships and sheep farms, crouching eagerly over their radios in 1940 and was able to get a bird’s eye view from the in expectation of an easy flood of Mayfair witticisms, only to upper deck rail of my be fobbed off with a strangulated, reception committee. I disembodied voice, saying, “Hello, was shattered for a few seconds Australia — I am very happy to be here.” by an attack of “First Night When this unimpressive performance Nerves.” I felt panic-striken, was over, there were more introductions under-rehearsed and desperately and hand-shakings and I was hustled into unsure of my lines. My heart a car and driven to the Hotel Australia. sank still further when I saw a People in the streets waved as I passed radio van and newsreel cameras. and I waved back and smiled until my I am not very good at making face muscles ached. impromptu speeches, although Upon arrival at the hotel I was in later years I have improved. I plumped straight into a Press reception. was entirely alone with no Now, to me, there is nothing in the world supporting cast and not even an so nerve-racking as a Press reception. assistant stage manager to cue Usually, in the case of a celebrity, the me. Press label has been fixed and the cliches My brain felt woolly and set for years. clogged with fear and I knew In my particular case the die was cast, with dreadful certainty that in 1924, when The Vortex was produced when the microphone was in London and I was rocketted overnight shoved under my nose I should into a blaze of publicity. The Vortex was a make a complete fool of myself. social drama, satirising a small group of Fortunately by the time the wealthy, decadent people. Press men had come on board I played the part of a neurotic misfit and photographed me and fired who took drugs, made sharp, witty questions at me, my nervousness remarks and was desolately unhappy. had diminished enough to There was my label, ready to hand and enable me to step ashore with glaringly printed. outward certainty at least. Noël Coward, who played him, also I was greeted by a was twenty-four and presumably well bewildering number of officials who rushed me immediately to groomed, witty and decadent. Whether or not he was a drug the dreaded microphone; the news cameras clicked; flash bulbs addict was never proved, although it was suspected. His blinded me and I managed to stammer out a few stereotyped underlying desolate unhappiness, although suspected was phrases without utterly disgracing myself. never proved either but none of that was important. However. I was unable to prevent my mind’s eye envisaging thousands of disgruntled Australians, in faraway Neurotic playboy - 14 - All that was important for monotonous future reference was the creative image — the talented, neurotic, sophisticated playboy. In later years this imaginary, rather tiresome figure, suffered occasional eclipses but they were of short duration. Cavalcad e, Bitter Sweet , This Happy Breed , Brief Encounter , and In Which We Serve , scratched a little gloss off the legend, but not enough to damage it. It was not to be wondered at that this publicised sybarite, this mannered exotic, flicking the useless froth of society from his blue pin-stripe, was a trifle apprehensive. There was a great deal of prejudice to be overcome when I walked into that crowded room in the Hotel Australia, Sydney, and I was definitely aware of it even if they themselves were not. I am thankful to say that, on the whole, I passed through the ordeal satisfactorily. After the first quarter of an hour or so I felt the tension relax and my own nervousness relax with it. When it was over I was hurried off to a reception given for me by the Australian Minister for the Army, Mr. P. C. Spender. At a wartime party at the home of Sir Charles and Lady The reception was a large one, and I shook hands with several Lloyd Jones in Sydney, Coward talked with (L to R) Lady hundred people. I had no time to say anything particular to Lloyd Jones, Mrs. Paul Hackworth and Peter Lubbock. anyone beyond the usual “How do you do” and “How happy I am to be here.” but was conscious of much warmth and kindliness.

Sang in desperation

At six o'clock I rushed off to pay my official call on Lord Gowrie, the Governor General. He was a tall, handsome man with white hair and twinkling blue eyes. There was something in his manner, an emanation of kindness and commonsense, that put me at ease, and he assured me that he would support me in any way he could, during my tour, but warned me that it would be arduous. After this I had just time to get back to the hotel, bathe and change and have dinner. The dinner party was but a brief prelude to the Red Cross ball given in my honour at the Town Hall. This was a concert as well as a ball, and several famous Australian artists had consented to appear. Inside the hall I stood with the Lord and Lady Mayoress while people filed by and were introduced to me. all of which took a long time. At last the concert began and I was able to sit down and enjoy myself. The orchestra was good and Marie Bremner sang ‘I'll See You Again’ and ‘I'll Follow My Secret Heart’ beautifully. Inevitably I had to climb on the stage and Backstage at Sydney’s Theatre Royal in 1940 the make a speech. Whether or not I sang any songs I forget, but I playwright met an old friend - singer Strella Wilson. She believe I dashed off ‘Marvellous Party’ and ‘Mad Dogs And now sees Coward frequently at Australia House , London Englishmen’ in sheer desperation. My tour lasted seven weeks and was, to me, both strenuous troop audiences as I was. and rewarding. The Red Cross made a profit of approximately I let them get on with their whistling and catcalls for a little £12,000 from my appearances in different cities. My and then announced, with some firmness, through the broadcasts, judging from the letters I received, gave pleasure to microphone, that I intended to sing steadily for three-quarters many people in out-of-the-way places who were unable to of an hour whether they liked it or not. come to any of my performances. The newspapers and This dreadful threat silenced them enough for me to get on magazines with only two exceptions helped me enormously by with my programme. At the end they applauded and cheered publicising me with courtesy and kindness. vociforously, and carried me out of the hut on their shoulders, The two exceptions were both in opposition to the which was uncomfortable but gratifying. A half an hour later I Government. But only on one occasion did they achieve a brief gave another show in the same hut which was not quite big triumph when I was faced at a training camp outside enough to accommodate the whole camp. The word must have Melbourne with an audience of Diggers, who proceeded to around that I was more “dinkum” than had been anticipated shout me down before I even started to sing to them. This because this time, although they were rather slow in the uptake, unexpected hostility startled me for a moment and horrified my there was no overt hostility. poor accompanist who was not so inured to the vagaries of To offset the disconcerting episode, all the other troop - 15 - concerts went smoothly from start to finish. The public performances were all successful and the audiences wonderful. Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Fremantle, Canberra, Brisbane, Launceston, Hobart — back and forth and up and down I went until I was dizzy. My farewell performance in Sydney, which closed my tour, was a special matinée given in aid of the bombed out victims of the London blitzes. Lord Cowrie drove in a hundred miles from the country to support it and all the leading artists of Australia appeared willingly and gladly as theatre people always do. It was a tremendous success and with the help of generous donations, a total of £2000 was raised. I spent Christmas with Lord and Lady Gowrie at Canberra, endured an unpleasant bout of colitis, and then spent a week by myself in a lovely little house on an estuary. On Decemher 31 there was no sun until the evening about 5.30, when it suddenly emerged and seemed to set the estuary on fire. I went down and swam in the pool which was netted to keep out the sharks, and then settled myself with my back to a rock with a packet of cigarettes by me and looked out across the silver-grey water and yellow sandbanks to the farthest shore. I looked back over the year that was just ending; and its ups and downs, its hopes, disappointments, excitements and despairs, and wondered rather bleakly if the coming year was going to be so super-charged with emotions and frustrations and so over-clouded with events and people. How did others see me?

How invaluable it would be, I reflected, if just once, just for a brief spell I could see myself clearly from the outside, as others saw me. How helpful it would be moving so continually Coward was mobbed by enthusiastic theatregoers when he across the public vision, to know what that vision really attended a first night performance of his comedy, observed, to note objectively what it was in my personality that ‘Private Lives,’ at Sydney’s Minerva Theatre in 1940. moved some people to like and applaud me and arouse in others such irritation and resentment. the Prime Minister, from whom he brought cordial greetings. I tried lying there in the fading light to put myself in the He had also brought the Mayor of Auckland and three Press place of an ordinary Australian Digger, a true product of the gentlemen who were waiting on deck. I hurried into my clothes wide-open spaces, suddenly asked to sit on a hard bench in a as quickly as I could while Stevens gave me a rough outline of stuffy Nissen hut and enjoy the restrained antics of a forty- my itinerary for the next few days. year-old Englishman with no voice and a red carnation in his buttonhole. What, in the songs I sang, in the allusions I made could possibly be entertaining to him? First concert — a riot The last light went from the sky the stars came out and, girding my towel round me, I walked up to the quiet house. The itinerary sounded reasonable enough a good deal less That night, after dinner, I wrote out the final draft of my strenuous than my Australian programme and my spirits farewell broadcast which was scheduled for the evening before lightened considerably. I sailed, and went to bed. When the old year actually came to My first two troop concerts were highly successful and my an end with its toast-drinking and hand-shaking and bell- first public concert was a riot. The Prime Minister and the ringing, I was fast asleep in blissful, peaceful solitude. Government had really taken the trouble to make my visit as My ship arrived at Auckland, New Zealand, at 7.30 one pleasant as possible. Sight-seeing trips had been arranged and morning. The anchor dropped about a mile from the dock and sometimes two or three days had been left free of so I had a leisurely breakfast and proceeded to bath and shave commitments, for which I was grateful. in good order. While I was shaving there was a knock on the In Rotorua I was given a Maori welcome. This was very door and thinking it was the steward I called “Come in.” special and took place in a church hall. I was met at the door After a moment I emerged from the bath-room stark-naked and by a painted warrior who capered round me for some minutes came face to face with a completely strange man clutching a and finally made me pick up two sticks from the floor. Homburg hat and looking, naturally enough, rather startled. I After I had achieved this not impossible feat a great uproar apologised lightly for my casual appearance, and put on my broke out and I was presented to the chiefs and the local belles, dressing-gown and offered him a cigarette. with whom I rubbed noses; this was damp but convivial. Then He then told me that his name was Stevens and that he had came the entertainment which consisted of native songs and been accredited to me as a sort of A.D.C. by Mr. Peter Fraser, dances, slightly spoilt for me by the fact that the male dancers

- 16 - wore ordinary grey flannel trousers under their straw skirts The hotel was run by a young American couple called Jack which I thought, vitiated the primitive barbarity of the and Lordee Bramhall. There was also a sprinkling of men occasion. concerned with the running of the airport and the ground staff The official part of my New Zealand tour finished in for servicing the plane. A hundred yards or so away from the Wellington and I flew back to Auckland where I had to wait for house was the British Residency and station. The official a day or two for the Clipper to take me to Cant Island, where I British residents were a Mr. and Mrs. Fleming. Frank Fleming had arranged to stop off for a week to catch my breath and get had built the house, aided by some local boys, virtually with some sun. his own hands. Stevens was still with me and we went to a jolly old movie or two. At one of these, the manager, in a fit of misguided An outpost of Empire enthusiasm, flashed on the screen an announcement that I was present in the cinema. This produced gratifying applause and finally resulted in a free-for-all in the lobby at the end of the He ran the radio office, raised the Union Jack solemnly performance. every morning and lowered it every night. They were two very It was a Saturday night and the theatre was full and it took nice people. My note about them in diary reads as follows: us about twenty minutes to get out onto the pavement and into the car. Once in it there was near tragedy. “Called on Flemings for dinner and had a drink with them. A mother, obviously in the grip of hysteria, handed me her Typically English in the best possible sense, simple, baby through the window, screaming: “Kiss my little girlie, go unpretentious and getting on with the job. on, kiss her!” At this moment the car started to move and I was They came here alone, before Pan American, from Fiji, or caught with the little girlie's hand while the mother hung on to rather, he did. He built the house they live in and she joined its legs. him later. They have relatives in London and Sussex and suffer With commendable presence of mind I struck the mother occasionally from bouts of home-sickness coupled with an sharply on the head with my left hand and yanked the child irritation at the Americans who have so much luxury such a into the car with me before its back was broken. There was a little way away. great deal of shrieking, the car stopped, and I handed back They have no official photograph King and Queen, only a girlie unhurt and unkissed. She had, however, utilised her brief framed reproduction from the Illustrated London News which moment of perilous reflected glory by wetting me to the skin. had buckled because rain-water got into the frame during the My Clipper left Auckland at 7.30 pm one morning and was last cyclone. Promised to report this when I get home. Feel due to arrive at Canton Island at seven the following evening, there is a story in them. ” but owing to head-winds there was a delay of three hours; there was also a feeling of tension because there were no other A few months after my return to London I had the islands within hundreds of miles and the passengers (perhaps opportunity of telling the Queen about the buckled the crew as well) were beginning to wonder how much longer reproduction and, a few days later, received a letter from her they would hold out. Lady-in-Waiting, informing me that a photograph of Their At last however there was a gleeful shout from the forward Majesties had been sent to Mr. and Mrs. Fleming. end of the plane and we all pressed our foreheads against the Later still, I made an approximation of their characters and circular windows and stared down into the blackness, where situation of the basis of a story called Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill . I thousands of feet below us was a small cluster of winking sent it to them the moment it was published but I don't know if lights looking like a Cartier bracelet flung onto black velvet. they got it. Canton Island is a coral reef, one down south of the There were other story possibilities on Canton Island— equator, twenty nine miles round and no wider than a few there always are in small isolated communities. Local conflicts hundred yards at a point. It enclosed a lagoon in which there is and dramas and comedies swell to terrific proportions when only one narrow entrance from the open sea not wide enough there is nothing but surf and sky, the elements surrounding you to give passage to anything larger than a launch. and no escape, not even for a weekend. The Clipper made a perfect landing, doors were opened and the warm night air came swirling in. The passengers walked along a little wooden jetty straight into the lounge of a typical I yelled with relief American luxury hotel. The effect was startling. I had settled in my mind for a shackle bamboo guest-house with tumble-down verandahs and inadequate plumbing, and Even during the short time I spent on Canton Island there was prepared to endure any manner of creature discomforts for were several excitements. the sake of rest and sun. There was the episode of the cyclone, The-New Zealand- I had certainly not bargained for private showers, luxurious bound Clipper was due one evening at eight, but because a beds, shining china and a chromium cocktail-bar. cyclone blew up between it and Canton Island, it was delayed The Clipper took off again at noon the following day, for several hours, too far from Honolulu to be able to turn back leaving me behind in an empty hotel with seven clear days in and too far from any other possible landing place. which to swim and read and enjoy myself. The evident drama of the situation was made even more The island, although scenically disappointing - there was no poignant on the island because of the wife of Hal Graves, the scenery beyond a few palms - was exactly what I wanted. A airport manager, was on board the plane with their newly-born glorious lagoon a few feet away full of vivid tropical fish, child. From eight until one in the morning we all sat about, pounding surf a few yards away to supply a permanent lullaby, either in the hotel or the airport office, waiting for news. a tennis court, a small sailing boat belonging to Dick Danner, Radio messages occasionally got through, but the weather the island entomologist and above all time, and to spare. was so appalling that they were mostly unintelligible. Then

- 17 - came the news which we both hoped for and dreaded —the enough for my Clipper to take oft. Clipper was coming in to land. Hal Graves, white and shaking I craned my head and looked back just before we flew into but in perfect control, rushed out to the launch, followed by me a cloud bank. There it lay, that tiny coral circlet in the blue and Jack Bramham. water; the jetty, the lagoon, the coloured fish, the little white We on the deck were straining our eyes to try and spot the terns so tame that they perched on your hand, Lordee and Jack. plane through the mist and the rain. Suddenly there it was Hal Graves’ baby screaming its lungs out and Frank Fleming, immediately above our heads; it zoomed low over the hotel, wearing an old pair of khaki shorts, hauling up the flag. missing the roof by inches, disappeared completely, and then, a few seconds later reappeared and dropped gently down on to Woman’s Day and Home went on to advertise that . . . the water. I remember yelling violently with relief. Mrs. Graves and the baby emerged unscathed and so did NEXT WEEK: Lord Louis Mountbatten's story gives me the rest of the passengers. The American-bound Clipper which the inspiration for the film, In Which We Serve . . . was to take me away managed to land two days later, but was unable to take off again, and so there were two full passenger But we will be opening Kerry Hailstone’s archive of Coward loads and two crews all milling about, and all, in varying in Australia articles and images to share with you all . . . not degrees, frustrated and uncomfortable. General chaos reigned to be missed! until the morning of the sixth day, when the weather lifted Ben Stock as Noël in ‘Noël and Gertie’ at the Cockpit

"It's very rare that your agent calls and says you've been with a period style to which offered a job without audition (this was the first time in 15 Thom, Stewart and David years!) and when they say it's to play The Master himself in were so meticulous. It was Noël and Gertie .....the excitement builds. Coupled with that is also vital to us that anyone the fact that Danielle Tarento is producing, Thom Southerland ‘meeting’ Noël or Gertie for directing, Stewart Nicholls choreographing, David Randall is the first time would leave the musical director AND you'll be playing opposite the exquisite auditorium having gained the Helena Blackman - how could anyone think twice!!!!????? spirit of their personalities and Then the phone goes down and panic sets in...... who on relationship. Earth do I think I am? Play Noël Coward? In front of people? The mountain of the People who have paid? NEVER! learning the script for both I was very fortunate in that I had a few days away in the Helena and I was slowly sun before rehearsals began so I could start the terrifying task climbed during the two week of getting some of the lines under my belt. This was by far the rehearsal period (which biggest role I had ever played and I knew it was going to take literally felt about 20 minutes all of my concentration, focus and effort to even get it into my long!) and all of a sudden Ben Stock memory let alone alive on the stage. there we were performing to I was hugely comforted an audience. The show was when Thom told me very incredibly well received and we enjoyed a four week run at early on that he in no way The Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone - a venue fairly new to wanted an impression of Noël long ‘Fringe’ runs - but a highly versatile space and one I hope (I feel we are on first name will be used more and more and gain its own following - if terms now!) I am an actor not nothing else - the staff are more than happy to keep the bar an impressionist and for all of open after the show - why don't more venues do this....? us involved in the production Helena and I were thrilled to be asked to record a few of the story of the numbers from the show for BBC Radio 2 Friday Night Is extraordinary relationship Music Night Remembrance Day special - we both did ‘Has between two of the 20th Anybody Seen Our Ship?’ - and our solos ‘Sail Away’ and ‘Mrs Century's greatest performers, Worthington’ - which was such a thrill for us both and we hope the piece could only come to an indication that the show has a further life. life and be fully explored if So...how was it play Noël? From sheer terror I came to love we were true to the words every word I was given to say. To have the gift of his wit, (and music) that Sheridan clarity, his excoriating rebukes, his passion for the art of theatre Morley so carefully compiled and of course his enduring love and fascination with Gertie and let them be the guide was the role that actors dream of. I only hope I did him justice rather than being swamped by and he isn't wishing he'd written ‘Don't Put Your Son On The voice qualities and Stage Mrs Stock!’ mannerisms. We needed the Helena and I were thrilled to meet so many of The Noël show and the characters to be Coward Society members during the run - especially when a accessible to an audience in large group joined us during our last week - it was so 2011 and for them not to be wonderful to have support from The Society and to meet and alienated by actors trying to chat to the members. impersonate. Of course we Ben Stock Ben Stock and Helena Blackman also wanted to play the piece - 18 - Society Social Evening, February 28th 2012 at the Café de Paris Dancing to Michael Law’s Piccadilly Dance Orchestra… Noël Coward Cabaret with Dominic Vlasto and Ben Stock… A review by Celia Cologne tylish, sophisticated, smooth ... the Piccadilly Dance just off the very unglamorous Leicester Square (which seems Orchestra has played for dancing for four years at to be more of a building-site than usual at the moment), but London’s Ritz Hotel and for six years at the home of the from the moment of our arrival at the Café our efforts to play British Dance Bands, The Savoy. For this up to proper period style were very special event, their fourth annual ball at the not disappointed. With this Café de Paris, the orchestra recreated jazz, magical mix of famous venue swing and vocal hits from the 1920s to 40s, and period dance music, we using many original dance-band orchestrations were instantly able to recapture to accompany dances such as the Charleston, a good deal of the spirit of the Foxtrot, Waltz and Tango. Michael Law had 20th-century pre-War dance- energized the attendance of Society members by band scene and much of its offering us an exclusive (and handsome) glamour! discount on the ticket price. It is always a pleasure to The Café de Paris used to be one of the most meet up with NCS members in exclusive nightclubs in the West End, famed for London, many of whom had its opulent decor, sense of old-school glamour travelled from well out-of-town, and celebrity patrons and performers. The venue and on this occasion we were features a huge indoor balcony completely only part of a larger whole, circling the dance floor, where most of the NCS members and their guests dining-tables are ranged, and a magnificent numbering only about a quarter double staircase descending to the dance floor of the total clientèle attendance from the entrance lobby. A foretaste of the of over a hundred. One couple, whole style of the event was provided by the devotees of the Piccadilly elegant printed invitations in 1930s-style script Dance Orchestra, had travelled received by Society from Germany specifically to members who attend the evening. Carol signed up for this Jones and Eileen North came up from the event, telling us to South Coast, and the distant wastes of order our “Carriages Norfolk were particularly well-represented at midnight” and by the presence of Geoff and Jan King and firmly suggesting their guests Angela and Carl Dodd, and that Black tie or Martin Amherst Lock’s guest Fiona Scott. “period” dress was One of our younger and newer members, preferred. Moira Tulloch, had flown in from Peebles in From Victoria Scotland. No stylish NCS event is truly train station Judy complete without the presence of Robert Shakespear and I and Pirjo Gardiner with their guests the Bob took an afternoon Allenbys, and we were also delighted to see taxicab along Park Stewart Griffiths and Mark Hassall with Lane to the Victory Valeria Coke. Services Club, Almost everyone Seymour Street W2 - by far the best present had dressed way to travel and appreciate the sights beautifully for the of London. Rather than cause severe occasion. One or two of damage to our bank balances by the gentlemen including indulging in some retail therapy down Martin Amherst Lock had Oxford Street, we simply chilled out gone for full white tie and and availed ourselves of the tea tails (sadly none had lounge. The entire premises had brought their top hat or recently received a complete cane or did an Astaire-style makeover, and the result was an tap routine!) while excellent compromise between Salvador Lloret-Fariña modern but still gracious old-style sported a magnificent decor. We retired to our rooms to frock-coat. Among the practice the art of metamorphosis and ladies there was much then, suitably transformed and more than a passing nod costumed, wafted downstairs, where the concierge hailed a here and there to period dress, our member Jan Penn being, as Hackney Carriage for us. always, a superb example to follow. The evening flowed The entrance to the Café de Paris lies in Coventry Street, effortlessly, from the initial reception with a glass of - 19 - champagne at the top of the double staircase, through the three- and nimbly essayed by Ben Stock – to Coward’s ‘Poor Little course special menu dinner and the entertainments; live dance Rich Girl’. band music with vocals from Michael Law and Louise Their closing number, using another fine Hackforth original Cookman , a suitably historic Noël Coward cabaret spot with accompaniment, was the anti-dance song ‘Nina’, but even this Dominic Vlasto with accompanist Ben Stock and ritzy tap- brilliantly-delivered diatribe could not prevent one feeling dancing routines from the Café de Paris girls. positively lured back down the sweeping double staircases to Ben Stock is a young professional sample the dance who has long been an active devotee of floor again! This Coward’s music theatre. His name was area was fully particularly familiar to some members occupied for the because several of us had previously seen rest of the evening each other at another NCS evening in as guests enjoyed London last October (which due to the thrill of timing factors received no advance notice ballroom dancing and which has not so far been reviewed to the orchestra’s or mentioned in Home Chat.) This was vintage, jazzy during a short run of a delightful tones and then production of Sheridan Morley’s Noël came back for and Gertie at the Cockpit Theatre in more, plus a Marylebone, which was choreographed special by our member Stewart Nicholls and opportunity to which starred Helena Blackman as Gertie kick up their heels and Ben Stock as to a Charleston Noël. session. In this We could production, Ben boast at least one celebrity on this Stock and Helena occasion: Joyce Stone, widow of Lew Blackman Stone, resident band leader at Cafe de epitomised the high Paris in the heyday of the big band era. style and elegance A lady who is 99 years young, she was of their subjects, interviewed on the balcony level by each giving Michael and we watched from the completely dance floor as Joyce was asked about convincing her memories of those heady, giddy character portraits days of the 1930s in particular, to while aptly which she replied “I loved every illustrating the minute of it”. mercurial nature of As indeed, did we all their professional enjoy the whole evening. and personal At the last minute, Leslie collaboration. Much depends, in and Jean Radford, the most this show, on the characters’ loyal attenders at NCS poise and their slickness with events, were unable to and control of the material they come due to illness, and play, which comes both with with amazing dedication and without music. had sent in their stead We thought at the time that their daughter and son-in- Ben Stock was totally in control law – but this was of both his character and the particularly apposite since musical material he handled, the son-in-law was on the and were delighted to find him eve of celebrating his lending his talents again to the eleventh birthday. No, this success of a Coward Society is not a misprint – think evening as piano accompanist about what date it was! with Dominic Vlasto, in a short I’m sure the Master would after-dinner cabaret of Coward songs. Dominic and Ben have been delighted by the joyful coincidence, and what better opened their cabaret with the ‘Café de Paris Medley’ of birthday present could you possibly have given someone than Coward songs as arranged by Noël’s accompanist Norman attendance at this uniquely pleasing and stylish event? We can Hackforth for their first performances there in 1951. thoroughly recommend the occasion for a repeat item on the This was not the only genuinely “authentic” arrangement, NCS social calendar. Committee members had worked hard to as both in the cabaret and the dance-band performances we promote it amongst the members, and your response, dear also heard some of Carroll Gibbons’ work, notably his band readers, was very gratifying. arrangement of Gershwin’s ‘Change Partners and Dance’ and Celia Cologne his high-speed syncopated piano accompaniment – brilliantly

- 20 - A Chance not to be missed!

As members will be aware we do not normally include items for sale but felt that this piece had some historic interest as well as providing an opportunity for both the seller and potential buyers.

he year is 1966. The place is Lord Williams’s School, Thame, near Oxford, where something rather extraordinary is happening. The school hall is packed to capacity and anyone au fait with the world of drama will recognise London critics present in force. They have to be here, of course, for the world premiere of a Noël Coward play about to be performed by schoolboys!... It all happened a long time ago, but, thanks to the director Gerard Gould, there is a lovely record of this production in a cuttings book. Gerard is now living in a nursing home where there is little room for private possessions. He is willing to sell the book if he has a good offer. There are 14 newspaper clippings, the original programme and original black and white photographs. There is also a hand-written note from Sheridan Morley thanking Gerard for the loan of this book. The pearl of great price preserved safely in its heart is a ‘good luck’ telegram from Noël sent from Port Maria, Jamaica. There is also a little green photograph album roughly 6 by 9 inches containing black and white photographs of Post Mortem and ITV interviewing Gerard about the play. 25 in all. This unique memorabilia could be yours! It will be sold, subject to Gerard’s agreement, to the highest bidder. To find out more - email: [email protected] or write to the editor John Knowles. The full story around this production is recorded in Gerard's biography, 'Making an Entrance' available from: [email protected]

- 21 - Barry Day explores her relationship with Noël and Graham Payn and offers thoughts O-KAY WITH NOËL on what might have been . . . Darling Kay and Little Lad, Do not think our manners bad But we had to hit the hay After an exhausting day. Darling Little Lad and Kay, Pray forgive us if we say When you both have drunk and fed, Please go QUIETLY to bed. Neither sing nor dance nor leap, Exercise some self control. Go to bed and go to sleep. Yours sincerely,Cole and Nole. (September 25th 1954) Graham Payn and Kay Thompson There would be a parody of Private Lives Reginald ! o read the note left by Noël and Cole Lesley for Graham Cynthia ! Payn (Little Lad) and their house guest, Kay Thompson. Back? The house was White Cliffs, Noël’s immediate post-war Yes. country retreat. The guest was an American singer, So soon ? director, choreographer, designer, writer, lyricist, composer - a Yes,Cynthia,we must talk. mini-female-Coward. I know. You mean... As Cecil Beaton would describe her in full flower - Quite. I'm leaving. “She sings and prances in cabaret between Los Angeles and Oh, so. Pamela ? Istanbul; she is skeletal, hatchet-faced, blonde and American; No. she wears tight, tapering slacks and moves like a mountain Evelyn ? goat...The proper language in which to review her is not No. English at all but Esperanto or possibly Morse code. ” Cec- ily ? Pre - cicely. Kay herself declared that she had found the secret of life... Oh, tonight ? Tonight. “A lot of hard work, a lot of sense of humour, a lot of joy and a I see. lot of tra-la-la. ” I'm glad. Hmm, and you? I'm off too. Noël had first encountered her when he was in the audience Oh. for her cabaret act in New York in the late 1940s. Kay was So. appearing with the four Williams brothers - including Andy - Algy? and their act was the highest paid at that time. What caught his No. eye was her final bow. She would kneel on one knee, spread Jerry? her arms and practically touch the floor with her head. Then No. off- no encores. Leslie ? Precisely. “Dear girl, ” Noël told her, “ you were absolutely magnificent. Well, cheerio. (Music begins) And when you did that beautiful bow and left the stage, I Cynthia, our tune. screamed for you to come out and have a second bow. And if Oh, love me ? you had I would have killed you! ” Terribly. Want me ? From then on their paths would cross on a regular basis. Frightfully. Kay was equally taken with Noël. In a charity benefit she Marry me ? devised a parody of Noël & Gertie in which she played Gertie Instantly. to Henry Fonda’s Noël. Later she would incorporate in her Oh,Reggie, you've been a brick cabaret act another spoof number, “Broadway, Street of throughout the whole ugly mess! Dreams,” this time with Andy Williams as the pseudo-Noël (!) (They go into a typical Coward love song.) - 22 - It was almost certainly Kay who gave Noël the taste for moment. cabaret. She appeared at the Café de Paris in 1950. Noël made He wanted her to play Madame Arcati in his CBS live TV his debut a year later and opened up a whole new dimension to special of Blithe Spirit in 1956. The part ended up being played his career. (brilliantly) by Mildred Natwick. She would visit him in Jamaica at Blue Harbour but, Why didn't Noël write marvellous parts in a film for the although she pretended to enjoy the tropical setting, she would two of them, she suggested after she scored her one big film later admit that high on the list of things she detested were: triumph in Funny Face (1957), with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn ? “Gladly,” Noël replied. “Heat, Caribbean islands, suntan, flies, mosquitoes and wasps It evolved into a Broadway musical that began life as Later (living or dead) ”. Than Spring , which became Sail Away Kay would play cruise hostess, Mimi Paragon. On Christmas Day 1960 he records in She much preferred being behind screen doors playing double his Diary: pianos with Noël. These duets became a key element in their relationship. “I wrote yesterday a wonderful opening number for Kay... Cole Lesley recalls her flying to the piano wherever they all Mimi is certainly a marvellous part for her. I hope to God she happened to be “to improvise and compose.” Between sessions plays it and doesn’t make a fathead of herself which, I fear, she she would eat nothing but “very thin slices of bread burnt black is quite capable of doing. However, all that is in the dear, dim and piled thick with Tiptree jam.” Noël himself recorded that: future. ”

“Kay and I have played double pianos almost incessantly with His fears were justified. Two months later: the result that several new tunes have emerged. She is really a tremendous help, she goes off into a rhythmic accompaniment “Kay came to dine and RAVED about everything but doesn’t and I compose a melodic line against it. ” want to play Mimi, because she has a complex about appearing on Broadway. Two or three days later she said Graham Payn would lament in later years: definitely she wouldn’t do it ! This,of course, is irritating but we are now after Elaine Stritch who is an excellent comedienne “I kick myself we never taped any of those sessions, but taping and will probably be fine. ” in those days was not as easy as it is now. We lost a marvellous musical treasure by missing those demented duets. ” Stritchie turned out to be more than fine...

Kay and Little Lad would enjoy a professional as well as a 1963 and Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray achieve the personal relationship when Graham appeared in The Lyric impossible by turning Blithe Spirit into a musical - High Revue at the Lyric, Hammersmith during the 1951 Festival of Spirits . Britain year. Kay had long been a vocal coach to MGM stars like Judy Garland and Lena Home - as well as others with “ I really am not only relieved but delighted. I would like it to significańlyt less talent. She assured Graham: be played by Gwen Verdon, Celeste Holm, Keith Michell and Kay Thompson and choreographed and directed by Bob “If I can make June Allyson sing - I can make YOU sing ! ” Fosse. ”

But by that time of course, Graham had been singing In the event it was not played or directed by any of them. professionally for some years but, nonetheless, he found her His old friend, Beatrice Lillie did the honours as Madame technique compelling. Arcati. None of this fortunately soured Noël and Kay's personal “When coaching me to sing ‘All I Do the Whole Day Through relationship. A year later she was as “ sweet and barmy as Is Dream of You’, she’d start off with - ‘All I do is WHAT ? ever. ” What they might have achieved together remains in the ‘Dream of you’. When ? The whole day through.’ She used realm of speculation. Both of them were in themselves their every little trick to make you think of the meaning of the words own finest creations. Pity about those piano recordings, - not simply the sound. ” though. The last years were not happy ones but there seemed to be a She even composed a song for him in the revue. It was certain predestined pattern to them. Kay had mothered Judy called ‘Lucky Day.’ Garland for much of her adult life. Now Judy's daughter - and Kay’s god daughter - Liza Minnelli would take her into her “It was about a gambler who loses on every race he bets on. It New York apartment until the day she died. In the end she may had brilliantly fast choreography and very much in Kay's have merited the verdict Dame Marie Tempest rendered on the distinctive ‘never-stop-singing-for-a-second-and-while-you're- young Noël - “I do not think he will ever quite fulfil his singing-keep-moving style’. ” promise if he does not curb his versatility. Barry Day From his 1955 cabaret debut in Las Vegas Noël spent more and more time in America and consequently saw more of Kay. For more on Kay Thompson (1909-1998) there is: It was at this point that he became increasingly aware of one ot her more frustrating characteristics. Her many and varied Sam Irvin's ‘Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise’ talents made him want to involve her in numerous projects, only to find - as so many others would - that she would enthuse (Simon & Schuster - 2010) and become deeply involved, only to pull out at the last

- 23 - Jeffery Holmesdale (Lord Amherst) on Gladys Calthrop From his autobiography ‘Wandering Abroad’ where he reveals Noël’s reaction to the audience laughter at ‘Design for Living,’ that it was Lord Amherst who filmed ‘Words and Music’ in 16mm at the Adelphi Theatre in London (not Noël as previously thought), Elsie April at rehearsals and Red Hot Pokers at Goldenhurst . . .

t was not long after the ending of the 1914 war, about the time when Noël was having his first play I’ll Leave it to You produced by Mr Courtneidge at the Savoy Theatre, that through him I first met Gladys Calthrop. She had divorced a husband and had a young son and was just embarking on a career of theatre designing which has been as successful as it has been distinguished. Although she did work for other people, notably for Prince Littler in a musical version of Alice in Wonderland at the Scala Theatre, her best work was always for Noël. He was in fact the Deus ex machina of her theatrical career. Her first designs for him were for The Vortex and the most notable I would hazard were all the sets and the costumes for that mammoth production Cavalcade at Drury Lane. She designed all his stage productions both in England and America right up until his musical Ace of Clubs and also his film In Which We Serve . It was not until she came to New York for the Broadway production of The Vortex , that I got to know her well. There was a time when, temporarily casting off the Coward yoke, she teamed up with Eva le Gallienne at the latter's Civic Theatre on Fourteenth Street, about which I have written earlier. In addition to designing some sets she took to the stage and played in John Gabriel Borkman . I never saw her on the stage. She told me she thought she had been adequate but no more, Gladys Calthrop and didn't really like acting. Noël had written Design for Living for himself and the David Herbert tells the story of how he escorted Mrs Lunts and for that distinguished occasion Gladys, Danny Patrick Campbell to a matinée. The critics had all given the Hubrecht and I took passage in the German liner Bremen , play good notices but pointed out that it really ended with the faintly ashamed at sailing “German” but Hitler had not at that fall of the curtain on the second act, the third act being entirely time yet reached the pinnacle of his criminality. superfluous. Mrs Campbell insisted on going, round to see The play was due to open at the Hanna Theatre in Noël after the second act. Coming into his dressing-room there Cleveland, the house full, great excitement. But with the fall of was the famous Mrs Fiske, Minnie Maddern Fiske - no less. the curtain after Act One, Noël stormed off the stage in a blind Noël immediately said, “Stella, you know Mrs Fiske, don't rage. It was a serious comedy. The oafs had laughed all through you?” “Of course,” she replied, adding, “I thought you were the first act, he’d be damned if he would go on with the play. dead,” and turning to Noël she said, “Such a nice play. Such a Alfred Lunt was near to hysterics, Lynne Fontanne was in good ending.” With that she swept out. Turning to David tears. Gladys took charge. Shaking her finger, she upbraided Herbert in the corridor she remarked, “I think I scored with Noël, reminding him that he was not Irving, nor Sarah both barrels, don't you?” Bernhardt and it was the public who paid him his salary, and Back in England Gladys took up flying, qualified for her just who did he think he was. If he insisted on writing funny amateur licence and indeed flew very well - when she lines he must expect the audience to laugh. (The play went on remembered where she was going. It was a nice sunny day to huge success.) Afterwards there was supper in Noël's sitting- when she took off from Lympne Aerodrome to visit me for room at the hotel but the atmosphere was still a bit tense. It was luncheon at Shoreham. Sure enough she arrived but startled me a bit of luck that I had brought with me a reel of a sixteen and other onlookers by proceeding to land downwind, just millimetre amateur film I had made of his show Words and managing to pull up before going over on her nose into the Music at the Adelphi Theatre in London with some quite boundary ditch. Lindsay Everard, a Conservative Member of amusing shots of the show from all angles, backstage and front Parliament up Leicester way, keen on club flying, organised a of the house. I had brought it along as a first-night present for flying party to visit the Club's opposite number in Germany. him and now it came in handy. I showed it. Everybody laughed Gladys shared the flying with me in an Avro Tutor. Despite a lot and amiability was restored all round. good weather and considerable hospitality, for me there was The play was due to open at the Ethel Barrymore theatre in always that uneasy, anxious awareness that started immediately New York. Lynne, Alfred and Noël sent a message to Miss on crossing the German frontier and did not let up until it was Barrymore, hoping she would come to the opening and asking crossed again on going out, and which became more her where she wanted her seats and how many. Miss pronounced with every passing month of the Hitler régime. In Barrymore must have been in one of her moods. She said she due course Gladys and I found ourselves standing in a semi- was not coming as she was not interested in watching three circle of our friends in an enormous room of the amateurs. Reichkanzlerie in the Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin. The double

- 24 - doors opened and in flounced Hitler, dressed in a short black Gladys seemed quite impervious to cold or discomfort. At coat and striped trousers, for all the world as if he had come to various time she had several country houses. One of them was measure one for a new suit. But when he came to harangue us a charming conversion from a water mill near Ashford. The in his hysterical German it seemed he became ten foot high. It whole thing was eccentric, charming, the mill-stream ran under was very frightening. the house. The damp was appalling. She was a keen gardener. Small of stature but strikingly handsome, with an In all weathers she would be out and about in her gardens or unmistakable chic all her own, you would see Gladys at West greenhouses. As a weekend guest, you were either prepared to End first nights striding down the centre aisle in company with slosh around in the mud and wet, trowel or secateurs in hand, Noël to their house seats in Row E in the stalls. Her head held or shiver in front of a meagre fire in her sitting-room and wait so high one wondered if she might not be in danger of falling for a lunch-time drink. over backwards. Quite the opposite was Noël, who certainly liked his Like many of us she would sometimes be doing something creature comforts, knew nothing of gardening and cared less. while thinking of something quite different, as when, smartly He had a really good garden at Goldenhurst, on the edge of dressed as usual she was driving along Buckingham Palace Romney Marsh devotedly and carefully nurtured by Patience Road in her open sports car en route for a rehearsal at His Erskine, who besides her talents for gardening and cooking Majesty's Theatre, suddenly right in front of her was a was a mathematician of no mean order. Greeting Patience one policeman holding up his hand. He asked her where she day on returning from some luncheon party, he said, “I’ve just thought she was going. Looking round she found she had got seen the most wonderful flowers. They’re called Red Hot herself caught up in the funeral procession for Field-Marshal Pokers. We really ought to have some.” Living up to her name, Haig. So there she was, a roll of linoleum and three Siamese Patience sighed, “Just step outside, Noël, for a moment and cats in the back seat of her sports car, almost being swept into take a look at your herbaceous border.” And there was the best the procession. Apologising profusely, at that moment she ran exhibition of Red Hot Pokers to be seen for miles around. He out of petrol. had never noticed. I think he really regarded house and garden Those rehearsals at His Majesty's were quite something and as a set, a framework. One of the things he really liked was to I was lucky enough to attend some of them. On Mr C. B. have his more intimate friends around in a big room and to Cochran’s staff was a lady called Elsie April, a musician to her sing, play and entertain them until the early hours. fingertips. She played for all rehearsals, auditions and In London Gladys found for herself a lofty studio apartment orchestrated some of Noël's songs. There she would be, with, huge windows on the top floor in Spenser Street (now perched in front of a piano on the side of the stage, a cup of tea completely demolished to give place to some totally somewhere handy, a mangled fur tippet round her neck, impersonal office block of little taste and less distinction). tirelessly pounding away hour after hour. Auditions were a sore Wonderful to give parties in and for her work but full of trial for Noël. He hated having to turn people down, often draughts and icy cold. Her bedroom had been fashioned out of knowing they badly needed the job. In an effort to take some of some sort of greenhouse. There, she was ministered to by Mrs the sting out of the failures, he had a little electric light Moore who had been a first-class cook in her day, and one who installed on Elsie's music-stand which he could flash by believed strongly in the old fashioned virtues and no nonsense. pressing a button from his seat out front. As soon as the light She and her husband, and her daughter Maggie lived in the appeared Elsie would cause the music to fall down on the basement in disgraceful conditions. They looked after both piano keys, “so sorry, dear,” she would say, and with a broad Gladys and me, as I had a flat on the first floor. Nothing that smile murmuring, “never mind, dear, next time better luck.” either Gladys or I could do by way of cajoling, or threatening, She knew every member of every theatre orchestra calling in the local sanitary people, could induce the landlords personally. At one band rehearsal, she rushed down to to do anything about the Moores' basement. I hope by this time the”orchestra rail. Hailing the clarinettist she said "What have they are all frying away somewhere. you got there, dear? What, E Flat. Oh, no dear you can't have E The lease ran out and Gladys and I moved to Chelsea, Flat, make it G.” She had detected the fault with her taking Maggie with us, her parents having died in the impeccable ear. meantime. Gladys occupied the first, second and third floors. Someone asked her why she had never written songs My sister Joan moved with a friend into the top two floors. I herself. “Just haven't time, dear,” was her laconic answer. lived on the ground floor and Maggie and family were again in Another of Mr Cochran's remarkable staff was Danny the basement, but this time, a salubrious one. By this time O’Neil, about five feet high, horn rimmed spectacles and just Gladys had stopped her theatrical work, although she did do about the best stage-manager in the business. He it was with one or two shows for other people than Noël after Ace of brilliant quick thinking who saved the first night of Cavalcade Clubs . I think having worked for such a distinguished when in the middle of the first half the hydraulic stage lifts management as Mr C. B. Cochran and for Noël in those jammed, with half the band underneath the stage waiting to be spacious days before the Second World War when only the best brought up to stage level to form the on stage band for the was tolerated, she found it dispiriting to have to meet the post- Relief of Mafeking scene. There was a long anxious stage wait, war shortages and restrictions when she would be called upon poor Noël and Gladys in their box getting calmer with to make do with the cheapest kinds of substitutes for silks and desperation with every passing minute, but it was Danny satins, refrain from full-stage sets which called for staircases, O'Neil who saved the day. practical windows and much construction of wood and canvas, On the opening night of Conversation Piece at His and put up with black velvet tabs and a flat backcloth or two. Majesty's, Yvonne Printemps was so overcome with emotion at Later Gladys found the staircases up to the first and second the success that she nearly fainted while taking her curtain-call. floor an increasing physical trial and so bought herself a house Danny close at hand, and determined to preserve the period of off the King’s Road in Markham Square. So distances being the piece called out, “Burnt feathers, burnt feathers. Cut her what they are we see a little less of each other, but with a Laces.” friendship unimpaired.

- 25 - Criterion’s new release produces the Coward/Lean/ Havelock-Ellis/Neame quartet’s LEAN AND CLEAN movie successes in crystal-clear Video

he opening sequence of In Which We Serve from this new box set from Criterion fills one with awe at the lengths the producers must have gone to for such crystal-clear versions of the four classic Coward films produced by Noël Coward, David Lean, Anthony Havelock- Allan and Ronald Neame. The films were restored by the BFI financed by a grant from the David Lean Foundation. The film’s publisher Criterion provide the following: “In the 1940s, the wit of playwright Noël Coward and the craft of filmmaker David Lean melded harmoniously in one of cinema’s greatest writer-director collaborations. With the wartime military drama sensation In Which We Serve, Coward and Lean (along with producing partners Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan) embarked on a series of literate, socially engaged, and enormously entertaining pictures that ranged from domestic epic (This Happy Breed) to whimsical comedy (Blithe Spirit) to poignant romance (Brief Encounter). These films created a lasting testament to Coward’s artistic legacy and introduced Lean’s visionary talents to the world. “

They add: • New high-definition digital transfers of the BFI National Archive’s 2008 restorations, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray editions • Audio commentary on Brief Encounter by film historian Bruce Eder • New interviews with Noël Coward scholar Barry Day on all of the films • Interview with cinematographer-screenwriter-producer Ronald Neame from 2010 • Short documentaries from 2000 on the making of In Which We Serve and Brief Encounter • David Lean: A Self Portrait, a 1971 television documentary on Lean’s career • Episode of the British television series The Southbank Show from 1992 on the life and career of Coward • Audio recording of a 1969 conversation between Richard Attenborough and Coward at London’s National Film Theatre • Trailers • PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by Ian Christie, Terrence Rafferty, Farran Smith Nehme, Geoffrey O’Brien, and Kevin Brownlow.

Editor’s Tip: If you plan to buy this box set for UK viewing - either DVD or Blu-ray - you will need a player compatible with US versions. I viewed my copy on a multi-regional Panasonic DMP- BD75 Blu-Ray player that can be set up for any region (£119 from an online outlet). The Blu-Ray versions are incredibly revealing and beautiful - every painful line of Celia’s face in Brief Encounter ! - 26 - Many of you will remember the series of extracts we provided in Home Chat from Granville Bantock’s memoirs of his time at The Actors’ Orphanage. Granville with the help of his son Paul has edited his work into an electronic book that is available from amazon.co.uk in the Kindle Store. Granville entered the orphanage at Langley Hall in September 1930 with his brother Paul. The harsh, grim conditions were transformed when Noël Coward took charge of running the orphanage in 1934. Coward later safeguarded the children from war torn Britain in 1940 by evacuating them to New York, U.S.A., on board The Empress of Australia, dodging the marauding German U-boat packs, which had previously sunk The City of Benares with much loss of life including seventy-seven of ninety evacuee children. Upon the death in Europe of his Pilot Officer brother, Paul, in March 1942, Granville returned to England in October of that year, enlisting for military service in 1943. Following arduous officer training he was posted with The Queens Royal Regiment to fight the Japanese in the Far East. Upon Japan's surrender in 1945, Granville was involved in the processing of the surrendered Japanese, screening them for war criminals whilst repatriating the rest. At this time the Indian National Army (I.N.A.) was still active. The photographs in this book are also an important historical record, as Granville’s was the only camera in the 1st battalion.

Lucky Orphan [Kindle Edition] £4.22 from amazon.co.uk

To mark the tenth anniversary of the Queen Mother's E GRAND STREET FOLLIES OF 1929 death, the Royalist has collected a series of anecdotes from the website anecdotage.com Parody of "A Room with a View" Lyrics by Agnes Morgan.

CAESAR & ROMAN SOLDIERS: King George VI and Queen Elizabeth once attended a Noël We've been travelling, Coward - Gertrude Lawrence production at a London Space unravelling theatre. As the couple entered the royal box, the entire Months and weeks and days; audience rose to honour them. “What an entrance!” And if you’re in your ken Lawrence exclaimed from her post in the wings. Coward’s Any travelling men, reply? “What a part!” Then perhaps you know our ways. There's something we all seek Whilst inspecting the Guard at Buckingham Place one day At the end of the week with Noël Coward, the Queen Mother glanced across at Or when our journey's done. Noël and caught his eye lingering upon an attractive young No matter what a hell soldier. The Queen Mother lent towards him and said Of a place is our hotel, “I wouldn’t if I was you Noël... they count them before they We've simply got to have this one ! go back in.”

A room with a bath - And you - oo ! The Queen Mother was not entirely amused when Queen And no one to hurry us, Through Elizabeth II considered having a second glass of wine with This bath we've found. lunch one day shortly after her coronation. “Don't forget, To laze in the tub my dear,” the elder Elizabeth drily remarked, “you have to And rub reign all afternoon.” And say that one overslept, Nothing to do except, Scrub Whilst waiting to be served her Gin & Tonic, the Queen One whole day round ! Mum could hear two openly gay members of her staff We'll bill and we'll coo, Oo-oo ! arguing in the hallway outside her sitting room. Impatient at Just I and my little chum. being kept waiting so long the Queen Mother eventually Oh,will it ever come True? called out “When you two old Queens have finished My bath-tub and you ! ( With thanks to Barry Day ) arguing, this Old Queen wants her Gin.”

- 27 - WHAT’S

OTOHER THNEATR?E

EARLY ADVENTURES

Matthew Bourne’s touring production entitled EARLY ADVENTURES featuring 3 short works (Spitfire, The Infernal Galop and Town & Country - including music by Noël Coward) will be starting at the Theatre Royal, Bath and visiting, Poole, Brighton, London (Sadler’s Wells), Northampton, Richmond, Cardiff, Truro, Oxford, Cambridge, Coventry, Bromley, Nottingham and Ipswich. See new-adventures.net for details.

DATE, VENUE AND BOOKING DETAILS

22 May–2 June • Theatre Royal, Windsor • 01753 853 888 5–9 June • Richmond Theatre, London • 0844 8717 651 11-16 June • Theatre Royal, Bath • 01225 448 844 18-23 June • Arts Theatre, Cambridge • 01223 503 333 25-30 June • Devonshire Park, Eastbourne • 01323 412 000 2-7 July • Severn Theatre, Shrewsbury • 01743 281 281 9-14 July • Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford • 01483 440 000 16-21 July • Playhouse, Oxford • 01865 305 305 23-28 July • Theatre Royal, Brighton • 08448 717 650 30 July-4 August • Churchill Theatre, Bromley • 08448 717 620 6-11 August • Festival Theatre, Malvern • 01684 892 277 South Downs The Browning Version FURTHER DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED

Following a critically acclaimed and sold out run as part of Chichester’s Festival 2011, the double bill of Terence Rattigan's one-act masterpiece and David Hare's specially commissioned companion piece transfers to the Harold Pinter Theatre from April 19 with a press night on April 24.

AMATEUR COMPANIES Star Quality: The World of Noël Coward an exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery on For information on amateur productions the Library’s Lincoln Center level at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. F or the latest on see www.noëlcoward.net . the Coward Festival in New York see: www.noëlcowardinnewyork.com