February 2012
A MAGAZINE ABOUT THE LIFE AND WORK OF SIR NOËL COWARD • FEBRUARY 2012
THE GRAND TOUR A day in Birmingham - 30 June, 2012 to see Joe Layton’s ballet on Noël Coward’s music ‘The Grand Tour’ AND visit the Coward Special Collection at Birmingham University. HAY FEVER A confirmed date is now Thursday 16th February, 2012 for an evening performance at The Noël Coward Theatre. Our special discount offers 35 seats reduced to £32.50 each.
Noël Coward in the garden at Goldenhurst PRODUCED AND PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL NOËL COWARD SOCIETY - 1- www.noëlcoward.net EDITORIAL hat a day to remember! In the UK celebrating the Master’s birthday on the actual day still allowed some 75 members and guests to join in the celebrations and importantly allowed us to use the wonderful facilities of The Grand Saloon at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Our thanks to our special guests, Robert and Pirjo Gardiner and Alan Farley, to everyone who came, personal thanks to Denys Robinson and Stephen Greenman who ensured the smoothest of sailings through the day. The theatre provided a first rate service for drinks and lunch with the numerous ‘Red Butlers’ and bar staff proving to be both efficient and involved in the occasion, ensuring we enjoyed their company as well as the quality of their service. A special thank you to Richard Briers and his wife Anne who were our honoured guests for the flower-laying. His rendition of the Coward verse, ‘When I have Fears’ will be appearing on the website soon. In New York on Sunday 18th December members witnessed the talented actor and singer Christine Ebersole lay flowers on Noël’s statue at the Gershwin Theater and join cabaret artist Richard Holbrook, both accompanied by Christopher Denny on the piano, at the Manhattan Club in Rosie O’Grady’s, New York. The New Year in London begins with Hay Fever , the first Coward play to be featured at Cameron Mackintoshes’ Noël Coward theatre since its naming in June 2006. Noël appeared in his own play, I'll Leave It To You , at the then New Theatre in 1920, the first West End production of one of his plays. John Knowles CONTENTS –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Editorial 2 Noël’s Steinway Grand Comes to Town 11
The Grand Tour - NCS Events 30 June 3 17, Gerald Road 12
A long voyage home 4 Coward on the Coast 16
Café de Pairs and Hay Fever NCS Events 6 Family Album - Bermuda 21
Coward Birthday NCS Events - London 7 Happy Memories of Noël 24
Coward Birthday NCS Events - New York 8 The E & O Hotel 25
Hancock’s Peace in Our Time 9 Noël Coward Birthday Celebrations - Gallery 26
Making the Master 10 Noël Coward in New York 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 Manager: John H. Knowles, Finance and Resources: Stephen Greenman, Events Organiser: Denys Robinson, Membership : Stephen Duckham, Media: 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 Manager: 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 Organiser: Denys Robinson, 4 Parkside, Vanbrugh Fields, London, SE30 7QQ + 44 (0) 2082 658 879 email: [email protected] Membership Secretary: Stephen Duckham, 47 Compass Court, Norfolk Street, Coventry,West Midlands, CV1 3LJ [email protected] +44 (0) 2476 229 502 Press and Media Manager: 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- Birmingham Hippodrome Saturday June 30
Probably one of the most exciting events for Coward enthusiasts in the UK this year - The Grand Tour at Birmingham Hippodrome.
Join us for this extraordinary occasion - details on the enclosed booking form.
On the following page is an article from ‘Entrechat’ - the Hippodrome’s house magazine.
Assistant Director Marion Tait provides some detailed background on the history of the show.
The Grand Tour was created by the American choreographer Joe Layton for the Royal Ballet’s touring company and was premiered by them at the Theatre Royal, Norwich on February 10th, 1971.
Based on a number of famous Coward songs the score is by veteran Broadway arranger Hershy Kay, who a year earlier had produced WHO CARES? for George Balachine from the Gershwin songbook. The decor and costumes were the work of John Conklin.
The show features ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’, ‘I’ll Follow My Secret Heart’, ‘Has Anybody Seen Our Ship’, I’ll See You Again’, ‘The Stately Homes of England’, ‘Mrs. Worthington’, ‘Half-Caste Woman’, and ‘If Love Were All’. A long voyage home Assistant Director Marion Tait waxes lyrical about the welcome return of Joe Layton’s The Grand Tour.
Broadway producer Joe Layton had been looking for a Marion Tait as Mary Pickford; PHOTO: Leslie E. Spatt company with the right faces for a new 1920s character ballet. In February 1971, he found the people he needed in the Royal Ballet New Group. 40 years on, it is an experience that Assistant Director Marion Tait remembers very fondly.
I think Grand Tour was the first time we had a Broadway producer come and work with the Company, and for me, it was the highlight of my career so far – I’d always wanted to work on Broadway, amidst all the glitz. Joe was very, very strict though, almost ruthless, but they are, Broadway producers. He was also very slick in his rehearsals and went into a lot of detail. He wasn’t only having to make the steps up (I can remember that he used to choreograph as he went along, though I’m sure he did a lot of work at home too), but he was also having to teach his dancers to be the characters. At that time, some of them were still alive – Joe had met them and had worked with Noël Coward a lot. So, the story... There’s an American tourist (originally danced by Vyvyan Lorrayne) and a bunch of celebs – Noël Coward [1899-1973; famed playwright, composer, director, actor and singer] danced by Gary Sherwood with Desmond Kelly his second cast, Gertrude Lawrence [1898-1952; West End actress and musical comedy performer] danced by Deidre O’Conaire, and George Bernard Shaw [1856-1950; Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics] danced by David Drew. David Bintley also covered this role – I’m positive I saw him dance it, but he says United Artists] danced by Doreen Wells, and Douglas he never got the chance. There was also Theda Bara [1885- Fairbanks [1883-1939; American actor, screenwriter, director 1955; American silent film actress and one of the first sex and producer] danced by Paul Clarke – a real Douglas symbols] danced by Sheila Humphreys, Mary Pickford [1892- Fairbanks character with big white teeth! Alain Dubreuil was 1979; Canadian- born actress and co-founder of the film studio second cast for him.
The celebs. pose for a photo. Left to right: Derek Purnell as the Chief Steward, Michael Corder as Noël Coward, Judith Rowann as Gertrude Lawrence, June Highwood as Alice B. Toklas, Susan Crow as the American Tourist, David Morse as Gertrude Stein, Marion Tait as Mary Pickford, Carl Myers as Douglas Fairbanks, Chenca Williams as Theda Bara and Stephen Wicks as George Bernard Shaw. PHOTO: Leslie E. Spatt
- 4- Gertrude Stein [1874-1946; American writer, poet and art player went wrong. It suddenly went really, really fast, making collector] and Alice B. Toklas [1877-1967; Stein’s confidante, that awful squeaky noise (like the comedy voices on TV, lover, cook, secretary, muse, editor, critic, and general babbling at the other end of a telephone). Michael Corder, who organiser] are there as a couple too. Nicholas Johnson was was playing Noël that night, followed it exactly, then it Gertrude (in drag; it had to be a man for all the partnering) and suddenly went r-e- a-l-l-y s-l-o-w, and he followed that too! We Jeanetta Laurence was Alice – a wonderful role in a tweed suit were supposed to be dancing, but I just buried my face in and beret – a bit like Victoria Wood: ‘Ave yer seen mi friend?’. Douglas Fairbanks’s jumper. I’ve never corpsed so much on Jeanetta’s now the Associate Director of The Royal Ballet! My stage – it was so funny! I’ll never forget it. husband David Morse also did Gertrude Stein and the Chief Joe was a really big name. He’d worked closely with Noël Steward. Coward on his musical Sail Away and then had done a big The curtain goes up as a liner is pulling away from port Broadway production of Annie . We hit it off – I think he could with the tourist waving goodbye to her friends and family. The see that at heart, I was a secret Hoofer-cum-Showgirl. He even celebrities absolutely loathe her – everything they do, she is invited me to see some of the rehearsals for another London there with a camera, taking pictures. They abhor this behaviour show he was directing. as they are trying to escape everything on a cruise. She even He actually came to do two ballets with us. There was The cuts a bit of Mary Pickford’s hair off when she arrives! There Grand Tour and also a little piece called Overture , to are also two stowaways, who arrive in her trunk, unbeknownst Bernstein’s Candide Overture . I was second cast in Grand Tour to her. She befriends them and lets them know when there’s no (I did Mary Pickford and one of the Stowaways). Overture , he one around, so they can come out to have something to eat and made on me and a few others, including Wayne Sleep. We did have a dance. Lastly, there are the three stewards and a head Overture as an opener every night – whichever six dancers steward. They are pretty bored with the whole affair, but do were free did it. It was like a circus. We came on blowing their best to encourage the celebrities to join in the deck games, whistles and unfurling banners telling the audience what was for example. The Chief Steward (Stephen Jeffries in the on the bill during the rest of the evening – it was great fun! original) also befriends the tourist, and towards the end there’s Working with Joe was wonderful. I just soaked it all up. a very poignant moment when, the celebs at the party having The reason I know the piece so well is because I used to go to excluded her, he asks her to dance. The celebs then see that all the rehearsals and watch, just because it was such an maybe she’s not so bad after all, and they all accept her, just experience. Although Joe was ballet trained and choreographed pointe work, he was also very natural; he spent time getting people to be natural with their acting. I remember once, as the tourist stands around at the beginning looking lost (all the celebs have their own deckchairs to sit on), the Chief Steward walks by, dinging a bell. He then returns with a coil of rope for her to sit on. In rehearsal Joe said, in his American drawl, ‘Jeff, what’s the story with the rope? You bring on this bit of rope. You don’t keep looking back at it, you just put it down, you go to her and go, “come and sit down” ’. He was so funny in the way he demonstrated. It made you realise how unnatural we
Judith Rowann as Gertrude Lawrence and Michael Corder as Noël Coward; before she leaves. Right at the end, sitting on her trunk, the tourist gets wheeled off by the stewards. The ballet is in little linked episodes. It starts with all these deckchairs on stage, in a semi-circle, facing away from the audience. As each celeb does their ‘turn’, they link to the next person along. Gertrude Stein ends up dancing with Mary Pickford, because she fancies her. Mary then taps Noël Coward on the head, but he doesn’t want to know. He goes full circle, back to Gertrude Lawrence and they walk away, looking bored. There are also deck games and a party, which the reluctant celebrities are forced to join by equally reluctant stewards. It’s at the party at the end that Noël Coward is finally persuaded to stand up and sing. Whoever is dancing the role Margaret Barbieri as Gertrude Stein and Desmond Kelly as Noël Coward; has to mime to a recording of Noël singing ‘Half-caste PHOTO: Leslie E. Spatt Woman’. There’s a famous story of the night where the tape - 5- are sometimes, when we mime in ballet – Joe wanted it natural. I don’t think Noël Coward himself was involved with the Joe Layton with Vyvyan Lorrayne as the American Tourist. gestation of the ballet, but he did come to a performance (even though he was in a wheelchair by that point) and he really enjoyed it. The music is Noël Coward songs in clever orchestrations by Hershy Kay, arrangements he’d closely discussed with Joe. That was wonderful too – we had the great Broadway musical arranger Hershy Kay actually with us in the rehearsal studio! We rehearsed with the orchestra for the first time at the Fencing Association at Baron’s Court; at the time, both companies rehearsed in studios there, but danced at Covent Garden. The sets are lovely too – sort of Art Deco – all lilacs and silvers. It’s going to be very different putting it on this time around. It’s 40 years later and the characters in it are part of history. Nobody in the Company will even have heard of most of them. In fact, the other day, I looked up Theda Bara on Wikipedia – Susan Crow as the American Tourist and Michael Francis as the Chief Steward there she was with her dark eyes and dramatic look. I think maybe we should give these biographies to all the people dancing the roles, so they can see who they are supposed to be. I’ll be rehearsing it with Denis Bonner (who has danced one of the Stewards), so hopefully our memories and the Benesh score will be able to reconstruct the piece in all its glory. I really hope the Company (and the audience) enjoy it. It’s a piece that means an awful lot to me.
Marion Tait
This article appears with the kind permission of The Birmingham Royal Ballet. With special thanks to Lee Armstrong.
10 % Discount for NCS members February 28th Michael Law and The Piccadilly Dance Orchestra Thursday 16th February at The Café de Paris HAY FEVER Evening Performance On February 28th our own Dominic Vlasto will be taking the The Noël Coward Theatre cabaret spot at a dinner/dance at The Café de Paris featuring Michael Law and the Piccadilly Dance Orchestra . Michael We have 35 tickets is offering members of NCS a discount on the cover charge - at £32.50 each to plus the cost of the meal. Dominic will be accompanied by see Howard Stewart Nicholls on piano and will perform a variety of Davies’ new Coward songs. interpretation of Hay Fever starring NB: PAYMENT BY CHEQUE PAYABLE TO Lindsay Duncan, Lindsay Duncan “THE PICCADILLY DANCE ORCHESTRA” Jeremy Northam, Kevin McNally Please post to: and Olivia Colman. We are also hoping to book an evening The Piccadilly Dance Orchestra, PO BOX 1106, meal at a special rate at Sheekey’s (by the side of the theatre - CANTERBURY, CT1 9LB or www.j-sheekey.co.uk ). Please contact Denys Robinson to book, via: Tel: 0845 370 0178 (24hr answerphone). email: [email protected]; Post: 4, Parkside, Vanbrugh Fields, London, SE3 7QQ; http://www.pdo.org.uk/performances.html Tel: 020 8265 8879.
- 6- COWARD BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS IN LONDON or the first time we can recall, the UK celebrations took Those attending commented that it was simply the best cabaret place on the actual birth date of the Master (except for ever at our annual gathering. when it fell on a Saturday) but any fears that this might Rebecca has released Leading Ladies , a collection of songs reduce the number of members able to attend proved paying tribute to past “Leading Ladies of the British Musical groundless. The Society’s AGM at the Noël Coward theatre Theatre Stage”, from Gertrude Lawrence to Julie Andrews, was well attended where the proceedings rattled along like a with her collaborator and vocal coach Gerald Martin Moore on well-oiled scene-change, providing a reflection on the highs piano and vocals, playing a selection of their leading men, and lows of the year and plans for the future. including Noël Coward. Without the romantic, but doubtful benefit of driving snow, During his thanks to Robert Gardiner, John Knowles members walked through the unseasonably mild air to join a performed a piece provided by Coward scholar Barry Day - a growing crowd in the foyer of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane parody of the famous exchange between Elyot and Amanda to see our guest, actor Richard Briers and his wife Ann, at the from Act 1 of Private Lives but as Dan and Doris Archer! annual flower-laying ceremony. Richard talked of his interest For the benefit of US members ‘The Archers’ is a long- in Noël and read one of his best loved poems ‘When I have running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC’s main Fears’. spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as “an Members joined Richard and Ann in the Rotunda for drinks everyday story of country folk”, but is now described on its prior to lunch in The Grand Saloon where in a beautiful setting Radio 4 web site as “contemporary drama in a rural setting”. the famed ‘Red Butlers’ served lunch on table-settings that With over 16,600 episodes, it is both the world’s longest brought back memories of our visits to the New York running radio soap and, since the axing of the American soap celebrations at The Manhattan Club. opera ‘Guiding Light’ in September 2009, the world's longest Denys Robinson welcomed members and guests. John running soap opera in any format. Dan and Doris Archer were Knowles welcomed our honoured guests Robert and Pirjo the original farmer and wife at Brookfield Farm in Ambridge, Gardiner and Alan Farley. After presentations Robert thanked Borsetshire. Dan was played over the years by four actors but John and everyone on behalf of his wife and himself for the Doris was always played by Gwen Berryman. kind invitation to the luncheon. Alan Farley, who has been producing an annual radio broadcast on Coward from San THE ARCHERS Francisco each December for as long as anyone can remember (http://kalw.org/post/noël-coward-birthday-special-open-air- Dan: Where have you been lately ? thursday-1222-1pm ), was introduced by Dominic Vlasto. Alan, Doris: To feed the cows. in turn, introduced our cabaret guests Rebecca Caine and Dan: Very big, cows Stefan Bednarczyck. They sang a wonderful selection of Noël Doris: I also fed the chickens Coward and other songs and ended with ‘Bronxville Darby and Dan: Very small, chickens. Joan’ from Sail Away . Doris: And you ? Dan: Oh, here and there, you know. Borchester. Doris: Did you see the Town Hall by moonlight ? They say it’s ...very exciting by moonlight. Dan: Rather disappointing, I found. Doris: I’m sorry Dan: It’s hardly your fault. Or is it ? All those fake beams Doris: Horrid. Dan: Very. Doris: I suppose you called in at “The Bull” ? Dan: Yes. Doris: Very beery, “The Bull”. Dan: Yes, very. Doris: Oh, Dan ! Where did we go wrong ?
Written by Maud Gracechurch Opera and Musical Theatre star Rebecca Caine created the role of Cosette in the original Royal Shakespeare Company/West End production of Les Miserables and The events of the day must make this one of the most starred as Christine in the Canadian Premiere of Canadian Premiere of The Phantom of The Opera. This her first solo album features the delightful and successful UK birthday celebrations for Noël Coward ever. versatile Gerald Martin Moore on Piano and vocals and celebrates the leading ladies of Londons West End from 1909 -1960 including Gertrude Lawrence, Jessie Matthews,Lizbeth Webb and Julie Andrews. Composers include Novello, Gershwin, Special thanks to Denys Robinson and Stephen Greenman Coward, Lerner and Loewe. Monckton, Ellis and Rodgers and Hart. for their planning and management of the day.
- 7- AND NEW YORK
n Saturday, December 17th the weekend of events celebrating Noël Coward's 112th birthday began with the annual screening at the Paley Center for Media. This year Society members were shown the 1950 film, The Astonished Heart starring Celia Johnson, Margaret Leighton, and Noël Coward. This film, written by Coward, was adapted from his play of the same title, which was part of the Tonight at 8:30 collection. As the film is rarely shown and is not available on DVD in the United States, most members had never before seen it. A special guest in the audience was Ms. Joan Copeland who played the role of Melanie in the only New York revival of Conversation Piece , supervised by Coward himself. Members had the chance to socialize at a reception following the screening. On Sunday, December 18th, Society members and guests gathered in the Theatre Hall of Fame at the Gershwin Theatre for the occasion of placing flowers on the statue of Noël Coward. This year, our special guest who would place the flowers was popular Broadway star, Ms. Christine Ebersole , twice honored with the Tony Award for her performance in the musicals 42nd Street and Grey Gardens . She delighted audiences as Elvira in the 2009 Christine Ebersole; PHOTO: Charles Accola Broadway production of Blithe Spirit . During scene-changing intervals of that production, the voice of Ms. Ebersole could be heard singing the music of Noël Coward. She spoke of having known Also attending was NCS member Mr. Gerald of Coward's plays when growing up in the mid-West, but confessed Garrigan who appeared in the New York revival of that she knew little of his music. Exploring the catalogue of Coward's Conversation Piece with Ms. Joan Copeland. music led to the release of her CD, Christine Ebersole Sings Noël A feature of the luncheon each year is the raffling Coward . She gave a gracious credit to director Michael Blakemore for off of a Coward-related item. In past years there have introducing her to Coward's work. been books, DVDs or theatre tickets. This year's prize Following the ceremony at the Gershwin Theatre was the annual was a copy of Mr. Barry Day 's newest book The Society luncheon in the Manhattan Club at nearby Rosie O'Grady's Complete Verse of Noël Coward . It was won by long- restaurant. Among the guests attending the luncheon this year was Mr. time NCS member Ms. Andrea Bucher-McAdams. Edward Hibbert , known for his Broadway appearances in The The book is available in the United States through Drowsy Chaperone , Curtains and the TV series Frazier . In June of this Amazon.com . year, he and Christine Ebersole will be appearing at Feinstein's Cabaret After coffee and dessert, guests were presented in New York in a presentation entitled Love, Noël . We were happy to with entertainment consisting of music by Noël be joined by an NCS member from London, Mr. William Godfree , Coward. The accompanist this year was Mr. and several other guests from out of town. Mr. Earl Levit , a cabaret Christopher Denny , a notable pianist who has played singer who performs a Coward evening, came from Philadelphia. Mr. for such performers as Julie Wilson, Tammy Grimes Barrington Brown , a popular entertainer for major cruise lines, and and Elaine Stritch. The proceedings began with highly his wife Judy came from Florida. regarded cabaret singer, Mr. Richard Holbrook , giving us his rendition of
Ken Starrett and Christine Ebersole; ‘World Weary’, followed PHOTO: Charles Accola by a heartfelt presentation of ‘London Pride’. Our special guest of the day, Ms. Christine Ebersole , touched us all with her very moving performance of ‘If Love Were All’.
Richard Holbrook Christine Ebersole PHOTOS:Shirley and Tom O’Brien
With the realization that The Noël Coward Society is a very special family, the afternoon ended with everyone joining together in singing ‘I'll See You Again’. Happy Birthday Noël.!! Ken Starrett - 8- HANCOCK’S PEACE IN OUR TIME s with so many of his fellow comedians, Tony Hancock developed his craft in the harsh post-war haunts that included the home of many a lost male soul, The Windmill Theatre, London. He went on to be amongst the finest of Britain’s comedy performers and actors. Best remembered for his radio series Hancock’s Half Hour in the 1950s and 60s - that was developed later as a TV series. He dominated the airwaves with South African comedy actor Sid James. The radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. Our thanks to Martin Phillips of Samuel French for sending in items that show an early appearance on stage in Noël Coward’s Peace in Our Time where he played several minor roles.
The following extract from, his biography indicates his tendency to play things for laughs - however inappropriate! “In the winter of 1947-48, after a period of unemployment, he was offered the part of an Ugly Sister in Cinderella - a role he relished in rep. at Oxford. In one scene he sat on someone’s shoulders and together they would lurch down a flight of stairs. Always a seeker of more and bigger laughs, Hancock, on the third night, had the bright idea of throwing his skirt over his carrier’s head. Blinded, the ‘horse’ staggered across the stage, wavered over the footlights and then fell, Hancock on top of him, into the In another he was a drunken German soldier in a pub. orchestra pit. After Cinderella he was asked to stay on The landlord says: for one more week as they were mounting a production of Noël “What will you have?” Coward's Peace in Our Time which required a large cast. “Bitte?” asks the fuddled German. Hancock, in fact, played three roles. One carried one line, “Sorry, bitter’s off,” the landlord says. “Good-night, Mrs. Shattock” which he tried to say with infinite “You’ll have to have mild.” variations. - 9- The most important role was that of a brutal Nazi officer. not helped by the fact that in order to disguise himself he had borrowed a pair of rimless bi-focals from a friend. He had to “This is straight acting,” the producer said, pick up a glass with a ruthless gesture. “a most unsympathetic role.” There were five attempts before he made contact, the bottom half of the bi-focals being as thick as bottle glass. But when the play opened the loyal rep. audience Olivier himself could not be ruthless under those remembered his Ugly Sister and laughed. Their attitude was circumstances, nor squash the titters.” MAKING THE MASTER Each year members flock to the flower-laying ceremonies at London’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the Theatre Hall of Fame at The Gershwin Theatre, New York where Coward’s statues reside in their theatre homes. One more is placed at Firefly Noël’s final resting place. Here we see Angela Connor working on the clay original from which the bronze castings were made. With thanks to Martin Philips of Samuel French and sculptor Angela Connor.
- 10 - Noël’s Steinway Grand Comes to Town Rosy Runciman describes the history behind the placing of Noël’s piano in the Prince of Wales Theatre. suddenly bought a new Steinway yesterday and it’s bliss. I’ve written a lovely song, ‘I’ll Remember Her ’ [subsequently sung by José Ferrer in The Girl Who Came to Supper ] wrote Noël in his diary on 29 July 1962. Having resided at Les Avants for almost 40 years we believe this is the piano now installed in the Piano Room at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Coward’s links with this theatre began when he was a boy actor and continued until he was well on the road to fame and success. Noël saw his first straight play (hitherto he had only been taken to see musical theatre) at the Prince of Wales Theatre, a comedy by Gladys Unger called Better Not Enquire , and it was here too that only 6 months later Jason Carr, Patricia Hodge, Simon Green, Gwilym Lee, in September 1911 he found himself acting as a page boy in Alex Clatworthy, Richard Briers and Barry Day The Great Name with his idol Charles Hawtrey. ‘We nearly failed to get a licence for me to appear in The Great Name because the magistrate who had several feet in the grave and actress Maisie Gay had audiences rolling in the aisles with her looked like a macaw, could not be persuaded that the whole rendition of Coward’s entertaining songs, ‘A Little Slut of Six’ thing was not a case of sweated child labour of the worst and ‘The Roses Have Made Me Remember’. variety.’ Donald Neville-Willing, who later presented Noël in
The cast take a bow at the entertainment devised by Barry Day in the Piano Room at the Prince of Wales Theatre on Sunday 30th October, 2011
From 1923 onwards Noël began to contribute lyrics and cabaret at the Café de Paris, acted with him in the 1920s and music to the popular revue shows at the Prince of Wales, firstly observed, “In the show one always worked for him, not the words to ‘There May be Days’ sung by ‘The Co-Optimists’, a audience; his approval was all that mattered. Though he was group of variety and musical comedy stars including one only our age, he already knew it all; He was the first of the Stanley Holloway who dressed in pierrot costumes and ‘Bright Young Things’.” secondly a number of sketches for the highly successful shows Rosy Runciman presented by the now underrated French impresario André Charlot. The date of our piano celebration at the Prince of Wales was chosen because it coincided almost to the day with Noël’s debut in cabaret at the celebrated Café de Paris 60 years previously on 29 October 1951, therefore it could not have been more appropriate that a sketch Noël wrote for Charlot’s Revue of 1924 at the Prince of Wales was called ‘Love, Life and Laughter’, a cabaret scene set in 1890s Paris. Tongue in cheek it entertainingly tells the story of Rupert Shufflebotham, an elegant Englishman, and his encounter with La Flamme, a famous lady of the night in Montmartre. The American edition of Charlot’s show came to the Prince of Wales the following year with Gertrude Lawrence poignantly singing ‘Parisian Pierrot’ – ‘the signature tune of Patricia Hodge, Richard Briers and Alex Clatworthy. the 1920s’ - and ‘Carrie Was a Careful Girl’. The comedy - 11 - 17 GERALD ROAD A FRESH LOOK AT THE BELGRAVIA STUDIO THAT NOËL COWARD LEASED FROM 1930 UNTIL HIS DEATH.
t is hard to think of 17 Gerald Road without seeing a suited Noël Coward chatting to Lorn Lorraine in The Studio. Later we imagine him in trunks at Blue Harbour or leaning over a typewriter cigarette in hand in his library/study at Les Avants. So a recent letter from the widow of the photographer the late Lawrence Neal revealed a surprising life for 17a Gerald Road that involved Noël but only as a ghosted and legal presence. From 1953 onwards, The Studio was used as a photographic studio, following Noël’s negotiation for the retention of the lease of 17a Gerald Road in that year. Amongst the papers Dorothy Neal (now Hockley) has sent is a copy of the lease agreement between the representatives of the 2nd Duke of Westminster DSO (deceased) and Noël Coward Esq. made on Christmas Day 1954 and expiring on Midsummer Day 1978. The ground rent was set then at £40 per annum with a one- off capital sum of £2,235 equivalent to £733.87 per annum and a capital sum of £41,000 today. In fact when the lease of this Grade II listed building was offered on the market some four years ago it was at a cost of £4,000,000 for the 34 years remaining of the lease, with a ground rent of £7,500 plus £350 for the Burton Mews property, per annum. At this point the two residences of 17 and 17a and Noël’s secretary, Lorn Lorraine’s office in Burton Mews at the rear of the property had been re-united with refurbishment bringing a large part of the property back to its former, complete, glory! There are some delightful coincidences that link Lawrence (Larry) Neal to Noël Coward. One is a shared name - Noël was Larry’s middle name - and another was a shared birthdate - the 16th December. The photograph below was
- 12 - taken on one joint birthday celebration with Larry sat in Dear Miss Lawrence, a ‘Hamlet’ chair and Noël ‘ghosted’ photographically in the With regard to your illiterate scrawl of the 14th inst., Mr. photograph on the famed, ‘Hamlet’ chair. Coward asks me to say that there was talk of you playing a Amongst the papers sent in by Dorothy Hockley is the small part in a play of his on condition that you tour and find following extract that features Noël’s time at Gerald Road: your own clothes (same to be of reasonable quality) and that you understudy Jessie Matthews whom you have always imitated. Mr Coward will be visiting some rather important The year 1930 found Noël installed in 17 Gerald Road, people in the South of France in mid-July and he will appear at Belgravia; he had at last left his riotously-coloured suite of Cap d'Ail, whether you like it or not, on the 20th. Several rooms at 111 Ebury Street and had bought the lease of what complicated contracts are being sent to you on the terms you was to become familiarly known as ‘The Studio’ - the only agreed upon - i.e. £6.10.0 a week and understudy. residence he ever owned in London. This was actually two houses, for he also bought the lease of 1, Burton Mews, which Many of the lines from Private Lives have become famous backed on to it, conveniently containing an office for Lornie, a in their own right; ‘Moonlight can be cruelly deceptive’, ‘Very kitchen, rooms for the staff and a garage beneath. flat, Norfolk’, ‘Women should be struck regularly, like gongs’ The long cement approach from Gerald Road to the front and so on, but the line most loved and quoted is ‘Strange how door of No. 17- grandly referred to as the courtyard - ensured potent cheap music is’, and one wonders why? privacy and quiet: quiet enough for Noël to be able to compose Perhaps it is because, as Edward Albee points out, Noël when he wanted to, which was important. Indoors, on one side always wrote with truth and this, although a small truth, is a of the spacious studio itself there was an almost stage-size dais pertinent and universal one. Lord Byron, writing in Ravenna in boasting two grand pianos, and above it a window of vast 1821, was moved by this same potency: proportions which cost a fortune to curtain and another fortune in window-cleaners. ‘Oh! there is an organ playing in the street-a waltz too! I The overall result of this made it a theatrically effective must leave off to listen. They are playing a waltz which I have setting for the many large parties Noël was to give there until heard ten thousand times at the balls in London. .. Music is a he left to live abroad twenty-six years later. Virtually every strange thing.’ great singer of the period sang from that dais, and every great musician played the pianos: Toscanini, Rachmaninov (he and Strange that Lord Byron should also have used the word Noël formed a mutual admiration society). Cole Porter, and that he and Noël should both have been moved by a waltz : Richard Rodgers - and even Fritz Kreisler played jazz. the waltz from Private Lives is ‘Someday I'll Find You’, one of With The Studio set so far back from the road, Noël and his Noël’s most evocative and tender love songs. In passing, in party guests could make almost as much noise as they liked, most published editions of the play the line is given as but not quite: in the early hours the friendly local police station ‘Extraordinary how potent ...’, but this is incorrect: Noël and would sometimes ring to say that Mr Coward and his guests Gertie made the definitive recording of Private Lives on I May had delighted them and the neighbours long enough. The 1930 - the word they used is ‘strange’. officers were always gentle with this suggestion, having been part of the party, looking after the guests car-parking in the On the next two pages is the brochure produced for the last small street and then listening to Ethel Merman, Judy Garland, sale of the property’s lease. Lena Horne or Tauber or Yvonne Printemps through the open Last amongst the papers is a wedding invitation sent to windows. Noël Coward addressed to 17a, Gerald Road and dated When he left The Studio for good in 1956, Noël recalled: 22 March 1971 sent from Paris . . .
“the mornings after opening nights, the interminable telephone conversations, the ideas conceived and the plans made, and above all the jokes, the rich wonderful jokes with Lorn and Cole and Graham roaring with laughter .. I hope that whoever occupies that lovely place will have as happy and gay a time in it as I have had. ”
Gertrude Lawrence and Noël Coward opened the smart, brand-new Phoenix Theatre with Private Lives in September 1930. The words ‘famous’, ‘success’ and ‘ Private Lives ’ seem to have gone together from the start. The fact that Noël had written it in four days, while recovering from a bad attack of influenza in the Cathay Hotel in Shanghai, soon became famous, as did Gertie's cable after he enthusiastically sent her the script, NOTHING WRONG THAT CAN’T BE FIXED, and so did his terse reply, NOTHING TO BE FIXED EXCEPT YOUR PERFORMANCE. They were both well aware that they were on to a good thing and Gertie presumably gladly put up with a lot of leg-pulling from the time of her high-handed cable until rehearsals started:
- 13 - - 14 - - 15 - Coward on the Coast Rave Reviews for Antaeus’ Peace in Our Time: LA Times Top-Ten Best of 2011! Adapted by Barry Creyton Directed by Casey Stangl
The Antaeus Company Deaf West Theatre, North Hollywood, CA October 20 - December 18, 2011
Under ordinary circumstances, I would write a glowing arti - cle about this terrific production ... but the critics beat me to it, stealing all the superlatives on the West Coast. One re - viewer even commented on the need for more synonyms for “Excellent!”
Cheers to the entire Antaeus Company for this extraordinary L. to R. Eve Gordon, Abby Wilde, Josh Clark. production, lauded on December 13, 2011 in the Los Angeles Photo by Steven Brand. Times 2011 Year in Review: Best in Theater , a “top-ten” list that included West End and Broadway shows:
“Peace in Our Time,” The Antaeus Company at Deaf West Theatre. The more serious side of Noël Coward’s dramatic imagi - nation provided an opportunity for the Antaeus Company to display its ensemble brilliance in a musically enhanced produc - tion directed by Casey Stangl that convincingly brought to life a counterfactual portrait of Britain under Nazi occupation.
Below are some highlights from a handful of other critics.
Don Grigware, Broadway World Noël Coward’s genius lives on through Barry Creyton ’s new adaptation world premiere of Peace in Our Time currently on stage at the Antaeus Company in NoHo. As you step across the stage to your seat, crossing the wooden floor of the pub that forms the decor (incredible set by Tom Buderwitz ) for the drama with music set from 1940-1945 London, you feel an instant connection to the place and time…. Bravo, bravo, bravo to a sensational production, yet another triumph for the Antaeus Company.
The Epps Cast. Photo by Geoffrey Wade. Epps Cocoas Emily Chase • Kendra Chell • Chris Clowers • John Combs • JD Cullum • Paul Culos • Jason Dechert • Etta Devine Drew Doyle • Joseph Fuhr • Christopher Guilmet • Graham Hamilton • Jason Henning • Steve Hofvendahl Raleigh Holmes • Danielle Jones • Susan Boyd Joyce • Lily Knight • Peter Larney • Richard Levinson • Zoe Perry Joanna Strapp • Amelia White - 16 - Jason Rohrer, Stage happenings This handsome production will get an audience ... but it espe - cially ought to be seen by young people, and most specifically by those who don’t think they like theater. Disguised as imag - ined history, like all great art it’s about the future. It’s a very traditional-looking show, with its detailed Tom Buderwicz set and gorgeous costumes by Jessica Olson, yet it feels vividly new, as Coward so frequently does. We can’t resist him. He’s as compassionate as writers get, and his sympathy lies with the audience. Therefore ours lies with him.
L. to R. Raleigh Holmes, JD Cullum. Photo by Geoffrey Wade.
Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times Culture Monster This beautifully mounted production, directed with poise by Casey Stangl, deserves to be a smasheroo in Los Angeles. The absorbing fictional world that it creates is like a majestic sepia-tinged photograph sprung to life. Every aspect of the staging, from Tom Buderwitz’s London pub set to Jeremy Pivnick’s shadowy lighting to Jessica Olson’s convincing pe - riod costumes, ushers us back in time to a moment not so long ago when civilization was hanging by a thread.
L. to R. Rebecca Mozo, Daniel Bess, Josh Clark, Notes from Director Casey Stangl Jason Henning, Bill Brochtrup. Photo by Steven Brand. My experience directing Peace in Our Time was Barnaby Hughes, SoCal (Arts and Entertainment web site for wonderfully challenging Southern California) and rewarding and com - ... an immensely entertaining and enjoyable gem of a play. The pletely unique…. It was Antaeus Company is to be commended for rescuing Noël Cow - [my] first time directing ard’s “Peace in Our Time” from obscurity and for adapting it a Noël Coward play, al - so smoothly and seamlessly. though I’m a big fan of his plays and have seen most of them many times. While we all think of Coward as a master of witty comedy (which he decidedly is!) I learned doing Peace that he is also a master of structure, character Casey Stangl and storytelling. The plot of Peace moves for - ward with compelling urgency and we are given information at precisely the point we need it. And even an hour into the play, we’re still meeting new characters!
The focus on character was enhanced by the double casting L. to R. Amelia White, Lily Knight, John Combs. process employed by Antaeus Company. I deliberately sought Photo by Geoffrey Wade. to cast pairs of actors who would bring different aspects to the their role, rather than being carbon copies of each other. This Samuel Bernstein, WeHo News (West Hollywood News web proved fruitful for everyone (most especially the lucky audience site) members who saw both casts) in that the characters were illu - Casey Stangl’s direction is nothing short of miraculous. This is minated in very deep and layered ways. The portrayal of a small house with a small (though rather deep) stage space, Chorley Bannister is a great example. JD Cullum and Bill but she keeps the large cast in effortless motion. And she un - Brochtrup shared the role and each brought dimensional yet derstands how to use light, movement, and shadow to focus at - completely different performances. JD found more of the char - tention-leaving images that linger in your memory as giant acter’s humor and insecurity; Bill emphasized the man’s intelli - close-ups. gence and cunning and the complete humiliation of his defeat in Act 2.
- 17 - One of the great pleasures of our production was the addition The Noël Coward Society Celebrates the Premiere of of Coward’s music in Barry Creyton’s masterful adaptation. I Peace in Our Time had several audience members tell me they couldn’t believe that “Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans” and “Would You Please Oblige Us With a Bren Gun” weren’t in the original text - they seemed to fit so seamlessly. The music was fun to work on and greatly enhanced the production. Maybe a Coward revue will be next for me?!? Casey Stangl
About the adaptation and the production For a synopsis of scenes and musical numbers, plus some background on The Shy Gazelle, see notes in the August 2010 issue of Home Chat (available online to NCS members). Tightening the script for the 2011 production, adapter Barry Creyton delicately pruned another 10-15 minutes from the run - ning time and cut the song “ Sigh No More .”
Additional changes from the 2010 workshop to the full produc - tion included the use of “supertitles” projected on the prosce - L. to R.: Richard Dellamora, Don Gunn, Rich Reinhart, Sara nium: “PhotoShopped” images (both stills and video) revealed Muller-Chernoff, Barry Creyton, and Kathy Williams. the dark presence of Nazis in London (for example, showing Photo by Elizabeth Swain. Hitler looming over the King and Queen) and marked the progress of the invasion; images introduced each scene and in - Première of Peace in Our Time: October 23, 2011 dicated the passing of months and years from 1941- 45. A Six of the California members of the Noël Coward Society at - soundtrack for the supertitles further set up the scene: terrify - tended the première of Peace in Our Time by the Epps cast on ing bursts of gunfire and bombs alternated with appropriate Sunday afternoon, October 23rd. In honor of this historic oc - musical fragments (e.g., “ London by Night ”, “ Where Have casion, Antaeus kindly allowed us to pose on the set, lined up They Gone?,” etc. ) in front of the bar in The Shy Gazelle. Elated by the stirring performance, we joined the artists after the show for a Gala re - Musical direction Richard Levinson ception in the Antaeus library. Scenic design Tom Buderwitz Costume design Jessica Olson Symposium on Coward and His Works: October 30, 2011 Sound design John Zalewski The following Sunday, an enthusiastic audience participated in Lighting design Jeremy Pivnick a pre-matinée symposium in the Deaf West Theatre. Featuring Properties design Heather Ho Barry Creyton (actor, director, author, and adaptor of Peace in Stage manager Lara E. Nall Our Time ) with Kathy Williams, U.S. West Coast Liaison for Fight choreography Steve Rankin the Coward Society, the two-hour event included half an hour of Q&A at the end. Assistant stage manager Tamara Williams Technical director R. Scott Thompson Starting off on a humorous note with favorite quips from The Production assistant Irlando Ferreira Master (all, according to Barry, “suitable for a mixed audi - Assistant costume designer Whitney Oppenheimer ence”), Barry and Kathy alternated descriptions of Coward’s Assistant directors AnnaLea Arnold wartime work with readings (excerpts from Coward’s diaries, Dana Friedman letters, Future Indefinite , and the Middle East Diary ) plus per - Dialect coaches Tuffet Schmelzle sonal views, musical moments and clips of Sir Noël being in - Tracy Winters terviewed. The reading closed with a couple of favorite short Projections John Apicella works by Coward (Barry: “ The Awakening ” and Kathy: circa Musical consultant Harry Groener 1956, a letter to Marlene Dietrich, offering stern, “Dear Abby”- Scenic painter Andy Hammer type advice to Marlene, who was obsessed with Yul Brynner, Master carpenter Joe Batuyong whom Noël had nicknamed “Curly.”) Remarkably, several au - Master Electrician Justin Kief dience members asked for a copy of the notes from the talk. Electrician Watson Bradshaw We couldn’t have liked it more. Production manager and special effects makeup Adam Meyer Coward Foundation Trustee Geoffrey Johnson Applauds PIOT Special thanks to Jeanie Hackett, Antaeus’ Artistic Director from 2003 – 2011, for her vision in selecting PIOT and in as - Long-time personal U. S. representative for Noël Coward, and sembling the creative team for this production, and to Kitty a Trustee of the Noël Coward Foundation for many years, Ge - Swink, Associate Artistic Director, for championing PIOT , offrey Johnson flew in from New York to see the November shepherding the show from its first reading as part of The 20th matinée of Peace in Our Time . Young Idea Project in 2009 through its highly-successful run. Geoffrey greeted the Stubbs cast after the show: he was gener - ous in sharing a few anecdotes about Coward and enthusiastic
- 18 - in his praise of the show, expressing a hope that there will be Alan kindly provided detailed notes on the program, which in - additional productions of this fine adaptation. The Antaeans cluded a number of favorite selections from the past 29 years. responded in kind, thanking Geoffrey and the Foundation for The one-hour program aired on Friday, 16 December, at 9 PM their three years’ support of The Young Idea Project and Peace PST, with a repeat at 1 PM PST on Thursday, 22 December, on in Our Time . KALW, 91.7 FM ( www.kalw.org ). For more about Antaeus and Peace in Our Time , you may visit When asked about the history of his Coward Special broad - casts, Alan recalled the origin and related some highlights of past shows.
While I had always enjoyed Noël Coward’s works, it was probably the gift of volumes of his plays at Christ - mas 1981 and my birthday in 1982, from my friend Ronald Benson, that got me more interested, and when asked to do a program to substitute for a regular musi - cal series, I did the first Birthday special, on Coward’s birthday in 1982.
KW: How many minutes was it? AF: Sixty minutes.
KW: Which of Coward’s works have you included most often in the 29 years ... and why? Front Row Center: Barry Creyton and Geoffrey Johnson; AF: No idea; each show was its own self, reflecting the Front row R: Kathy Williams. past year in my Coward interest, discoveries and inter - On the set with the Stubbs cast. Photo by Kitty Swink. views.
Stubbs Specials KW: Any chance you’ll write an article or book about John Allee • Daniel Bess • Bill Brochtrup • Josh Clark • the history of the show (perhaps a compilation of pro - Chris Clowers gram notes)? Mark Doerr • Karianne Flaathen • Eve Gordon • Belen AF: No, but I have the manuscript of a book that com - Greene • Anna Mathias piles the interviews I have done about Coward. Rosalyn Mitchell • Rebecca Mozo • Rob Nagle • Ann Noble KW: What is the most unusual song, interview, or other John Francis O’Brien • Melinda Peterson • Philip Proc - work you’ve presented? tor • Jesse Sharp AF: [Several came to mind.] During the series, I ac - Brian Tichnell • Rebekah Tripp • Patrick Wenk-Wolff • quired from his accompanist, Norman Hackforth, some lost lyrics to “Mad About the Boy,” along with unre - their web site at www.antaeus.org , read their blog and tweet or leased recordings that he and Coward had made in read tweets at and Calcutta in 1944. view them on Facebook . I discovered, in his secretary Joan Hirst’s cupboard, an http://antaeuscompany.wordpress.com/ unreleased recording of “Mad About the Boy” by Cow - ard (which he always denied he had sung). Alan Farley’s 30 th Annuhatlt pS:p/e/cwiawl wB.rfoaacedbcoasot k.com/#!/An - CtaoemusmTehmeaotrear ting Coward’s Birthday While the Birthday Special was usually 60 to 90 min - utes, in 1986 I presented a nine hour marathon, and in Almost twenty years before the founding of the Noël Coward 1989, a five hour special. Society, Alan Farley pre - sented his first broadcast In 1987, the Special was a production of “Blue Har - honoring the birthday of The bour Honeymoon,” a play by Ron Lazar, which in - Master. On December 16, cluded the ghost of Noël Coward as a character. 1982, listeners in the San Francisco Bay Area enjoyed the first of what was to be - Program Notes for the 2011 Noël Coward Birthday come an annual tradition: Special musical numbers, live inter - The program starts with the opening number from the first views, and historic record - broadcast in 1982 — Noël singing Why Must the Show Go On? ings to delight Cowards fans — and continues with interviews and snippets from recorded old and new. speeches by: This year’s special broadcast - Graham Payn on how he first met Coward, and how was a retrospective of cele - Noël wrote “ Matelot ” for him. brations past.
- 19 - - Accompanist Norman Hackforth on first meeting Noël, working with him, and revealing the special Musical numbers: Graham Payn singing “ Matelot ,” recordings they made in Calcutta in 1944. Coward’s Calcutta recording of “ I Wonder what Hap - pened to Him ?,” Elaine Stritch singing “ Why Do the - Elaine Stritch on how Coward discovered her and Wrong People Travel ?” and Peter Greenwell’s recording starred her in Sail Away on Broadway and in London. of “ Sail Away .” In addition are two special recordings made for the series: The Noël Coward Singers with - Actress Moira Lister on a special Christmas remem - “Give Me the Kingston Bypass ,” and the Volkert- brance. Walther String Trio’s version of “ Green Carnation .”
- Accompanist Peter Greenwell on working with Cow - Congratulations, Alan! And many thanks for three decades of ard. fine programming.
- David Attenborough on visiting the set of In Which 2012 Coming Events We Serve , in which his brother Richard played a leading Currently scheduled for the West Coast, the “Big Four” Cow - role. ard favorites will play at local theatres. Hay Fever : February 2- 5 at the Bellevue Civic Theatre in Belleview, WA; Private - Playwright Neil Simon on how Coward was instru - Lives : February 16 – March 25 at the Grove Theatre Center in mental in his career. Burbank, CA (produced by and starring Coward Society mem - ber Stasha Surkdyke) and September 8 – 30 at the Rubicon - Coward’s secretary Joan Hirst on her predecessor Theater in Ventura, CA; Blithe Spirit: May 3 – 20 at the Jewel Lorn Lorraine. Theatre Company in Santa Cruz, CA and August 8 – Septem - ber 2 at Bruns Amphitheatre/California Shakespeare Theater in - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother , Orinda, CA; and Present Laughter : November 9 – December 1 on unveiling the statue of Coward at the Drury Lane at the Little Fish Theatre in San Pedro, CA. Theatre in 1998. Kathy Williams
NOËL ON THE WEB There have been two major developments that enhance Noël Coward’s presence on the World Wide Web. Firstly a new website that provides detailed information on the planned events taking place in New York this year as part of a festival of activity surrounding the exhibition: STAR QUALITY: THE WORLD OF NOËL COWARD
These events run throughout the year so please keep your eye on the website for the latest news. www.noëlcowardinnewyork.com
A summary is provided on the back page of this month’s Home Chat.
Secondly - at long last I hear you cry - the Noël Coward Music Index has been resurrected in full on www.noëlcowardmusic.com It will be gradually updated over the coming year with the addition of extracts from recordings of Noël’s music, spoken word and plays to illustrate the points raised in the commentary of its authors; Dominic Vlasto and Alan Farley. Other amendments will also made throughout the year so please keep popping back!
- 20 - These page are available for any member to itemise publications, recordings, events and anything else connected with Noël Coward’s name and work in which they have played FAMILY ALBUM a part or wish to recommend to NCS members. n October 2009 we printed a letter from Len Brown that or a roadway of some kind. It may be the wall that Noël had started an occasional series of pieces about Noël’s first built but Spithead Lodge, which stands to the left of Watergate tropical home in Bermuda. Since then photographs some 50 yards or so down the drive leading to the houses, is received from Noël’s home in Les Avants, Switzerland not obvious in this photo.The brickwork that can be seen just to have provided further evidence of his time there. There may the left of Watergate's chimney in the August photo appears to well be more that comes to light about Spithead Lodge and its have become a garage today, probably either for Spithead neighbouring cottage Watergate (an early indication of Noël’s Lodge or Watergate. preference for twin residences - a place to work and a place to The house Spithead moreover cannot be seen to the right entertain - that he adopted in Jamaica). of Watergate. It may be that the land with the wall is obscuring We have reprinted the original October 2009 article in full it although the enclosed photo shows that from a broadly on the next few pages to set the context for readers who may similar angle today Spithead is clearly visible. There must have read our articles during the last year but did not see the therefore have been significant changes to the shoreline and original letter and photographs from Len Brown. general layout of the estate between the 1950s and today which should come as no surprise given the passage of some 55 Len’s latest letter is as follows. . . years. Noël became a Bermuda resident in 1956. Cars had only been permitted on the Island by The Motor “In the article on Bermuda in the August edition of Home Chat Car Act of 1946, ten years earlier, and therefore there would there is mention of the double railing on the second story not have been so many using the roads. The growth in veranda that does not feature in the May cover photograph. vehicular traffic over the intervening years has no doubt The reason is that the photo on the May cover shows Noël dictated any number of major road alterations and seated at the north facing (out to sea) window of his room, improvements which could account for the changes in which did not have a veranda. At that time the veranda faced geography. The original speed limit of 20 mph introduced in east along the rocky coastline as seen in your photograph. If the 1946 Act remains basically unchanged today however!. you refer to the photo of Watergate in Home Chat October Despite such anomalies I have little or no doubt that the 2009 you will see that today Watergate's east facing wall is August photo is of Watergate, but has anyone been able to solid; what used to be Noël’s veranda open space has been identify it positively as such? ” incorporated as internal house space. A veranda has been reintroduced however by way of a building extension which Len ends his letter to us with the following. . . now provides both north and east facing views - see the photograph below.The main building on the original estate, “When Janice and I go over to Bermuda in November we Spithead, can be seen behind the Casuarina tree (see Spithead may try to look a little further into building and development also in October 2009 Home Chat). changes in the Spithead area. If in the meantime if you have The wall that Noël had built to protect his privacy no any Bermuda photos or references etc. which you are having longer exists (see photo of Spithead Lodge from the water - difficulty identifying please let us know as we would be very October 2009). The wall seen in the August photo has happy to offer any assistance in that regard. ” telegraph poles ranged along it which suggests a public wall Len Brown
- 21 - From a simple enquiry to an exploratory visit BERMUDA NOTES Len and Janice Brown decided to find out THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER 2009 more about Noël’s home in Bermuda in the ultimate house-hunting adventure! Dear Barbara, A year or more ago I wrote to you enquiring whether any around the Island. pictures or information existed with respect to Noël Coward’s The most significant shipwreck occurred on 24th July 1609 1950s home in Bermuda. John Knowles offered suggestions but when the Flagship of Admiral Sir George Somers, leading a all in all I was not able to add to the limited data already to fleet of seven and taking 600 emigrants from England to hand. Virginia, ran aground My wife Janice and 1 on Bermuda’s reefs. decided to do a little research Everyone survived and (house hunting) of our own. most of the survivors of We visited Bermuda, took the wreck of Somers’ some photos of the house and Sea Venture reached cottage as they exist today and Virginia ten months added some information found later. Those who stayed in local publications. in Bermuda became its Pictures are enclosed first settlers and together with our commentary Bermuda remains a and the references. I hope this British Overseas will be of some interest to you Territory 400 years and to others at NCS. later. One of the Sea Best wishes and regards, Venture’s passengers Yours sincerely, Spithead as it is today jutting out into the Sound was William Strachey, Len Brown secretary-elect of Virginia. His dramatic account of the “dreadful tempest” is Bermuda understood to have inspired William Shakespeare’s The Bermuda is Tempest . an archipelago Bermuda’s Latin motto is “Quo Fata of less than 21 Ferunt” - Whither the Fates Carry (Us). square miles In 1956 the Fates carried Noël Coward situated 650 to Bermuda. Like the thousands of miles east of international companies based in North Carolina Bermuda today, he was seeking a tax U.S.A., break. hundreds of miles north of Noël’s Bermuda Home the Caribbean. It Unsurprisingly, given the isolation of boasts 75 miles Bermuda surrounded by the vast Atlantic of dramatic Ocean, Bermudians took to the sea. coastline, Among the privateers, pirates, breathtaking Spithead Lodge smugglers, and even honest merchants, beaches and one of the most successful was a scenery, unique architecture and the bluest of waters. This is privateer Hezekiah Frith (known as “Pirate Frith", the not just the writers’ opinion, nor publicity from the Bermuda distinction was always a fine one!). In the 1780s Frith acquired Ministry of Tourism; in the extensive lands in the words of the Master Spithead Lodge From the water. Spithead (not in picture) is to the right parish of Warwick where, “I love the pastel-coloured at Turtle Bay on a point of houses and the little creeks and land jutting out into the harbours and islands .... The Great Sound, he built a sea, in strong sunlight, is a substantial property which bright almost hysterical he named after the naval turquoise ” (Diaries 1956, base in England, Spithead. Wednesday 27 June, Bermuda). In the 1920s playwright Spanish sea Captain Juan de Eugene O’Neill and his Bermudez discovered Bermuda wife Agnes acquired some around 1505 but it was not 17 acres of the Spithead settled until a century later. estate and daughter Oona, Known from earliest days as later Mrs Charles Chaplin, the ‘Isle of Devils’ Bermuda was born at Spithead. After had been created following Agnes and O’Neill had volcanic activity in the Atlantic Ocean millennia ago. It is divorced Agnes and Oona further sub-divided the land and surrounded by treacherous reefs and shipwrecks abound all properties. An English family, the Grays, acquired the gate
- 22 - cottage and a small building on the waterfront. Both buildings Bermuda had played its part, time to move on. Joy Bluck were in very poor condition, the gate cottage having an earthen Waters again: kitchen floor. After renovations the gate cottage became “After a while he got rock happy, a Bermudian expression ‘Spithead Lodge’ and the waterfront property became the for when the smallness of the island seems intolerable, and studio cottage ‘Watergate.’ moved to the more primitive vastness of Jamaica. ” After less In 1957 Noël consented to open his home to the public as than three years in Bermuda, Noël decided that Jamaica’s more part of a tour organised by the Garden Club of Bermuda under constant climate and Switzerland’s financial culture would be the sponsorship of the Bermuda Historical Society; this was the more conducive to his future well-being. first time Spithead Lodge had been opened to public view. The Three years is not long given the average life of four score Royal Gazette of 9 March 1957 in reporting the event provides and ten but the move to Bermuda in 1956 was very significant some interior pictures and a brief description of the layout and for Noël Coward. It came at a low point in Noël’s career and contents of parts of the house. finances although the decision to quit England was not taken Noël had not been happy with lightly, many of his the treatment he received at the friends were unhappy hands of the British press when he with him, and it inspired announced he would be leaving venom from the press. England for Bermuda; some of the The move however did attention he received in Bermuda enable Noël to stabilise was not always welcome. Joy and improve his finances Bluck Waters: “ Sightseeing boats at an otherwise difficult carrying tourists incensed Coward, time. He was able to as they went by, by announcing safeguard his future and over their public address system, move on to yet more which was audible for miles career successes for around, that he had left England to which we are of course avoid taxes. Bermudians never paid grateful. any tribute to England and to this Len and Janice Brown Watergate, at the beginning of the drive leading to Spithead Lodge and Spithead day have no income tax. ” Noël Len and Janice sent noted: “ Every morning at about along some press noon a crowded ferry boat passes and the gentleman in charge cuttings with these notes - here is an extract from one of them: announces places of interest through a loudspeaker. His voice “NOËL COWARD HAS BOUGHT HOUSE HERE echoes across the still water ...... I don’t really mind this daily WITH A GHOST” publicity but unfortunately it does encourage the boat’s ‘Mast of Ship runs the length of ‘Spithead Lodge’ passengers to spring Noël Coward has found another into taxis the moment Watergate - Looking out into the Great Sound. “The loo with the view” ghost. It goes with the house he has they land and come just bought in Bermuda - “Spithead belting out to stare at Lodge.” And the ghost? Its not a me over the wall and sophisticated one, like Elvira in take photographs. ” “Blyth Spirit” [sic] It’s a little French (Diaries 1956, girl that Hezekiah Frith, a freebooter Wednesday 27 June, who used the house to store his loot, is Bermuda). Noël was reputed to have kept there against her unfortunate in that he will. The house which has about 350 was one of Bermuda’s feet of waterfront, also has the mast of earliest celebrities. a ship running its whole length. In the Today many celebrities present dining room which Noël visit or reside in Coward means to convert into a Bermuda and their library with a grand piano, the beam personal lives and space is brown. But in the adjoining kitchen, are respected by the indifferent locals. It is said that which used to be slave quarters, it is painted white. Mr. Bermudians, enjoying one of the highest standards of living in Coward will probably have about three grand pianos in the the world, in a country where an executive home can rent for house. The huge upstairs drawing room would take one, and $20,000 a month and sell for $30 million, have a relaxed the master bedroom may have one too. There are water views attitude to celebrity because they themselves are more wealthy from most of the windows, and French doors leading onto the than the “stars"! verandahs on the second floor . “Bermuda has taken charge of us. It is a sweet island, “It was the only house in Bermuda he was interested in,” much, much nicer to live on than I expected The weather is Mrs. Dean Gray said. “He came to see me every day for a hot, hot, hot. ” - Diaries, Monday 30 July 1956. But Bermuda is week. At first I didn’t even know who he was.” The property not a tropical Island, it is sub-tropical and it is seasonal. “ Gone Mr. Coward has bought also includes a little studio cottage is the sunshine and the turquoise water, gone are the tourists called ‘Watergate.” He plans to take up residence on May 6. and many of the residents, and gone, gone, gone is the warmth and glamour of this enchanted isle. ” - Diaries, Sunday 28 The Royal Gazette Weekly - 18 March 1956 October 1956.
- 23 - HAPPY MEMORIES OF NOËL COWARD As part of our series on members first interest in Noël Coward, Harald Copenhagen recalls The Master.
fter a brief trip to America to make propaganda final year show of my medical year in Cape Town.) broadcasts Noël Coward went to South Africa for a three month charity concert tour on the invitation of General By 1962 I was in London studying surgery at the Smuts the Prime Minister of South Africa. His one show Hammersmith Hospital. My wife was with me. On opening the raised £20,000 for the Red Cross and Mrs. Smuts Comfort newspaper she noticed that Noël Coward was appearing at the Fund - which was a lot of money in those days. Queens Theatre in three plays called a Suite in Three Keys with He arrived in Cape Town in April 1944. And as usual he Lilli Palmer and Irene Worth. was accompanied on the piano by Norman Hackford. Norman “We should try see the play. I believe that Noël Coward Hackford would in later life become the voice of Dan Archer in will leave the stage at the end of the run ,” she said. the Archers . We booked and saw Song at Twilight , on the first night. It was while was in Cape Town that he met my father. He Followed by two shorter plays Shadows of the Evening and was introduced by Jack Stodel of African Theatres who Come Into the Garden Maud the following evening both sponsored Noël Coward’s tour. At this stage my father was the written by Noël Coward. After each performance we gathered director of Naval Training in South Africa. He was a great fan outside the stage door hoping that Noël Coward would sign my of Noël Coward. He had seen Present Laughter and Private program. After seeing A Song at Twilight there were many Lives and of course In Which We Serve which released in South people out stage door. So we decided to wait until the Africa in 1942. He even had a copy of this film at his base following night. The next evening there were only three people which was situated in the Cape Town docks called H.M.S.A.S. waiting, my wife and Cole Lesley and me. Cole Lesley was Unitie. acting as driver for Noël Coward. We waited for a long while During the discussions with Noël Coward, Jack Stodel and till eventually Noël Coward appeared wearing a mustard my father. He suggested that if Noël Coward would consider coloured jacked accompanied by Lord Mountbatten and Sir bringing his one-man show to the naval base so that all the Yehudi Menuhin. I asked Noël Coward to sign my program. officers and ratings to see the show. Noël Coward agreed “You have should come up to my green room” replied Noël. provided there was a silver collection in aid of the Red Cross “That would have been very presumptuous of me” I replied. and Mrs Smut's Comfort Fund. Chairs and makeshift stage “I'll sign your programme” interjected Lord Mountbatten. were arranged in large drill hall of H.M.S.A.S. Unitie. The “Noël's signature is so illegible” I pushed forward so that Noël show was a great success according to my father and mother. Coward could sign my program. After the show they made their way to the wardroom. It In the intervening years Noël Coward and my parents was during the drinks there that my father asked Noël Coward exchanged Christmas cards. if he could have dinner with him at our home. In 1959 when my parents were on holiday in England. They We had a large rambling single storeyd house with a music tried to book seats for “My Fair Lady” only to be told that all room with a barrel roof. The previous owner had installed a the seats had been sold. So they telephoned Noël Coward to church organ. This had been removed to a church in Cape see if he could possibly help. The very next morning the Town so there would enough room for a baby grand piano. theatre manager of Theatre Royal Drury Lane telephoned my Incidentally my room was next to the music room. parents and said that there were 2 seats available in the front There would 9 for dinner that night, Noël Coward and row of the dress circle. naval officers and their wives. I was at school boy stage and They had been paid for by Noël Coward. therefore not able to present. My mother suggested that they should give Noël Coward a typical South African meal. For Harald Copenhagen pudding she agreed that they would serve homemade brandied peaches. Noël Coward amazed everybody by asking for a second helping !! During the dinner Noël Coward amused all present by telling tales of Lord and Lady Mountbatten and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. After dinner they all went to the music room. It was when the music started that I was invited in. I remember Noël Coward playing ‘There will always an England’, ‘London pride’ and Noël Coward’s version of Cole Porter's song ‘Let’s Do It’ which was to prove equally popular with audiences years later in cabaret at the Café de Paris in London and Desert Inn in Las Vegas. (Incidentally I dressed in my dinner jacket with a cigarette holder to impersonate Noël Coward and I sang my version of ‘Let’s Do It’parodying my consultants in the - 24 - THE E & O HOTEL Kerry Hailstone on Coward in Penang’s famed hotel he E & O Hotel, which like Raffles in Singapore, is one The accompanying photograph in the book shows Noël & of the grand hotels of south east asia. Jeffrey in white silk tennis shirts like peas-in-a-pod in white We made friends with the Head Butler who showed us trousers and wearing (Sharp records) blue berets. around the Noël Coward suite as well as the Herman Goodness knows what the locals made of that. And Hesse, the Rudyard Kipling and the Presidential suites. There something I have never seen before, Noël in moustache. I only is a photo gallery with a nice photograph of Noël in his 40s have a photocopy of the photograph so the quality's not so along with a host of other actors/actresses and men of letters or good. of note. Noël stayed at the E & O in 1929 with Jeffrey, Lord Kerry Hailstone Amherst, and had with him the first draft of Private Lives completed in Shanghai. Ed: Among the recently digitised ciné films of Noël’s travels In a big glossy book about the E & O (loaned to me by our are shots of Penang... more on this another time! friend Zul the butler) the author, Ilsa Sharp, tells a very interesting story about Coward's time in Penang. According to Sharp, Coward visited the Penang zoo with Jeffrey and others including the editor of the local newspaper. It seems a large Malayan tiger became rather agitated when an inconsiderate visitor banged its cage with a stick. To calm things down, Noël asked everyone to leave him alone with the tiger and then set about charming the beast. Nobody knows how, but by the time the others returned, the tiger was rolling on its back waving its paws in the air and purring like a kitten (more or less). Ilsa Sharp conjectures that perhaps Noël accomplished this feat by singing to it. It makes you wonder what. Mad Dog's & Englishmen, perhaps? He'd just written that too. All this was written up in the local newspaper so it must be true. When I told Lewis Fiander the story, his immediate response was, “Who was in the skin?” Takes an actor to know another I suppose. It seems that Noël had his cine-camera and recorded scenes of Penang life as his party drove slowly by.
- 25 - - 26 - - 27 - A festival celebrating Noël Coward will take place in New York this year to accompany the year-long exhibition, Star Quality - The World of Noël Coward . The latest details can be viewed on the website www.noëlcowardinnewyork.com BRAVE NEW WORLD REPERTORY THEATRE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY FOR THE Sunday, April 1 The Marquise - Staged reading of Coward’s little-known work. PERFORMING ARTS Directed by Kevin Hogan at the Brooklyn Lyceum. The Library is located at Lincoln Center. The exhibition will be on view in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery on the DRAMA BOOKSHOP Library’s Lincoln Center Plaza level. Programs take place in Thursday, April 5 the Bruno Walter Auditorium. Performance: The Coward Collection Steve Ross, Simon Callow, Edward Hibbert and Nancy March 12 - August 18 Anderson. Star Quality: The World Of Noël Coward Exhibition. THE ACTING COMPANY Monday, April 9 Monday, April 16 Noël Coward: Off the Record A Song At Twilight. Reading directed by Maria Aitken. Performance with Steve Ross and guest artists.
May 17 NATIONAL ARTS CLUB Mabel Mercer Foundation. A Cabaret evening of Noël Coward Thursday April 19 songs An Evening with Noël Coward Featuring David Garrard Lowe and Bobby Nesbitt Monday, June 4, 6:00 p.m "Mad About the Boy": The First Noël - Lecture by Alan Pally. PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA On December 10, 1999, with Frank Langella, Paula Laurence, Monday, April 23 - A Cavalcade of Coward Steve Ross, B.D. Wong, and many other artists on stage, and Compiled and narrated by Barry Day with NYPL's Chairman Emeritus Mrs. Vincent Astor in the Performance and video clips front row, the Performing Arts Library presented its first Steve Ross, Simon Jones, and Nancy Anderson. program dedicated to Noël Coward. Alan Pally, who produced that program and many other Coward-focused events, will FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER lecture about the Library's romance with "The Master," using May 11-13 2012 audio and video clips from the programs and images from the Coward on Film. Season of Coward’s film work. Library's collections. www.nypl.org 92nd Street Y Monday, June 11 May 5 – 7 - Mad Dogs & Educated Fleas: Noël & Cole, A Talking Of Noël Coward Battle of Wits. Panel moderated by Geoffrey Johnson An informal panel of friends, performers and others discuss XOREGOS PERFORMING COMPANY Coward’s work. Geoffrey Johnson, casting director of May 5, 12, 14 Broadway's three longest running shows, was Noël Coward's (all free to the public) One Act Gems (4 comedies) American representative for his last ten years. www.nypl.org Includes Red Peppers and Mild Oats
CENTURY CLUB Saturday, May 5 Library at Forest Hills at 2:30 PM - 108-19 Tuesday, February 14 71st Street, Forest Hills, Queens If Love Were All: A Noël Coward Valentine Performance Saturday, May 12 Bronx Library Center at 2:30 PM AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) 310 East Kingsbridge Road, The Bronx Monday, March 12, 7:00 p.m Screening of film Cavalcade (1932/33) Tuesday, May 14 Library at Flushing at 6:00 PM Hosted by Brad Rosenstein, Curator of Star Quality: The World 41-17 Main Street, Flushing, Queens of Noël Coward Running time: 110 minutes. LIGHT OPERA OF NEW YORK An exhibit of poster and film art will be on display at the May 11 – 12 Academy Theater from early March to June 2012. Bitter Sweet performance www.oscars.org Landmark on the Park, 76th Street and Central Park West.
THE JUILLIARD SCHOOL MARYMOUNT COLLEGE Monday, March 26 May 21 Noël Coward master class conducted by Maria Aitken. The Musicals of Noël Coward Performance by students from Marymount College.