JUNE 2010 Free to Members of the Society Price £2 ($4)
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THE NEWSLETTER OF THE NOËL COWARD SOCIETY - JUNE 2010 Free to members of the Society Price £2 ($4) President: HRH The Duke of Kent, KG, GCMG, GCVO, ADC Vice Presidents: Barry Day OBE • Stephen Fry • Tammy Grimes • Penelope Keith CBE New Noël Coward Cabaret Award, Kneehigh’s Brief Encounter returns to New York and Celia Imrie in Hay Fever at The Rose, Kingston-upon-Thames n October 29, 1951 Noël Coward made his debut as a cabaret entertainer at the Café de Paris in London. This successful engagement was followed by appearances there for the next three years. A new career was now added to his already Ostaggering list of achievements. His reputation as a cabaret entertainer was firmly established forever when in June of 1955 he made his triumphant appearance in Las Vegas at the Desert Inn. Following the death of the legendary cabaret performer, Mabel Mercer in 1984, The Mabel Mercer Foundation was formed in 1985 by her close friend and associate Donald Smith to keep her memory alive and to stimulate and promote public interest in the world of cabaret. In 1999 the Foundation presented the all-star Gala at Carnegie Hall celebrating Noël Coward’s 100th birthday. This year, for the first time there will be a presentation of the annual Noël Coward Cabaret Award, which is a grant of $5,000 funded by The Noël Coward Foundation . As Coward was a cabaret performer, it is the intention of the From the Ritz to the Anchor and Crown, Foundation that this award should encourage cabaret at the Canal Cafe Theatre, London performers in keeping Coward’s musical legacy alive. The award will be administered by The Mabel Mercer Foundation. On May 27, 2010, at the National Arts Club in New York City, Donald Smith presented to an invited audience, eleven performers competing for the Noël Coward Cabaret Award. Each contestant sang two songs written by Coward, which presented the special challenge of capturing the sophistication in his lyrics as well as doing justice to his music. The audience included Noël Coward Foundation Trustees, Barry Day , Geoffrey Johnson , and Alan Pally . The performers were judged by a panel comprised of cabaret writer and critic, Elizabeth Ahlfors , television producer, Alyce Finell , composer and arranger, Mark Hummel , cabaret performer, Andrea Marcovicci , singer and pianist, Steve Ross , actress, Marian Seldes , producer, Frank Skillern and radio and television host, Midge Woolsey . After nearly an hour of deliberation, the judges he sub-title for the delightful Coward entertainment presented by announced the winner. The competition was won by our younger members at Little Venice on May Day bank holiday rising young soprano, Jennifer Sheehan . Her two Twas ‘ The Tots take on the Master ’. But in fact there is no musical selections were ‘Mad About The Boy’ and ‘Here disparity between their ages. They are the same age as Coward was And Now.’ Continued on Page 3... when he shot to fame in his early twenties. And some of his finest work was written before he was thirty. I recently learnt, for example, that Hay Fever was written before The Vortex . It was only after the success of The Vortex that Hay Fever was able to be staged, and immediately it became a classic. We need not question therefore the popularity of Coward among the young. There is an essential kindred of youthful spirits leaping back across the generations. The director and MC, Rebecca Hamway , began the evening, stepping into the spotlight in white tie and tails. She sang ‘Bad Times’ with a panache reminiscent of Coward’s friend Marlene Dietrich. Miss Hamway has piercing black eyes set in an attractive angular face. Her eyes could clearly be seen from the back of the stalls – a litmus test for an actor with presence. Gemma Whelan and Gerry Howell performed an interesting and Barry Day, Jennifer Sheehan and Donald Smith original take on the situation Elyot and Amanda are catapulted into Report on the NCS visit to Private Lives at the Vaudeville Theatre - Saturday matinee, 17 April 2010 • Page 4 in the first act of Private Lives . They made it modern and contemporary. You could easily imagine that incendiary coincidence happening in 2010, not just in the world as it was eighty years ago. Joanna Hollister sang ‘I’ll Follow My Secret Heart’ with a poignancy which won an instant response from the audience. Charlotte Hamblin got ‘A Marvellous Party’ spot-on with her voice, gestures and dress: a denizen of the champagne society of the inter-war years. Alexander Williams sang ‘Poor Little Rich Girl’ with firm control and authority. Lizzy Barber ’s splendid telephone monologue ‘ Early Morning ’ portrayed a newly widowed young socialite, not too concerned that her husband had met a watery grave jumping off Waterloo Bridge the night before, but more anxious to fix up a gossipy lunch with her friends at a smart Mayfair restaurant. Funny, brittle and, if you like, callous; vintage Coward satire brought sparklingly to life by Miss Barber. Rebecca Hamway launched with immense zest into Coward’s vitriolic burlesque of the Sitwells: ‘ The Swiss Family Whittlebot ’(you could still relish it without knowing its target). It was the first time I had seen it performed, and it was terrific. The sketch led to a prolonged deadly enmity between Edith Sitwell and Coward – though Barry Day’s recent books have shown that they did finally make up. ‘Twentieth Century Blues’ truthfully hit the darker tones of the 1930’s when they had barely begun, and Aruhan Bisengalieva did full justice to the song’s bleak, almost nihilistic message. John Osborne’s play ‘ The Entertainer ’ is incidentally very similar in spirit, though he and Kenneth Tynan could not see this in the 1950’s. And Coward’s play ‘ Post Mortem ’ (1930), though not well constructed, is a more savage piece of social criticism than ‘ Look Back in Anger ’. (In my view, Coward’s lethal attack on a thinly disguised British press baron in Post Mortem was the source of Lord Beaverbrook’s vendetta against him. There were other reasons later.) Martin Milnes is a one-off. He sang a medley of Coward songs, first in a startling soprano (this from ‘ Bitter Sweet ’), then others in a resonant baritone, which had the audience in stitches. His fast movements were like a controlled whirling dervish, and his dramatic, flamboyant posture at the climax of ‘Nina – from Argentina (Argen-TEE-NA!)’ earned him a storm of applause. Isabelle Schoelcher , another performer possessed of flashing dark eyes and mobile features, delivered with considerable attack Coward’s devastating satire on – I am sure – Diaghilev. This was clearly iconoclastic at the time when you were supposed to genuflect before the Ballet Russe. But how refreshing that Coward ridiculed it, and how well Miss Schoelcher realised his intentions. (‘ Introduction to an Absurdist Ballet ’). The talent and intelligence of Elizabeth Donnelly are already well known to Society members who saw her in Private Lives at Trinity College, Cambridge last year. She and Giselle Gant gave hugely enjoyable performances as the vaudeville couple in Red Peppers – their frolics on the boards contrasted with the bickering reality backstage. The last item ‘Mad About the Boy’ was a rousing finale by several of the cast, bringing the audience in to sing ‘Mrs Worthington’. Our Chairman, Barbara Longford , with her customary generosity and style, thanked all concerned most warmly. She welcomed special guests Alan and Alison Brodie and explained how, as Chairman of the Noël Coward Foundation, Alan had done so much to encourage and help drama students. Barbara urged more young people to join NCS, with an annual fee of only £5 for those under the age of 30. She presented Musical Director, Richard Bates , with a gift from Society members. Dominic Vlasto then made a presentation to Rebecca Hamway and stressed the continuing enthusiasm for Noël Coward around the world. He and Barbara also welcomed Sue Vaccaro , the New York theatre producer, attending as a And of course, the audience was captivated by the guest of Edgar Astaire . Sue is staging a new musical in London next year vital work of the show’s musical director, Richard and was later asked if the talent on show that evening was up to her Bates . professional standards. She answered with an emphatic ‘Yes’. Stuart Griffiths The programme also gave thanks for all their help to Barbara Longford, (Member Stuart Griffiths is a former Senior Script Denys Robinson, Dominic Vlasto, Joanna Benecke and Alan Brodie. Editor of Classic Plays in BBC Television ) Page 2 ...continued from Page 1 Stephen Unwin to direct Celia Imrie She is a graduate of The Juilliard School of Music and in addition to presenting her own cabaret act in New York, she in HAY FEVER At The Rose, has performed in the Christmas show at Radio City Music Opens Sept 23 Hall. The Rose Theatre has announced that Stephen Unwin will Other highlights include appearing in the Lyrics and direct Noël Coward's Hay Fever with a cast that includes Celia Lyricists series at the 92nd Street Y and as a guest artist in Imrie in the role of Judith Bliss and Alexandra Gilbreath as Michael Feinstein’s Standard Time concert series at Carnegie Myra Arundal. Hall. The production will run from 23 September - 23 October. Two runner-ups were also chosen. The first was Nicholas King , an 18-year old newcomer to cabaret, who sang ‘A Room Director Stephen Unwin said With A View’ and ‘You Were There.’ “I'm thrilled to be directing Noël Coward's great comedy of The second was Sidney Myer , a notable cabaret performer, bad manners, which seems to me one of the most perfectly who presented ‘Men About Town’ and ‘A Bar On The Piccola achieved twentieth century English plays.