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details of some recent and future productions and events Home Chat is the newsletter WHAT’S ON? see www.noëlcoward.net and www.noëlcoward.com for more... of The Noël Coward Society FREE TO wholly owned by MEMBERS OF Brief Encounter Noël Coward Ltd. which is THE SOCIETY Noël Coward part of the charitable trust: An Audio Biography The hit Kneehigh company revival is still at The Noël Coward Foundation. CHAT The Cinema, Haymarket. Its run has been OCTOBER 2008 - THE NEWSLETTER OF THE NOËL COWARD SOCIETY Price £2 ($4) extended to Nov 16. There then follows a Officers of the Society are: President: HRH The Duke of Kent, KG, GCMG, GCVO, ADC UK tour. Chairman: Barbara Longford Vice Presidents: Tammy Grimes • Penelope Keith CBE • Barry Day OBE • Stephen Fry Secretary: Denys Robinson Treasurer: Stephen Greenman Hay Fever North American Director: The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch is in the Ken Starrett FILM, MUSIC middle of a successful revival of this Representative for Australia: Coward classic - Robert Wickham NOËL COWARD AND DRAMA booking until 18 Representative for France: October. Captioned Hélène Catsiapis Blithe Spirit performance - Blithe Spirit is planned Saturday 11 October Unless otherwise stated all images and text are copyright for Broadway next at 2.30pm to NC Aventales AG spring in a revival Sign Language All correspondence to: directed by Interpreted The Editor, Michael Blakemore Just released on BBC Audio CD - Sheridan Morley performance - 29 Waldemar Avenue, (Noises Off, Kiss Me presents the life and times of Sir Noël Coward. Sir Wednesday 15 Hellesdon, Norwich, Kate, Is He Dead?), NR6 6TB, UK Laurence Olivier, Lord Mountbatten, John Gielgud, October at 8pm - Interpreted by Martin aimed for a March John Mills, Sybil Thorndike and Joyce Carey are Roberts johnknowles@noëlcoward.net Tel: +44 (0) 1603 486 188 opening at a Shubert just some of the voices heard paying tribute to the Audio Described - Wednesday 15 October theater yet to be at 8pm - Described by Jon Polden elegant star in this audio biography, written and Editors: determined. narrated by Noël Coward's Literary Executor, the John Knowles and Ken Starrett No cast has been late broadcaster and critic Sheridan Morley. Extracts Simon Green sings Design and Production: finalised. Producers from interviews with Coward and his friends, Coward at Christmas John Knowles Jeffrey Richards, Jerry several of his songs and moments from his plays Publication and Distribution: Frankel and Steve A Cabaret for Noël come together to form an insightful, amusing and Stephen Greenman (UK) Traxler. Ken Starrett (US) fascinating picture of one of the twentieth century's Blithe Spirit was first theatre greats. Simon is at the 59 E59 Music Correspondent: Theatre in New York - Dominic Vlasto presented in the US at December 14th through the Morosco Theater in STAR QUALITY - The World of January 4th. This program Contributions are invited from 1941. More details on: blends great Coward members of the Society. www.playbill.com Noël Coward The editor reserves the right classics and some re- his November sees the arrival of the latest film adaptation of a Coward drama. Easy Virtue last A major retrospective exhibition in to edit all copy, images and San Francisco's Museum of Performance & Design. discovered comedy gems. decide on inclusion of items. saw the silver screen in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1928 silent drama with Isabel Jeans in the starring Tonight at 8:30 April 17 to August 29, 2009 For ticket information call Details included in role. The play was first seen at the Broad Theatre, Newark in November 1925 with Jane Cowl in All ten plays that made http://www.sfpalm.org/home.html 212/279-4200 ‘What’s On?’ are as received, the role of Larita - played in this film adaptation by Jessica Biel. The press release says: up the original To order online: www.ticketcentral.com with our thanks, from: T“The Twenties have roared….the Thirties have yet to swing, when after a whirlwind romance compendium that is Samuel French UK and young Englishman John Whittaker (Ben Barnes) marries the sexy, glamorous racing driver, Larita Tonight at 8:30 are to be Canada (Play Publishers and (Jessica Biel). Convinced his family will be as enchanted as him by his new bride John returns to his seen at the Shaw Author’s Representatives), family home with Larita. It is clear from the start, however, that John’s mother Mrs. Whittaker (Kristin Festival next season Ken Starrett (US), Scott Thomas) is offended by everything about her new daughter-in-law: she is a beautiful, older, including the rarely Alan Brodie Representation independent divorcee and American! Larita tries her best to fit in but fails to tiptoe through the (Professional Productions), produced Star NCS members and minefield laid by her mother-in-law. Quickly realizing Mrs. Whittaker’s game she sees that she must Chamber. theatre companies. fight back if she’s not going to lose John. A battle of wits ensues and sparks soon fly...” It will mark the first The reviews, following the film’s launch at the Shaw Festival in Ontario were, in the case of Variety, time that all of the plays For details of rights for guardedly complimentary - an American journalist waving a British flag! have been produced in professional productions: “A fine cast makes sure Noël Coward’s champagne remains bubbly in “Easy Virtue,” an repertory by a www.alanbrodie.com effervescent entertainment that marks a welcome return for “Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the professional company For amateur productions Desert” director Stephan Elliott after a nine-year absence. This peppy Ealing Studios offering may since the London debut www.samuelfrench.com or have trouble asserting itself in a market that increasingly demands must-see credentials, but with of the play at the www.samuelfrench- Jessica Biel more than keeping up with such British stalwarts as Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth london.co.uk Phoenix Theatre in the For publishing rights: at snapping out the tasty dialogue, the picture could yet cultivate an audience among those who go for 1935-36 season, www.methuen.co.uk pictures with a smart English pedigree.” according to Shaw For music rights: Easy Virtue premieres in the UK in late October and goes into the nation’s cinemas in November. Artistic Director Jackie www.warnerchappell.co.uk The cast alone is sure to attract many who would not normally embrace a Coward adaptation - there is Maxwell. clearly much here to be enjoyed! Continued... Produce on QuarkXpress 8 For more information and full production notes see: www.noëlcoward.com/easy_virtue.html on a Mac QuadPro G5 The Noël Coward House Party at Burgh Island - PHOTO Andrew Weeks PowerPC REPORT ON THE BURGH ISLAND WEEKEND WITH PHOTOGRAPHS IN OUR SUPPLEMENT Page 12 Dana Ivey Honoured ... continued from Page 1 Drama Gold Medal awarded to The plays will be NCS member Dana Ivey has received an Honorary Doctorate from her Alma Mater, Rollins College in presented in three Winter Park, Florida. She majored in theatre at Rollins. Following the presentation, Ms. Ivey First Noël Coward Scholar groups, one at each of received a standing ovation. She said, “I am a strong believer in a liberal arts education. I believe it ach year as the Festival’s three prepares anyone for a better life. I'm extremely grateful to the school that prepared me for my future. the courses theatres, and on two This is a day I will never forget and an honour I will always cherish.” Winter Park Mayor David end at the occasions it will be Strong also presented her with a key to the city. Guildhall possible to see all ten on School of a single day, in an event EMusic & Drama a Biography of Claudette Colbert christened “Mad Dogs Gold Medal Award and Englishmen.” NCS member Bernard F. Dick is a professor of communication for Drama is Kate Lynch will and English at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. His announced. This direct Star Chamber year the winner is (only performed once as latest book is Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty, the first major biography of Ms. Colbert in over twenty years. This Gwilym Lee the part of the Tonight at delightful and informative book chronicles her long career and her very first Noël 8:30 premier) as the early life in Paris and New york. Many of the photos in this book Coward Scholar at lunchtime offering at are from an archive called Photofest, operated by NCS member the school. The Noël the Royal George. Howard Mandelbaum. The book is available on Coward Scholarship Maxwell said she got www.amazon.com. Other books by Mr. Dick include biographies is funded by the the idea for mounting of film producer, Hal Wallis and actress, Rosalind Russell. Noël Coward Tonight at 8:30 while Foundation and seeing Lynch direct offered by the Gwilym with Stephen Fry and fellow students Hands Across the Sea Guildhall to one at the Oxford NCS Conference through Shaw's intern student following director program. West Coast News -Coward at ACT in Seattle interviews for their played Edward, Prince of Wales in the RSC’s Richard III Maxwell then read all by Kathy Williams three-year drama course. directed by Elijah Moshinsky. His awards include: Guildhall ten plays and realised Gwilym joined the acting programme at the Guildhall after Drama Gold Medal, 2008; The Noël Coward Scholarship and each was a little jewel, n June 19th, ACT (A Contemporary Theatre) resounded with wild applause and a reading English at Cardiff University. Those of you who was successful in the BBC Radio Drama, Carlton Hobbs and that they ran the standing ovation for the opening night of A Marvelous Party: The Noël Coward attended the Oxford Conference organised by NCS at St.