Noël Coward

A versatile creative force active through much of the twentieth century, Noël Coward excelled chiefly as dramatist, performer, composer, and vocalist, while also producing novels and verse, overseeing stage, screen, and broadcast projects, and appearing in cabaret and on disc. Over six decades he achieved notable success across these fields, shifting among them with apparent facility and frequently combining several roles within a single production, such as authoring, staging, and leading the same piece. Both on the page and before audiences he projected an unchanging image of the urbane, sharp-tongued Englishman ever prepared with an incisive, amusing remark, frequently directed at his own social milieu, as occurs in his best-known number, "Mad Dogs and Englishmen." At the same time he displayed fervent national loyalty, evident in the wartime song "London Pride" and the motion picture In Which We Serve, which he characteristically scripted, co-directed, headlined, and scored. His polished manner could likewise convey tender emotion, as in ballads such as "If Love Were All." Particularly in later years he showcased this persona through nightclub and film engagements, yet his standing rests chiefly on his literary output; he ranks among the foremost British playwrights of the era and, arguably, the leading maker of musical-theater works among his countrymen, having completed thirteen stage musicals from 1923 to 1963.

Though he cultivated the air of an aristocratic wit, Coward’s background was modest. Born Noël Peirce Coward in Teddington, Middlesex, England, on December 16, 1899, he was the child of Arthur Sabin Coward, a music-publisher salesman, and Violet Agnes (Veitch) Coward. During boyhood he revealed the abilities that would later define him, acquiring piano skills by ear without ever learning notation, composing and mounting plays in a miniature theater, and readying himself for performance by beginning dance instruction at age ten. His professional acting debut came at eleven in the children’s musical The Goldfish at London’s Little Theatre on January 27, 1911. This launched an extended period portraying juveniles over the ensuing years, during which schooling was largely neglected. Despite the cultivated image that might have implied elite education and university credentials, his formal learning extended barely beyond elementary grades. From his appearance in The Great Name in September 1911 onward he received guidance from actor-manager Charles Hawtrey, whose comprehensive approach to theater later shaped Coward’s own adult methods. He first directed with a solitary performance of the one-act The Daisy Chain on February 2, 1912. His initial produced script as sole author was the one-act Ida Collaborates, written with Esmé Wynne and staged at the Theatre Royal, Aldershot, on August 20, 1917. The pair also collaborated on another one-act, Women and Whisky, presented at the Wimbledon Theatre in November 1917.

Coward entered film as an extra in D.W. Griffith’s Hearts of the World, released in April 1918. His debut as lyricist arrived with "Peter Pan" (also called "The Story of Peter Pan"), music by Doris Joel and additional lyrics by Joel, performed by Phyllis Titmuss in the revue Tails Up, which premiered in London on June 1, 1918; the number was published and recorded by Louise Leigh. The first play written entirely by Coward to reach the stage was I’ll Leave It to You, which opened in London’s West End on July 21, 1920, for thirty-seven performances; the twenty-year-old author also performed in it. Despite this milestone he continued working chiefly as an actor for the next two years while writing further plays. The next produced work was the one-act comedy The Better Half, which opened May 31, 1922, and ran twenty-nine performances, followed by the full-length comedy The Young Idea, which began its London run on February 1, 1923, for sixty performances with the playwright in the cast.

He kept composing songs as well, contributing notably to the revue The Co-Optimists in May 1922. London Calling! on September 4, 1923, became the first revue for which he received primary songwriting credit, supplying half of its twenty-six numbers; he also co-wrote the book and appeared in the production. Gertrude Lawrence, a cast member, recorded "Parisian Pierrot" and "Russian Blues" from the score. Coward later recorded those numbers plus "Other Girls." The revue completed 316 performances, confirming his standing as a musical-theater writer. Several songs reached New York via André Charlot’s London Revue of 1924, which opened January 9, 1924, marking his Broadway songwriting debut. "It’s the Peach," written in 1916 and included in Yoicks! on June 11, 1924, was in fact the first song for which he supplied both words and music; it later became known as "Forbidden Fruit." Daniel Massey, portraying Coward, performed it in the 1968 film Star!, the screen biography of Lawrence, and on its soundtrack album. Coward supplied additional songs for Charlot’s Revue, the London edition of the New York production, which opened September 23, 1924.

The work that established Coward as playwright and director was The Vortex, which opened December 16, 1924, a daring drama addressing sex and narcotics in which he also starred. It provoked strong reaction in London and ran 224 performances. The combined success of London Calling! and The Vortex cleared the way for the scripts he had accumulated, resulting in three straight-play productions in 1925: Fallen Angels on April 21, Hay Fever on September 7, and Easy Virtue on Broadway December 7. A new screen version of Easy Virtue appeared in 2009. Coward did not act in these productions, though he directed Hay Fever. He likewise did not perform in the year’s musical revue On with the Dance, which opened in London April 20, 1925, for 229 performances, though he wrote both book and songs. The show’s standout number was "Poor Little Rich Girl." After interpolation into the Broadway Charlot’s Revue of 1926 on November 10, 1925, Gertrude Lawrence recorded it and performed it onstage in New York, where it became a hit in spring 1926; later interpreters included Tony Bennett, Chris Connor, Judy Garland, Mary Cleere Haran, Marian McPartland, and Gerry Mulligan. Coward himself recorded it during one of two HMV sessions in August 1925, but the label rejected the results; his formal, long-term association with HMV did not begin until 1928. He had not abandoned acting. He made his Broadway performing debut in the New York production of The Vortex on September 16, 1925, and returned to the London stage in The Constant Nymph, a play he did not write, on September 14, 1926. That year also saw London revivals of two early works, The Queen Was in the Parlour on August 8 and The Rat Trap on October 18, plus a new Broadway play, This Was a Man, on November 23.

Although some material emerged from earlier drafts, Coward generated an extraordinary volume of writing in the mid-1920s. It was unsurprising that he withdrew from The Constant Nymph after three weeks, reportedly suffering severe nervous exhaustion, and embarked on an extended journey that reached Hawaii. This established a lifelong pattern: he resolved never to appear in any of his own plays for more than three months in London and three months in New York consecutively, and to schedule lengthy sojourns abroad, often continuing to write en route. He returned to London in 1927 with The Marquise on February 16, Home Chat on October 25, and another previously unproduced early play, Sirocco, on November 24. Only The Marquise succeeded, prompting critics, not for the last time, to declare him finished after three years of prominence. Instead he resumed acting in S.N. Behrman’s The Second Man on January 24, 1928, which enjoyed over one hundred performances, and presented his third musical revue, This Year of Grace!, on March 22, 1928, again writing book and score. The score included "A Room with a View," a U.S. hit for Ben Selvin later recorded by Hildegarde, Julie London, Russ Morgan, and Artie Shaw, among others, and "Dance, Little Lady," a U.S. hit for Roger Wolfe Kahn also covered by Ambrose and Hildegarde. Coward recorded both numbers himself on April 25, 1928, at his first HMV session yielding releasable discs. Across three sessions that spring he also cut "Mary Make-Believe," "Try to Learn to Love," and "Lorelei," all from This Year of Grace!, initiating a practice of issuing his own versions of his show songs that persisted even after original-cast albums became standard fifteen years later. This Year of Grace! matched London Calling! with 316 London performances and added 158 on Broadway beginning November 7, 1928, where Coward appeared and inserted new songs including "World Weary," which he later recorded.

Each of Coward’s three musicals had been revues comprising sketches and standalone songs without narrative. For his next venture he raised the stakes, crafting a book musical set partly in the nineteenth century and labeled an "operette." He wrote the score and added directing duties. With ample responsibilities he did not appear in Bitter Sweet, which opened in London on July 12, 1929. It received warm notices; its most enduring numbers were "I’ll See You Again," a U.S. hit for Leo Reisman later recorded by Rosemary Clooney, Bill Evans, Eddie Fisher, Sonny Rollins, Frank Sinatra, and Art Tatum, among others; "If Love Were All," covered by Julie Andrews, Shirley Bassey, Sarah Brightman, Judy Garland, Pet Shop Boys, and others; and "Zigeuner," recorded by Hildegarde, Tony Martin, Artie Shaw, and Art Tatum, among others. The production completed 697 performances, becoming Coward’s most successful musical. A Broadway mounting opening November 5, 1929, added 159 performances. Coward marked the achievement with an extended Asian journey in 1929–1930, during which he fulfilled a promise to Gertrude Lawrence by writing a vehicle for them both, Private Lives. It opened in London on September 24, 1930, for 101 performances. Although not a musical, nine days earlier Coward and Lawrence had recorded HMV scenes incorporating both dialogue and music, including the song "Someday I’ll Find You," which became another standard later interpreted by Doris Day, Jackie Gleason, Marian McPartland, Sonny Rollins, and Mel Tormé, among many others. The pair transferred the play to New York, opening January 27, 1931, where it ran 256 performances. Over time it became one of Coward’s most durable works, repeatedly revived.

While preparing his next major stage piece, he placed occasional songs in London and New York revues. Charles B. Cochran’s 1931 Revue, opening March 19, 1931, incorporated "Any Little Fish" and "Half-Caste Woman," both recorded by Coward on January 2, 1931, plus other numbers. The Third Little Show, opening in New York on June 1, 1931, introduced Beatrice Lillie in "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," a witty patter song written in the Far East that became his signature piece and was recorded by him in 1931 as well as by Danny Kaye and Rudy Vallée, among others. The Ziegfeld Follies of 1931, opening July 1, 1931, featured Helen Morgan singing "Half-Caste Woman."

As writer-director Coward pursued another large-scale project with Cavalcade, an expansive, elaborately staged chronicle spanning thirty years of British history beginning on New Year’s Eve 1899, two weeks after his birth. It opened in London on October 13, 1931, for 405 performances and included music, though most selections were period pieces not composed by him. He did record orchestral and vocal medleys released by HMV on two special twelve-inch discs. He supplied a few original songs, notably "Twentieth Century Blues," later recorded by Karen Akers, Marianne Faithfull, and Ray Noble with Al Bowlly on vocals, among others. With the production launched he embarked on another extended journey through South America. Upon returning to London in spring 1932 he brought ideas for a new revue and another play. The revue bore the straightforward title Words and Music and opened September 16, 1932, written and directed by Coward though he did not appear in it; it ran 134 performances, respectable amid the Depression. It marked the London premiere of "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" as well as another enduring copyright, "Mad About the Boy," a 1935 U.S. hit for Ray Noble. "The Younger Generation" received covers by Noble and Django Reinhardt. Coward himself recorded "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," "Let’s Say Goodbye," "The Party’s Over Now," and "Something to Do with Spring" from the score.

The play he had been developing was another promised work, this time for his friends, the married acting partnership of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, to perform with him. Design for Living, a provocative exploration of a romantic triangle that opened on Broadway January 24, 1933, was written and directed by and co-starred Coward; it completed 135 performances. On April 11 he finally recorded songs from Bitter Sweet with Leo Reisman & His Orchestra, also including "Poor Little Rich Girl." The results appeared on a special twelve-inch RCA Victor single titled Noël Coward Sings. Another vacation in the West Indies and Central America, followed by a London revival of Hay Fever that he directed in autumn 1933, preceded his next new production, Conversation Piece, described as a romantic comedy with music—essentially an operetta—which he wrote, directed, and starred in; it opened in the West End on February 16, 1934, for 177 performances. Among its numbers was "I’ll Follow My Secret Heart," later recorded by Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, and Frank Sinatra, among others. Coward recorded it with co-star Yvonne Printemps; Ray Noble achieved a U.S. hit after the American production opened October 10, 1934, for fifty-five performances, which Coward directed without appearing.

Having established his own production company, Coward spent much of 1934 directing others’ works for the firm, beginning with S.N. Behrman’s Biography, which opened in London on April 25, 1934, and continuing with George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s Theatre Royal on October 23, 1934. Six days later he held an unusual session recording his own unassociated songs and material by others, among them "I Travel Alone," one of his most personal statements, "Most of Ev’ry Day," Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger’s "Love in Bloom," and Sam Coslow’s "Fare Thee Well." He was simultaneously preparing another play for the Lunts, though not himself except as writer-director: Point Valaine, which opened on Broadway for an unsuccessful run of fifty-five performances on January 16, 1935. Afterward he returned to film acting for the first time since 1917, taking the lead in The Scoundrel. Although he had not been personally involved, several of his works had already served as source material for films, including The Queen Was in the Parlour (1927), The Vortex (1928), Easy Virtue (1928)—all silent—Private Lives (1931), Tonight Is Ours, based on The Queen Was in the Parlour (1932), Cavalcade (1932), Bitter Sweet (1933), and Design for Living (1933). The Scoundrel received favorable notices upon its May 1935 release, yet Coward chose not to devote substantial time to cinema. On August 15, 1935, he recorded another independent composition, the comic novelty "Mrs. Worthington," also known as "Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs. Worthington," a knowing critique of stage mothers.

Coward’s next project as writer-director-star was another ambitious undertaking, Tonight at 8:30, again featuring Gertrude Lawrence and comprising nine one-act plays presented in repertory over three evenings. It opened in London on January 9, 1936, for 157 performances. Several plays incorporated music, and he and Lawrence recorded excerpts for HMV. They transferred the plays to New York for an opening November 24, 1936, and 118 performances. Coward then began work on another full-scale book musical as writer-director, though not this time as star. Having previously labeled Bitter Sweet an "operette," he titled this one Operette. A backstage musical, it opened in London on March 16, 1938, and ran 133 performances. Coward recorded several numbers himself, including "The Stately Homes of England," "Dearest Love," and "Where Are the Songs We Sung?" He next returned to Broadway with Set to Music, which he wrote and directed; it opened January 18, 1939, for 129 performances and was essentially a revised Words and Music, notable for Beatrice Lillie’s introduction of "Marvellous Party," also known as "I Went to a Marvellous Party," a characteristically witty number that became a staple of his nightclub repertoire.

Although Coward could not have known it, Set to Music concluded the first phase of his career and his last legitimate stage work for some time. During summer 1939 he prepared two new plays, Present Laughter and This Happy Breed, planning to present them together in London that autumn. The outbreak of World War II on September 3, 1939, prompted temporary theater closures, so instead of theatrical work he undertook government service, initially traveling to Paris to establish a propaganda office. He remained until April 1940, then toured the United States to assess American views on the conflict. In the autumn he proceeded to Australia and spent subsequent months entertaining troops and supporting fundraisers there and in New Zealand, returning to London in April 1941. He resumed creative work, now with a wartime emphasis. He wrote the patriotic song "London Pride," which he recorded for HMV in July; it was later covered by Julie Andrews and Mel Tormé, among others. The war also prompted comic and satirical numbers such as "Could You Please Oblige Us with a Bren Gun?" and "Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans." Blithe Spirit, a comic play about ghosts billed as an improbable farce, which he wrote and directed, opened in London on July 2, 1941, and ran throughout the war, providing audiences respite across 1,997 performances—the longest run of any Coward work.

In summer 1941 Coward was commissioned to devise a morale-boosting film, drawing inspiration from the crew of the HMS Kelly, sunk off Crete, and its captain, his friend Lord Louis Mountbatten. The result was In Which We Serve, for which he supplied screenplay and background score, co-directed with David Lean, and starred as the captain. Filming occurred during the first half of 1942; the picture opened September 17, 1942, earning Coward a special Academy Award for outstanding production achievement. On September 20, 1942, he began touring Britain in a rotating repertoire of Present Laughter, This Happy Breed, and Blithe Spirit, continuing for six months and finally bringing Present Laughter and This Happy Breed into London in April 1943. In July he embarked on a Middle East tour entertaining troops and visiting hospitals, returning to London in October. At the start of 194