The artiste whose profile I here sketch was a man of amazing
versatility. A playwright, a lyricist, a composer, an actor, a singer, a
cabaret performer, in short an all-round entertainer He was gay in an era when male homosexual
acts were officially criminalised in the UK and hence his private life was to
some extent hidden. He enjoyed great public fame while alive and almost as much
posthumously, his works being constantly revived. He doughtily and wittily
represented middle-class taste when that was the predominant flavour of the
British theatre.
 |
| Noel Coward |
Noël Coward, (he was a stickler for including the diaresis)
(1899-1973) was rather a child prodigy. Born in the London suburb of Teddington,
he was the son of an unsuccessful piano salesman but his mother Violet,
daughter of a naval officer, was ambitious for her son’s success. Noël swanked
about in amateur dramatics as an actor and singer but made his professional
debut as a child performer aged 12. He appeared in various WW1 shows and was
called-up in 1918, joining, but soon being invalided out from, the Artist’s
Rifles.
Through the good offices of an early lover Philip
Streatfield, he was introduced to the country estates and gilded life of his
protector Mrs Astley Cooper. Noël, though barely educated but well-read, took
easily to this milieu and affected an
upper-class accent with his famously clipped diction. He wrote his first West
End play in 1920 but had a great success, writing and starring, with The Vortex a sex-and-drugs drama which
scandalised London in 1924. In a period of extraordinary activity, he wrote
songs and sketches for the popular revues of C B Cochran and André Charlot, wrote
the comedy Hay Fever (1925) featuring
Marie Tempest (about the feuding Bliss family and their 4 house-guests who
finally flee the Bliss manor to end the play). Not all was sweetness and light as Coward had
the biggest flop of his career with the lurid drama Sirocco in 1927, about free love among the upper classes: the first
night ended in uproar and Noël was spat upon at the stage door. This was
followed by the Viennese-style operetta Bitter
Sweet which enjoyed a long West End run from 1929 giving us the lovely
romantic song I’ll see you again –
Coward claimed there were casting difficulties when the management decided the
lead could not go to a German contender George Unterfucker! Around this time
Coward acquired a serious lover in American Jack Wilson, who also became his
manager.
Noël was then to launch perhaps his greatest hit, Private Lives, written in 1930 and first
staged with Noël and the scintillating actress Gertrude Lawrence in the lead
roles. Its premiere was at The King’s
Theatre, Edinburgh, and it is a witty if brittle comedy about a divorced couple
meeting up again on their honeymoons with their new spouses. It became a
mainstay of British stage repertory and was the making of the famous duo “Noël
and Gertie”. The delightful song Someday
I’ll find You also featured.
 |
| Noel and Gertie in Private Lives |
Coward always had a strong patriotic streak first displayed
in his Cavalcade (1931) a panorama of
British life 1899-1930, enlivened by the famous coup de théâtre when it is revealed that the young canoodling
lovers are passengers on the Titanic.
This Happy Breed (1942) was a
sentimental saga of a London working-class family, while the film In which we Serve (1942) admired the Royal Navy with Noël as a
destroyer Captain modelled on flamboyant Lord Louis Mountbatten. During WW2
Coward left acting and concentrated his considerable energies on entertaining
the troops both in the UK and in the far-flung theatres of war. His songs and
wit became even better known nationally.
 |
| Coward entertains the Navy, Ceylon 1944 |
On more conventional lines, Coward had a busy pre-war
period. His revue Words and Music
(1932) introduced his ambiguous song Mad
about the Boy and the much-loved comic satire Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Design for Living (1933), a comedy about
a ménage à trois with bi-sexual
overtones was a vehicle for Noël and his old friends, Americans Alfred Lunt and
Lynn Fontanne, then at the height of their fame. Too risqué for London it was
premiered on Broadway. During WW2 Coward had another hit with his ghostly
comedy Blithe Spirit (1941), which
ran for over 600 performances and introduced eccentric Margaret Rutherford to
the world as the dotty spiritualist Madame Arcati. Another comedy, often played
alongside This Happy Breed was the
gossamer-thin Present Laughter (1943).
Just after the war a romantic short story by Coward was adapted by David Lean
to make the iconic film Brief Encounter with
Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson.
Sadly Coward was unable to enchant his audiences in post-war
Britain or in the US. His pen was still productive and he had a mild success
with Nude with Violin (1956) starring
John Gielgud, a satire on modern art, but generally he encountered critical
disdain. His style was thought dated and he was condemned as “old hat” and
clearly he had little in common with the brash generation of UK kitchen-sink
dramatists. His musical Sail Away,
featuring dynamic Elaine Stritch as the brash American director of a
Mediterranean cruise did well on Broadway but even better commercially at the
Savoy Theatre in London (1962); it was to be his musical swansong. Various
adaptations of his earlier works kept the pot boiling and he often appeared in
US cabaret spots, honing his act with some brilliance.
To much criticism he had become one of the earlier tax
exiles, moving first to Bermuda then to Jamaica. This was long before
tax-planning became a common and essential defence for rich men beset by
rapacious governments. Noël, with his partner from 1945, Graham Payn, built his
cherished Firefly Estate in Jamaica but visited Britain and America regularly.
He appeared in a number of cinema cameo roles becoming familiar to a younger
generation as Bridger in The Italian Job
(1969).
But his health was failing and his memory too. He was rather
belatedly knighted in 1969 and his artistic reputation has enjoyed a revival.
He died in Jamaica of heart failure in 1973. His partner Graham Payn edited his
candid diaries, the Queen Mother, an old friend, unveiled a plaque at Poet’s
Corner in 1998 and his sculpture commanded a hill in Jamaica. A most original
and influential talent, Noël well deserved his epithet “The Master”.
 |
| Noel's statue in Jamaica |
SMD
26.08.16.
Text Copyright ©Sidney Donald 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment