Hay Fever (Modern Classics)

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Haymarket Theatre", The Times, 8 May 1953, p. 12; and Brown, Ivor. "Royal and Ancient", The Manchester Guardian, 8 May 1953, p. 5 Twentieth-century blues: the songs of Noel Coward", "Ian Bostridge: Noël Coward songbook"; and "Sutherland sings Noel Coward", WorldCat, accessed 5 December 2013 We will not transfer, process or store your personal information anywhere that is outside of the European Economic Area, unless we have a contractual agreement in place that is of an equivalent standard to GDPR. We occasionally employ other organisations to help fulfil our activities and agreed communication with you. For example, we work with a mailing company to send out our season brochure. When we do this, we will only give authority for the personal information to be used for the purpose it has been provided for. We will ensure that any third parties have safeguards in place to keep your personal information secure. Gilbert, Jenny. " Hay Fever, Duke of York's Theatre", The Arts Desk, 12 May 2015; and " Hay Fever starring Felicity Kendal transfers to West End", WhatsOnStage, 15 January 2015 By the end of the 1960s, Coward developed arteriosclerosis and, during the run of Suite in Three Keys, he struggled with bouts of memory loss. [113] This also affected his work in The Italian Job, and he retired from acting immediately afterwards. [114] Coward was knighted in 1970, [115] and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. [116] He received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 1970. [117] In 1972, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Sussex. [118]

Reid, Charles (1968). Malcolm Sargent: A Biography. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-24-191316-1. The record (1,466 performances) had been held by Charley's Aunt since the 1890s. [82] Blithe Spirit's West End record was overtaken by Boeing Boeing in the 1960s. [83] Alexander Woolcott wrote, "Laura Hope Crews was permitted to give one of the most disastrous performances I have ever seen in all my life". [17]In 1933 Coward wrote, directed and co-starred with the French singer Yvonne Printemps in both London and New York productions of an operetta, Conversation Piece (1933). [64] He next wrote, directed and co-starred with Lawrence in Tonight at 8.30 (1936), a cycle of ten short plays, presented in various permutations across three evenings. [n 5] One of these plays, Still Life, was expanded into the 1945 David Lean film Brief Encounter. [66] Tonight at 8.30 was followed by a musical, Operette (1938), from which the most famous number is "The Stately Homes of England", and a revue entitled Set to Music (1938, a Broadway version of his 1932 London revue, Words and Music). [67] Coward's last pre-war plays were This Happy Breed, a drama about a working-class family, and Present Laughter, a comic self-caricature with an egomaniac actor as the central character. These were first performed in 1942, although they were both written in 1939. [68]

This collection brings together the very best radio adaptations of Coward's works, encompassing sparkling comedies of manners 'Private Lives' and 'Hay Fever', farcical ghost story 'Blithe Spirit', and daring m?nage ? trois drama 'Design for Living'. Here, too, is his controversial first hit 'The Vortex'; the poignant 'Still Life' (the inspiration for the film Brief Encounter); and the semi-autobiographical 'Present Laughter'. Mander, Raymond; Mitchenson, Joe; Day, Barry; Morley, Sheridan (2000) [1957]. Theatrical Companion to Coward (seconded.). London: Oberon. ISBN 978-1-84002-054-0. The play was broadcast on radio in 1937 in both the US ( CBS Radio) and Britain ( BBC radio, with Marie Tempest in her original stage role.) [31] In later BBC radio adaptations, Judith has been played by Athene Seyler (1952), Peggy Ashcroft (1971), and Judi Dench (1993). [67] Payn, Graham; Morley, Sheridan, eds. (1982). The Noël Coward Diaries (1941–1969). London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0-297-78142-4.

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Encouraged by his ambitious mother, who sent him to a dance academy in London, [7] Coward's first professional engagement was in January 1911 as Prince Mussel in the children's play The Goldfish. [8] In Present Indicative, his first volume of memoirs, Coward wrote: Coward's out-sized, charming persona was his passport to freely moving through worlds he was not from. It has not, however, necessarily helped our understanding of the work: it's taken "half a century to get him out the way!" Soden laughs. Coward had a vein of determined anti-intellectualism, and often undermined his own work: "He would swear blind that he wasn't remotely serious, just a silly trite little comedian. But the plays tell a completely different story, whether or not he meant them to," insists Soden. Perhaps the best touch is Kendal's suggestion of a ratty discontent under all the self-dramatisation so that, when she says "David's been a good husband to me but he's wearing a bit thin now," you get an authentic whiff of marital decay.Between 1929 and 1936 Coward recorded many of his best-known songs for His Master's Voice (HMV), now reissued on CD, including the romantic " I'll See You Again" from Bitter Sweet, the comic " Mad Dogs and Englishmen" from Words and Music, and "Mrs Worthington". [69] Second World War [ edit ] The cycle effectively comprised only nine plays: although Coward wrote ten works for the cycle, Star Chamber was dropped after a single performance. [65] Renowned for his wit, style and sophistication, No?l Coward was one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century. His plays, set in the glittering world of high society in which he lived, are much admired and have remained in the popular theatre repertoire to this day.

One day ... a little advertisement appeared in the Daily Mirror.... It stated that a talented boy of attractive appearance was required by a Miss Lila Field to appear in her production of an all-children fairy play: The Goldfish. This seemed to dispose of all argument. I was a talented boy, God knows, and, when washed and smarmed down a bit, passably attractive. There appeared to be no earthly reason why Miss Lila Field shouldn't jump at me, and we both believed that she would be a fool indeed to miss such a magnificent opportunity. [9] Coward (left) with Lydia Bilbrook and Charles Hawtrey, 1911The play portrays the chance meeting, subsequent love affair, and eventual parting of a married woman and a physician.