Noel Coward

Featuring the words and music of Noel Coward. Devised by Gerald Frow, Alan Strachan and Wendy Toye. Chracters: 6 male, 6 female Revue style setting. An immense success in London. An imaginative and innovative presentation of Noel Coward's words, music, sketches, which also shows us something of the man himself. Cowardy Custard contains not only those classic medleys and duets, but also previously unpublished material, snippets of plays and dialogues, material from his autobiographies as background and even a few of his little known poems. The result is a kaleidoscopic glimpse of the Coward achievement. "More densely packed with entertainment than any that has hit town for a long while."-- Daily Mail , London. "A whole ravishing feast ...never ceases to amaze."-- Evening Standard , London.

Lavishly illustrated and annotated, this first and definitive collection of letters to and from Coward provides a divine portrait of an age, from the Blitz to the Ritz and beyond. The incomparable No l Coward loved to correspond with friends, enemies, the famous and infamous, the talented and the powerful, including Virginia Woolf, Winston Churchill, Greta Garbo, Laurence Olivier, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Lawrence of Arabia, Somerset Maugham, and many more. Granted unlimited access to the Coward archive, Barry Day presents many never-published letters and has unearthed new, startling evidence of Coward's wartime work as a spy. Along with 191 rare photographs, these letters bring to life the people and events that shaped the twentieth century--and a remarkable man who made his own indelible mark at the heart of it.

In fashionable 1920s Belgravia, Sheila, a talented novelist, and Keld, an aspiring playwright, embark on married life. Both are fiercely ambitious, but when Keld’s career takes off and Sheila’s doesn’t, professional jealousy and an affair have a devastating effect on their marriage. Startlingly moving, but full of customary sparkling wit and dark humour, Noël Coward’s first play is given a stylish period revival for its centenary year. The Rat Trap is lovingly revised by Bill Rosenfield

"This 1925 comedy of manners that's funny yet also unorthodox and unsettling... a celebration of abnormality and at the same time a disquieting study of both the pleasures and the pains of not being able to restrain oneself." - Evening StandardWhen four guests, all invited by different members of the Bliss family, arrive for a weekend at their country house near Maidenhead, they're expecting a idyllic retreat. But this peaceful promise is quickly trounced when the self-absorbed eccentricities of the Blisses are trained on the guests, who leave the country mansion humiliated and embarrassed.First produced in 1925, Hay Fever is a technical masterpiece, seamlessly combining high farce with a comedy of manners, and delivering Coward his first major commercial success.This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 125th anniversary of Coward’s birth and features a new introduction by Michael Billington.

"An honest, even profound reflection on the price of fame, with some genuine sexual frisson and an undercurrent of pathos." - The Hollywood ReporterAt the centre of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs - his line of harmless, infatuated debutantes is largely tolerated but playing closer to home is not. Just before he escapes on tour to Africa the full extent of his misdemeanours is discovered... and all hell breaks loose.Noël Coward's Present Laughter premiered in the early years of the Second World War just as such privileged lives were threatened with fundamental social change, and remains one of the playwright's most enduring hits.This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Coward's death and features a new introduction by Russell Jackson.

"Noel Coward's glittering gem" - The TimesElyot Chase and Amanda Prynne, recently divorced from one another after a five-year marriage, coincidentally arrive at the same French hotel... where they are both honeymooning with their respective new spouses. Jarred by this encounter, Elyot and Amanda realise that they still very much horrified and fascinated by the other. Frequently performed and revived in the West End, Private Lives is comedy of manners that remains one of Coward's most popular plays.This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Coward's death and features a new introduction by Simon Stephens.

"Its fusion of passion and mischief remains striking and there is something undeniably heady about its celebration of a kind of sexual liberation that looks a lot like flippancy" - Evening StandardFrom 1930s bohemian Paris to the dizzying heights of Manhattan society, a tempestuous love triangle unravels between a vivacious interior designer, Gilda, playwright Leo and artist Otto - three people unashamedly and passionately in love with each other. But can such a lavish love affair survive the real world?Exploring themes of bisexuality, celebrity, success and self-obsession, Design for Living is a stylish and scandalous comedy, that is often revered as Coward's most controversial and risqué work.This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Coward's death and features a new introduction by Oliver Soden.

"Some of [Coward's] most sparkling dialogue ever... This play is about something substantial - the way past relationships come back to haunt us - but it's the gossamer-like nature of the piece, its sheer levity of spirit, that makes it such an enduring achievement" - The TelegraphWhen socialite and novelist Charles Condomine attends a séance hosted by eccentric medium Madame Arcati, he's only hoping to gather material for his next book: he never expected to be haunted by his temperamental ex-wife, Elvira. Can Charles keep this willful spirit at bay, or will his new marriage to his second wife, Ruth, come to an untimely demise?With unforgettable characters, witty dialogue and farcical situations, Blithe Spirit ran for decades on the West End, becoming one of the most well-known plays in the British canon.This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Coward's death and features a new introduction by Arianne Johnson Quinn.

The roaring twenties. A world in flux. The magnetic Florence Lancaster draws people to her like moths to a flame. But when her son Nicky arrives home from Paris with an unexpected fiancée and a secret, it sets off a chain of events which threatens to pull them all into a maelstrom.Noël Coward’s brilliantly witty and stinging portrait of the darkness beneath the glittering surface of the Jazz Age is as vivid today as when it premiered, causing a sensation and catapulting its young writer to his first great success.This revised edition returns to Coward’s original drafts and was published to coincide with Chichester Festival Theatre’s new production directed by Daniel Raggett and starring Lia Williams and Joshua James, in April 2023.

Hay Fever is a comic play written by No l Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925. A cross between high farce and a comedy of manners, the play is set in an English country house in the 1920s, and deals with the four eccentric members of the Bliss family and their outlandish behaviour when they each invite a guest to spend the weekend. The self-centred behaviour of the hosts finally drives their guests to flee while the Blisses are so engaged in a family row that they do not notice their guests' furtive departure.

Genre: ComedyCharacters: 3 males, 3 femalesScenery: Interior Best friends now happily married to others, Julia and Jane both once counted the dashing Frenchman Maurice as their lover. Guess who's back in town and requesting the pleasure of the ladies company? Coward at his inimitable best, the story is a champagne cocktail of wit and charm.