Coward, Sir Noël Pierce

Coward, Sir Noël Pierce (1899–1973), English actor, director, composer, librettist, and playwright. He was on the stage from childhood, making his first appearance in 1911. His early plays, some of which aroused controversy because of their characters' sexual sophistication, included The Young Idea (1923; NY, 1932), The Vortex (1924; NY, 1925), Fallen Angels (1925; NY, 1927), and Hay Fever (London and NY, 1925). He then wrote three revues for C. B. Cochran at the London Pavilion. Further successes were the musical romance Bitter Sweet (London and NY, 1929), Private Lives (1930; NY, 1931), in which Coward starred memorably opposite Gertrude Lawrence, the patriotic Cavalcade (1931), and a new revue Words and Music (1932). Design for Living (NY, 1933; London, 1939) aroused further controversy because of its light-hearted approach to a ménage à trois (played in New York by Coward and the Lunts); it was followed by To-Night at 8.30 (London and NY, 1936), consisting of six (later ten) one-act plays performed in groups of three. After the musical play Operette (1938) came the record-breaking Blithe Spirit (London and NY, 1941), which ran for 1,997 performances in London. In 1943 Present Laughter (NY, 1946) and This Happy Breed were presented in London in repertory, and Coward then returned to revue with Sigh No More (1945). Peace in Our Time (1947) was a serious play about England after a Nazi victory, but Relative Values (1951) marked a welcome return to sophisticated comedy and Quadrille (1952; NY, 1954) provided an excellent vehicle for the Lunts. John Gielgud starred in the London production of Nude with Violin (1956; NY, 1957) and Vivien Leigh in South Sea Bubble (also 1956) and the London production of Look after Lulu (London and NY, 1959), an adaptation of Feydeau's Occupe-toi d'Amélie. After Waiting in the Wings (1960), set in a home for retired actresses, Coward produced his last original musical Sail Away (NY, 1961; London, 1962) and then wrote the lyrics and music for The Girl Who Came to Supper (NY, 1963), a musical based on Rattigan's The Sleeping Prince. His last work (in which he also made his last stage appearance) was Suite in Three Keys (1966), consisting of three plays of which two formed a double bill, the latter being seen in New York in 1974 as Noël Coward in Two Keys. Coward was an excellent actor who as well as taking the lead in many of his own plays appeared occasionally in plays by other authors, notably as Lewis Dodd in Margaret Kennedy's The Constant Nymph (1926) and King Magnus in Shaw's The Apple Cart (1953).