Coward, Sir Noël (Peirce)

Coward, Sir Noël (Peirce) , witty English writer, actor, and composer; b. Teddington, Middlesex, England, Dec. 16, 1899; d. Port Maria, Jamaica, March 26, 1973. Coward found his greatest recognition as a playwright, his most successful plays being comedies such as Private Lives, Design for Living, and Blithe Spirit, but he also wrote screenplays, fiction, and poetry, and he sometimes acted in, directed, and produced his own works and those of others. He also distinguished himself as a successful singer and songwriter. His most popular songs included sentimental ballads like “I’ll See You Again” and characteristically droll tunes such as “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” and “Mad About the Boy.”

Coward’s father, Arthur Sabin Coward, was a piano salesman; though Coward had no musical training, he began playing piano by ear at age seven. He attended private schools only until the age of ten, when he went into the theater. He had his first acting role in the play The Goldfish in London during the 1911 Christmas season. He wrote his first song, “Forbidden Fruit,” at age 16 and placed his first song in a show when the revue Tails-Up featured “Peter Pan” (music by Doris Joel) in June 1918.

In 1923, Coward wrote the songs, cowrote the libretto, and appeared in the revue London Calling; it ran 316 performances and included his first published song, “Parisian Pierrot/7 That song was used along with two other Coward compositions in the American production Andre Chariot’s Revue of 1924 (N.Y., 1924), which marked his musical introduction to the U.S.

Coward wrote the songs and libretto for On with the Dance in 1925. It ran for 229 performances in London and included “Poor Little Rich Girl” (music by Philip Braham), which, along with six other Coward songs and many interpolations, was used in the Chariot Revue of 1926 on Broadway. The show, the first N.Y musical production to bear Coward’s name, ran 140 performances, and “Poor Little Rich Girl” became a hit for Gertrude Lawrence, who sang it onstage, in April 1926.

After several plays, Coward returned to musical theater work in 1928 with This Year of Grace!, for which he wrote the songs and the libretto and which he directed and starred in on Broadway. The show ran 316 performances in London and 158 in N.Y Two of its songs became hits in the U.S. in the late winter of 1929—“A Room with a View,” recorded by Ben Selvin and His Orch., and “Dance, Little Lady,” by the orchestra of Roger Wolfe Kahn.

Bitter Sweet, Coward’s 1929 show, was a full-fledged operetta. Coward wrote the libretto and directed the show in both its London and N.Y. productions. His most successful musical work, it ran 697 performances in the West End, 159 on Broadway, and gave Coward his biggest song success yet when “I’ll See You Again” was recorded by Leo Reisman and His Orch. for a hit in January 1930.

Coward contributed songs to two Broadway revues, the comic comment on colonialism “Mad Dogs and Englishmen (Go Out in the Mid-Day Sun),” sung by Beatrice Lillie in The Third Little Show (N.Y, 1931), and “Half Caste Woman,” sung by Helen Morgan in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931 (N.Y, 1931). Several new Coward songs, along with many period songs, were featured in Cavalcade (1931), Coward’s patriotic pageant about the first three decades of the century in England. (Though the show was not produced in the U.S., an American film version released in 1933 was a substantial success, winning the Academy Award for Best Picture.)

The U.K.-only revue Words and Music (1932) was written and directed by Coward and marked the introduction of “Mad About the Boy,” a song often cited as reflecting his homosexuality. The show ran 164 performances.

Conversation Piece (1934), a “play with music,” was Coward’s first musical work to play in both N.Y. and London in five years. In the West End, where Coward also starred in the show, it was a hit, but on Broadway, where he did not, it ran a mere 55 performances. Nevertheless, Ray Noble and His Orch. recorded “I’ll Follow My Secret Heart” from the score for a hit in November. The following August, Noble made a U.S. hit out of “Mad About the Boy,” which had not yet been performed in an American show.

Though Coward did not have a new musical ready in 1935, he did publish one of his most memorable comic songs, “Mrs. Worthington (Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage),” the ultimate rejection letter to a stage mother. Opening in London in January 1936, Tonight at 8:30 consisted of nine one- act plays, several of which contained songs. Coward appeared in both the West End and Broadway productions, with the former running 157 performances and the latter 113.

At the end of the 1930s, Coward alternated between N.Y. and London, first writing and directing the musical Operette for the West End in 1938. The show ran 133 performances but failed to pay back its investment. Coward used some of its songs in a revised version of Words and Music called Set to Music in N.Y in 1939. Featuring the American stage premieres of such songs as “Mad About the Boy” and the comic “The Stately Homes of England,” the revue ran 129 performances.

With the onset of World War II, Coward devoted much of his time to the war effort. Though he did not spend much time on music during this period, he did write individual songs reflecting patriotic and war sentiments, such as “London Pride” (1941), which was used in the West End revue Up and Running, and the satiric “Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans” (1943). In addition to writing, codirecting, producing, and starring in the award-winning patriotic film In Which We Serve (1942), he also composed its music.

Coward’s first post-war musical theater work came in 1945 with the revue Sigh No More, which ran 213 performances, followed by 1946’s Pacific 1860, an operetta that starred Mary Martin and had a run of 129 performances, though it failed financially. The musical Ace of Clubs (1950) was a flop, while After the Ball (1954) ran 188 performances. In the 1950s, Coward turned increasingly to nightclub performing and cameo appearances in films. His cabaret act resulted in the album Noel Coward at Las Vegas, recorded in June 1955. It reached the U.S. charts in January 1956. Together with Music, a 90-minute television special featuring material from the act and costarring Martin, had been broadcast in the U.S. in October.

Coward returned to musical theater in 1961, when Sail Away ran for 167 performances on Broadway and the cast album spent five months on the charts. The Girl Who Came to Supper (1963) featured songs by Coward, though he did not write the book or direct; it ran 112 performances and the cast album charted for three months. Coward did direct the musical High Spirits(N.Y, 1964), based on his play, Blithe Spirit, but he did not write the music. Richard Rodgers wrote the songs for the television musical Androcles and the Lion, in which Coward appeared when it was broadcast on American TV on Nov. 15, 1967.

Toward the end of Coward’s life, his stature was reflected in awards and revivals. He was knighted in 1970, the same year he received a special Tony Award. His songs were anthologized in the Broadway shows Noel Coward’s Sweet Potato (1968) and Oh Coward! (1972) and the West End revue Cowardy Custard (1972). He died at the age of 73.

Writings

Present Indicative (N.Y., 1937); The N. C. Song Book (London, 1953); Future Indefinite (London, 1954); The Lyrics ofN. C. (London, 1965); The Wit of N. C. (London, 1968); A LastEncore (Boston, 1973); G. Payn and S. Morley, eds., The N. C. Diaries (London, 1982); S. Morley, ed. Autobiography (Present Indicative, Future Indefinite, Past Conditional) (London, 1986).

Discography

Together with Music (1955); Noel Coward at Las Vegas [live] (1955).

Works

(only works for which Coward was the primary, credited songwriter or composer are listed): MUSICALS / REVUES/OPERETTAS : London Calling (London, 1923); On with the Dance (London, 1925); Chariot Revue of 1926 (N.Y., 1925); This Year of Grace! (London, 1928); Bitter Sweet (London, 1929); Cavalcade (London, 1931); Words and Music (London, 1932); Conversation Piece (London, 1934); Tonight at 8:30 (London, 1936); Operette (London, 1938); Sigh No More (London, 1945); Pacific 1860 (London, 1946); Ace of Clubs (London, 1950); After the Ball (London, 1954); Sail Away (N.Y., 1961); The Girl Who Came to Supper (N.Y., 1963); N. C/s Sweet Potato (N.Y., 1968); Cly Custard (London, 1972); Oh C.! (N.Y, 1972). FILMS: Cavalcade (1933); Bitter Sweet (1933); Bitter Sweet (1940); In Which We Serve (1942); The Astonished Heart (1950).

Bibliography

P. Braybrooke, The Amazing Mr. N. C. (London, 1933); R. Greacen, The Art of N. C. (Aldington, England, 1953);J. Mander and R. Mitchenson, Theatrical Companion to C. (London, 1957); M. Levin, N. C. (Boston, 1958); S. Morley, A Talent to Amuse: A Biography of N. C. (London, 1969); C. Castle, N. (London, 1972); J. Hadfield, ed., Cly Custard: The World of N. C. (London, 1973); W. Marchant, The Privilege of His Company (N.Y, 1975); C. Lesley, Remembered Laughter: The Life of N. C. (London, 1976); C. Lesley, G. Payn, and S. Morley, N. C. and His Friends (London, 1979); J. Lahr, C. the Playwright (N.Y, 1982); C. Citron, N. and Cole: The Sophisticates (London, 1992); C. Fisher, N. C.: A Biography (N.Y, 1992); S. Cole, N. C.: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, Conn., 1993); G. Payn with B. Day, My Life with N. C. (N.Y, 1994); P. Hoare, N. C.: A Biography (N.Y, 1995); J. Morella and G. Mazzei, Genius & Lust: The Creative and Sexual Lives of Cole Porter and N. C. (N.Y, 1995).

—William Ruhlmann