22 January to 28 February 2009 Hampstead Theatre 50th marked with Private Lives North London’s Hampstead Theatre marks its 50th anniversary in 2009 with a new production of Private Lives, the 1929 comedy by Noel Coward that famously launched Hampstead’s fortunes in 1962. In 1962, Jasmes Roose-Evans the founder and first artistic director, presented a celebrated production of Private Lives, Noel Coward’s comedy about warring exes Elyot and Amanda, which became the theatre’s first West End transfer and resulted in what Coward himself, then in his 60s and out of fashion, referred to as “Dad’s renaissance”. Lucy Bailey directs the new production, which will run from 22 January to 28 February 2009, with a cast including Claire Price (currently in The White Devil) as Amanda and Jasper Britton (currently in Oedipus at the National) as Elyot. What's On Stage... London Theatre Guide...
Kneehigh Theatre's Brief Encounter 2009 UK Tour!
The Cinema on The Haymarket
Run extended to Nov 16 2008 followed by UK tour
Week Commencing
09 Feb Northampton, Theatre Royal
16 Feb Northampton, Theatre Royal
23 Feb Northampton, Theatre Royal
02 Mar Aberdeen, Her Majesty's Theatre
09 Mar Canterbury, Marlowe Theatre
16 Mar Watford, Palace or Birmingham Alexander Theatre
23 Mar Manchester, The Lowry
30 Mar Cambridge, Arts Theatre
06 Apr Richmond, Theatre
John Michael Swinbank will be singing Noël Coward songs accompanied by Tim Cunliffe at the piano at the The Noël Coward Society Annual Lunch at the Garrick Club on Saturday, 13 December, 2008. and performing Noël at Noël at the New End Theatre, Hampstead 16 December to 25 January, 2009 Web...
Nothing at present...
Theatre West - Waiting in the Wings - Oct 10 to Nov 23 2008
"BETTY GARRETT lights up the stage!" Los Angeles Times "GO! RICHLY NUANCED PERFORMANCES!" LA Weekly "Miss Garrett performs her incomparable magic in a bright new revival of Noel Coward’s classy 'Waiting in the Wings' at Theatre West"Curtain Up "Lovingly directed by producer/director Charlie Mount"Curtain Up "Some of the most elegant outfits seen onstage in quite a while" Curtain Up. Details on Web...
Private Lives
California Shakespeare Theater. Jul 8 to Aug 2, 2009 Web...
Directed by Mark Rucker
High Spirits 42nd Street Moon - San Francisco
Mar 19 - Apri 5, 2009
High Spirits (1964) Book, Lyrics & Music by HUGH MARTIN & TIMOTHY GRAY based on NOEL COWARD's Blithe Spirit Hugh Martin (Meet Me in St. Louis) and Timothy Gray’s sparkling musical adaptation of Noel Coward’s classic comedy Blithe Spirit. Author Charles Condomine is haunted by the mischievous ghost of his first wife, Elvira. Megan Cavanagh stars as Madame Arcati, the eccentric medium who conjures up the naughty spirit, Dyan McBride is Elvira, and Maureen McVerry is Ruth, Charles’ second wife who is bedeviled by a ghost she can’t see. Songs include Home Sweet Heaven, Go Into Your Trance, I Know Your Heart, and Something is Coming to Tea.Web...
Houston Grand Opera - Brief Encounter
Houston Grand Opera - Brown Theater
May 1, 5, 7, 9, 2009 at 7:30pm May 3, 2009 at 2:00pm Web...
An Opera in Two Acts • Music by André Previn • Libretto by John Caird
Houston Grand Opera presents the world premiere of André Previn’s Brief Encounter, based on David Lean’s classic film adaptation of a play by Noël Coward. An honest and compassionate look at emotional infidelity, Brief Encounter stars Elizabeth Futral and Nathan Gunn as Laura and Alec, the couple torn between love and honour, and Kim Josephson as Laura’s bewildered husband; Patrick Summers conducts. Based upon the play Still Life and the screenplay to the 1945 film Brief Encounter, both by Noël Coward. More...
STAR QUALITY - The World of Noel Coward Museum of Performance & Design - San Francisco - April 17 to August 29, 2009 Web...
A major retrospective exhibition in San Francisco's Museum of Performance & Design.
Shaw Festival offers all 10 plays in Tonight at 8:30
Shaw Festival - Ontario
The 2009 season starts on April 1, opens May 20 and runs until Nov. 1
Ontario’s Shaw Festival will present all 10 plays that make up Noel Coward’s “Tonight at 8:30” series, including the rarely produced “Star Chamber.” It will mark the first time that all of the plays have been produced in repertory by a professional company since their London debut at the Phoenix Theater in the 1935-36 season, according to Shaw Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell. Plays will be presented in three groups, one at each of the Festival’s three theaters, and on two occasions it will be possible to see all 10 on a single day, in an event christened “Mad Dogs and Englishmen.”
Kate Lynch will direct Star Chamber (only performed once as part of the Tonight at 8:30 premier) as the lunchtime offering at the Royal George. Maxwell said she got the idea for mounting Tonight at 8:30 while seeing Lynch direct Hands Across the Sea through Shaw's intern director program. Maxwell then read all 10 plays and realized each was a little jewel, and that they ran the gamut, from comedy to drama to musicals.
"I was reading a biography of Coward after that and in one of the chapters about Tonight at 8:30, there was a quote that Coward always wished they could have been done together," she said. "Hmm. I thought, I know a company that could do that. And the idea was born. The pieces are terrific. They're written to show off the actors."
BLITHE SPIRIT Czech Republic: HATA TC touring to venues of 200-250 seats, 30-40 performances per year to 2010 Hungary: Ida Turay Theatre Co touring to culture houses, theatre halls in the countryside and in Budapest until end 2008; Vidám Színpad Co, Budapest and National Theatre, Gyor have it in rep Slovenia: production in rep in Ljubliana - opened May 2007 (70 performances) Ukraine: production in rep of Dnipropetrovsky State Russian Drama Theatre Italy: Giovanni Lombardo Radice to translate and direct starring either Anna Falchi or Stefania Rocca to ensure national distribution in first class theatres. Planning to open in summer 2008 at the Versiliana Festival and then at Rome’s prestigious Eliseo Theatre France: according to Suzanne Sarquier, an excellent reading in Dominique Deschamps's translation took place under Annick Blancheteau's direction with actor stars Roland Giraud and his wife Maike Jansen (same team who had the rights some time ago). It seems that both actors want to do the play
DESIGN FOR LIVING France: Theatre Montparnasse interested. Suzanne Sarquier has an excellent translation by Stéphane Laporte entitled L'ART ET LES MANIERES with director Christophe Lidon in tow. As always, the question is the casting. So far, they are waiting for an answer from Elsa Zylberstein, but this could be on for September 2009.
HAY FEVER Denmark: production planned autumn 2009 at Copenhagen’s Folketeatret. Folmer Hansen has renewed licence for Scandinavia
PRESENT LAUGHTER Hungary: 600-seat Jatekszin Theatre in Budapest – acclaimed production continues in their repertoire at a rate of 2 to 3 performances per month! Italy: production by La Contrada in Trieste touring from 21 Nov 2008 (Rome 21 Dec – 4 Jan) translated as IL DIVO GARRY by Masolino D'Amico (well known journalist, theatre critic, professor) with Johnny Dorelli as Garry Essendine. This production also to be transmitted on Italian TV.
PRIVATE LIVES Brazil: Producer Neusa Andrade’s production in São Paulo still in the pipeline (bureaucratic problems) Argentina: Javier Faroni producing by November 2008 Portugal: Produções Teatrais Próspero opening at Centro Cultural Olga Cadaval, Sintra Sept/Oct, then touring Japan: Toho Co will produce at their new 611-seat Theatre Crea in central Tokyo for the month of October 2008, approx 36 performances – John Caird directing. Denmark: the small Grönnegårds Teatret in Copenhagen plans a production for 2009
STAR QUALITY Ukraine: Domino Art Co in Kiev has production in repertoire for 5 years
STILL LIFE France: Sarquier pursuing interest and has the current Kneehigh Brief Encounter text Greece: Mimi Denissi interested in producing and starring in this at her own theatre having seen the Kneehigh production of Brief Encounter
THE VORTEX Brazil: Peramel Productions; Marília Pêra starring – national tour (rights to end 2009) France: Sarquier pursuing interest
WAITING IN THE WINGS Hungary: in Budapest’s Madách Theatre's repertoire for current season France: we have a translation called Midnight Matinée which Annie Sinigalia has been pushing with various good elderly French actresses. She now has a cast, co-producers and is searching for a good theatre – licence extended to November 2009 Japan: Kiyama Theatre Productions mounted 28 performances touring outside Tokyo March/April 2008 and 4 performances at Space Zero in Tokyo 18-21/4/08 – possibly more touring in 2009 Slovakia: Jokai Theater of Komarom, producing Hungarian language production, 20 performances from 31 March 2008
GERMANY GENERAL Galissas – Bettina Migge’s new company has taken over Coward stage rights in the German language and is very busy commissioning new translations of all the works in the Methuen volumes.
American and British stars sparkle in Coward's 'Easy Virtue'
EASY VIRTUE stars American actress Jessica Biel (The Illusionist, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry) playing Larita, the avant-garde young woman who takes the Whittaker family by storm; Colin Firth (St. Trinian’s, Bridget Jones’Diary, Love Actually, The Girl with the Pearl Earring) as the war-weary head of the household Mr Whittaker; Kristin Scott Thomas (The Other Boleyn Girl, The English Patient, Gosford Park, Four Weddings and a Funeral), as the stoic but neurotic wife Mrs Whittaker, and Ben Barnes (Stardust, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) as Larita’s new husband John Whittaker. Stephen Elliot directs this revisit to the classic Noël Coward 1925 drama. UK Reviews: The Mirror "Deliciously funny! 4 stars." Baz Bamigboye The Daily Mail "...a glorious delight."
Production notes...Pathe Film...IMDB...Web...Variety... Review...
Tonight at 8:30 - the Complete Anthology
For the first time ever, all ten plays in the Tonight at 8:30 series will be published in one volume by Methuen Drama, with a release scheduled for the Spring of 2009. Copies will be available at the Shaw Festival gift shop. Methuen Drama...
Noel Coward: An Audio Biography (BBC Audio)
Sheridan Morley presents the life and times of Britain's legendary singer, actor, writer and wit. Playwright, actor, singer, songwriter, poet and scriptwriter, Sir Noel Coward used his 'talent to amuse' to spectacular effect for almost sixty years. Sir Laurence Olivier, Lord Mountbatten, John Gielgud, John Mills, Sybil Thorndike and Joyce Carey are just some of the voices heard paying tribute to the elegant star in this audio biography, written and narrated by Noel Coward's Literary Executor, the late broadcaster and critic Sheridan Morley. Extracts from interviews with Coward and his friends, several of his songs and moments from his plays come together to form an insightful, amusing and fascinating picture of one of the twentieth century's theatre greats.
Noël Coward Trilogy Released in the US
A CELEBRATION OF AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE
The three hour-long specials in the BBC Arena series produced in the Coward Centenary year have been made available on DVD in the US. This detailed evocation traces Noël Coward's life, career and legacy. Part 1: The Boy Actor follows his meteoric rise to international fame at thirty: including how early influences as a young man shaped his works such as Private Lives and The Vortex. Part 2: Captain Coward focuses on his journeys to the Far East with Earl Amherst, as well as entertaining the troops during the war years and films In Which We Serve and Brief Encounter. Part 3: Sail Away follows Coward's cabaret triumphs in London and Las Vegas after the Second World War and his in Switzerland and Jamaica, right up to his death. His long-term partner, the late Graham Payn shows us around Chalet Coward, and archive film reveals his time in Jamaica, as well as his late successes: a cameo performance in The Kitchen, and the musical Sail Away as recalled by its star Elaine Stritch. Nominated for the:1999 Huw Wheldon Award for the Best Arts Programme or Series BAFTA Award 1999.
‘The Letters of Noël Coward’
UK Paperback version available from 19 September 2008!
Edited by Barry Day will be published by Knopf in North America and Methuen Drama in all other territories on November 5th 2007. Barry Day's new essential guide to Noël's correspondence reveals his relationships with leading figures of the day and important moments in the development of his career.
There are launch events in the UK and the US - see United Kingdom 2007 and North America 2007.
"The Master had a singular impact on so many of our lives and Barry Day's perceptive analysis of his correspondence is both illuminating and irresistible. Noel's renowned wit,his unfailing generosity,his acute sense of contemporary history is here for everyone to enjoy." Richard Attenborough
"Noel Coward's letter are everything one would expect: witty,sentimental,peevish,touching. They are wonderful to read. What astounds me,however,is Barry Day's brilliant,imaginatively edited commentary. He sets the letters up with care and intelligence. Noel Coward comes vividly to life because the letters have been placed in such an informed and vivid context." Andre Bishop Artistic Director Lincoln Center Theater
"The sheen of the Coward legacy is further polished with this endlessly fascinating document of an important era in our collective cultural lives. Sir Noel continues to be impertinently pertinent in these changing times !" Michael Feinstein
"Laughing is my favorite pastime, so it's not surprising that Noel Coward should be my Number One hero. As far as I'm concerned,the British have a monopoly on humor,and our beloved Noel has a monopoly within a monopoly." Hugh Martin
The Noël Coward Collection
This seven-disc box set with over 19 hours of high quality videos of Noël Coward's works (plus more than 12 hours of bonus audio interviews, musical performances, speeches, and radio plays) is available in the UK . First seen in the US last year - this version, in PAL format.
A 7 disc set DVD of BBC Coward items - this collection features star-studded BBC productions of Coward's full-length plays, one-acts and short stories plus bonus features including several radio plays, interviews and profiles of Coward.
Includes the following:
Plays:
The Vortex
Hay Fever
Private Lives
Design for Living
Present Laughter
One-Acts: Tonight at 8:30 (all with Joan Collins)
Hands Across the Sea
Red Peppers
The Astonished Heart
Family Album
Fumed Oak
Ways and Means
Still Life
Shadow Play
Suite in Two Keys
Come Into the Garden Maud
Song at Twilight
Dramatized Short Stories: Star Quality
Me and the Girls
Bon Voyage
Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill
Mrs. Capper’s Birthday
What Mad Pursuit
"The theatre must be treated with respect. It is a house of strange enchantment, a temple of dreams"
