Composer, librettist, playwright, actor and director - Noël Cowards position is secure as one of the best-known figures in 20th century theatre. In the build-up to his centenary celebrations, we have gathered together what we hope you will agree is a logical and entertaining collection of his songs from revues and shows associated with The Master recorded between 1928 and 1947. Whats more they are all performed by him or by his best-remembered leading lady, Gertrude Lawrence - or both together. With few exceptions, Noël recorded his own works on frequent visits to the studios. Such was his art that he made definitive versions of his own songs - a rare thing among composer/performers.
Born in Teddington, Middlesex on 16 December 1899, Noël Pierce Coward was a star pupil of the Itala Conti stage school and was recalled by fellow pupil and contemporary Gertrude Lawrence as "...a thin, unusually shy boy with a slight lisp". Little could either teenager have foreseen the years of world fame that would follow and the times when they would work as a team and enthrall their audiences. Although moderately successful as a young actor, Noëls first big break came in 1923 in the Andre Charlot revue London Calling where he appeared with his soul mate Gertrude Lawrence. As librettist and composer, his Parisian Pierrot as performed by Gertrude was the hit of the show.
The following year saw Cowards career really begin to snowball. He had written a meaty part for himself in a play called The Vortex, which created a sensation with its frank depiction of drug taking.
With the revue On With The Dance in 1925 Noël began a nine year partnership with leading impresario C B Cochran. Unsure of Noëls composing abilities, Cochran refused to entrust the music to him, conceding only on the book and lyrics. Philip Braham was commissioned for the music but the wily Coward ensured that much of the music (his) was inexorably entwined with his sketches. In the event, Cowards own Poor Little Rich Girl, as sung by Alice Delysia, was the best remembered song of the revue. Cochran had wanted it removed but Coward insisted; his point was proven.
In June of 1925 Marie Tempest opened in one of Cowards most enduring plays, the comedy Hay Fever (which he had dashed off in just three days the previous year!). Two months later he visited the recording studios for the first time but his efforts were rejected and dont appear, alas, to have survived. Later the same month he sailed for America where he triumphed in The Vortex in New York after a shaky try-out in Washington.
More plays followed where Coward was writer and performer, save for a short foray as an actor in Margaret Kennedys The Constant Nymph. But he was taking on too much and suffered a nervous breakdown.
Late in 1927 Coward was contracted by C B Cochran to write a new revue - this time he was to write all the music as well as the book and the lyrics. This Year Of Grace opened on 22 March 1928 at the London Pavilion and scored a bulls-eye. The cast included Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale, who introduced the show-stopping number A Room With A View (Coward unashamedly admitted to pinching the songs title from E M Forsters novel). At the time, Jessies marriage to Harry Lytton was on the rocks and Sonnie felt overshadowed by the fame of his wife, Evelyn Laye. Night after night as they held hands and gazed out of the window in the quaint stage setting and sang "A room with a view and you...Well be so happy and contented as birds upon a tree...", it was perhaps not surprising that they should begin to fall in love in real life and to marry in January 1931. Sonnie sang the other hit song from the show, Dance, Little Lady to Lauri Devine. Noël himself, in the Sonnie Hale role, starred in the New York production of This Year Of Grace