Musicals

Noël Coward spent Christmas 1922 as the guest of Ned Lathom (3rd Earl of Lathom, Edward Bootle-Wilbraham) and his sister Barbara at Davos in Switzerland where he joined a party of showbusiness guests at The Grand Hotel, Davos-Platz - Coward stayed at the Hotel Belvedere. Here he convinced Ned and eventually the theatrical impressario André Charlot, to provide the finance and opportunity for a revue that became London Calling - named after a new radio station call sign. This was Noël's first revue - a complex style of entertainment of songs and sketches that grew out of the Victorian music-hall and became a major form of entertainment in the 1920s and 30s. Charlot trusted Ned Lathom's money but not the young Noël's ability to write and paired him with an established writer, Ronald Jeans, who wrote the book for the revue. Noël found the art of revue 'a very tricky and technical business... everything has to be condensed to an apalling brevity.'

The revue, staged in 1923, was a great success with Fred Astaire helping with some choreography and Elsie April his arranger, orchestrator and general factotum getting involved at the beginning of an association with Noël that lasted until 1946.

A song featured in the revue was to provide Coward with an early musical success - Parisian Pierrot sung by Gertrude Lawrence and featured towards the end of the show:

Part of the chorus of Parisian Pierrot from 'London Calling' - Noël's first big song hit.

Revues and Musical Plays by Noël Coward

Musical Plays and Operettas

1929 Bitter Sweet
1938 Operette
1946 Pacific 1860
1950 Ace of Clubs
1954 After The Ball
1961 Sail Away
1963 The Girl Who Came to Supper

Musical Plays based on Coward's work

1964 High Spirits

A scene from Ace of Clubs with Graham Payn and Pat Kirkwood