
Perform
The Noël Coward Collection
This master of humor and wit transcends time and remains one of the theatre’s premier playwrights.
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Blithe Spirit
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 5w, 2mBlithe Spirit
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 2m
A smash comedy hit on London and Broadway stages, this much-revived classic from the playwright of Private Lives offers wit, conflict and big laughs as a fussy, cantankerous novelist finds himself haunted by the ghost of his late first wife.
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Brief Encounter
Noël Coward, Emma Rice
Full-Length Play, Drama 3w, 7mBrief Encounter
Noël Coward ,Emma Rice
Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 7m
A heart-wrenching, inventive new stage adaptation of Noël Coward’s timeless love story.
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Design for Living
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 4w, 6mDesign for Living
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 6m
"Coward's cleverest play...Coward's technique has never been more dizzy or more deft." - The New York Times
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Present Laughter
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 6w, 5mPresent Laughter
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 6w, 5m
Coward's richly comic play about world-weary dilettante Garry Essendine, published to coincide with the National Theatre's production, which opened September 2007.
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High Spirits
Multiple Authors
Full-Length Musical, Comedy 3w, 1mHigh Spirits
Hugh Martin ,Timothy Gray , Noël Coward
Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 3w, 1m
The musical adaptation of Blithe Spirit, this “Improbable Musical Comedy” concerns a widowed gentleman who, upon remarrying, finds himself haunted by the spirit of his strong-willed first wife.
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Private Lives
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 3w, 2mPrivate Lives
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 2m
In Noël Coward’s sophisticated comedy classic, exes Elyot and Amanda, now honeymooning with new spouses, meet by chance in a French hotel and reignite their former passion – and enmity.
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Still Life (Coward)
Noël Coward
Short Play, Drama 5w, 6mStill Life (Coward)
Short Play, Drama / 5w, 6m
This deeply touching romance was the basis for the hit film Brief Encounter. After meeting and falling in love in a suburban rail station, Dr. Harvey and Laura meet weekly before realizing they must part forever.
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This Happy Breed
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Drama 7w, 5mThis Happy Breed
Full-Length Play, Drama / 7w, 5m
"If proof were needed of Noël Coward's versatility, we have it now." - Theatre World
This Happy Breed covers twenty years in the life of the Frank and Ethel Bibbons and their children, from the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II. On one level the story is the chronicle of a middle class family. They haven't …
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Waiting in the Wings
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 14w, 4mWaiting in the Wings
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 14w, 4m
"Should rejoice those of us who still have hearts." - London News Chronicle
Coward's tribute to theatre is set in a retirement home for actresses, all former stars. Jealousies abound, especially between Lotta and another who was also married to her former husband. A tragedy brings them to their senses and a new solarium brin…
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A Song at Twilight
Noël Coward
Short Play, Comedy 2w, 2mA Song at Twilight
Short Play, Comedy / 2w, 2m
"Coward at his zenith." - London Daily Express
This bittersweet comedy is the story of a cosmopolitan author caught in his declining years between two women, one being his wife of convenience for twenty years, the other, one of his former loves.
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After the Ball
Multiple Authors
Full-Length Musical, Drama 6w, 6mAfter the Ball
Noël Coward ,Barry Day , Oscar Wilde
Full-Length Musical, Drama / 6w, 6m
This concert version of the Noël Coward musical based on Oscar Wilde's classic play premiered at the Covent Garden Festival and the Chicago Humanities Festival to honor Noël Coward in his Centenary Year. The young Lady Windermere discovers that her husband has been seeing Mrs. Erlynne...
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After the Ball (original)
Noël Coward, Oscar Wilde
Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy 6w, 6mAfter the Ball (original)
Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 6w, 6m
In 1899 London, the upper crust gather at Lord and Lady Windermere's London house for a spectacular ball. Lady Windermere at first ignores the gossip that she has a rival for her husband's affections, an older woman called Mrs Erlynne, but she eventually confronts Lord Windermere with the accusation. He admits that he has been paying money to Mrs Erlynne but denies that he has had an affair with her and refuses to say more. In fact, Mrs Erlynne is Lady Windermere's mother, whom her daughter believes to be dead, and Lord Windermere is paying her money to keep her from revealing the relationship.
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Bitter Sweet
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Drama 12w, 2mBitter Sweet
Full-Length Play, Drama / 12w, 2m
Everything that wealthy London society had to offer a properly brought-up girl lay at the feet of little Sarah Millick in 1875; but she fell so desperately in love with her handsome young singing master that she threw it all away in order to be with him.
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Cavalcade
Noël Coward
Full-Length PlayCavalcade
Full-Length Play
Contained in Noel Coward Collected Plays: Three, with Design For Living, Conversation Piece and Tonight at 8.30 Part 1 (Hands Across the Sea, Still Life and Fumed Oak)
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Come into the Garden, Maud (Coward)
Noël Coward
Short Play, Comedy 2w, 2mCome into the Garden, Maud (Coward)
Short Play, Comedy / 2w, 2m
"A drama of profound depth and significance." - London Daily Express
Performed with Shadows of the Evening in London with Coward, Lilli Palmer and Irene Worth, this view of the haute monde is tempered by having the man and wife Americans this time. She is a social climber, while he is a rich cornhusker who couldn't ca…
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Cowardy Custard
Multiple Authors
Musical Revue / Cabaret, Comedy 6w, 6mCowardy Custard
Noël Coward ,Alan Strachan ,Gerald Frow ,Wendy Toye
Musical Revue / Cabaret, Comedy / 6w, 6m
"More densely packed with entertainment than any that has hit town for a long while." - Daily Mail , London
"A whole ravishing feast ... never ceases to amaze." - Evening Standard, London
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Early Mourning
Noël Coward
Sketches / Scenes 2wEarly Mourning
Sketches / Scenes / 2w
Also called Sorry You've Been Troubled
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Easy Virtue
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy 11w, 8mEasy Virtue
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 11w, 8m
"Stingingly funny lines." - London Broadcasting
"A shining jewel. ... A brilliant, searing attack on narrow minded morals and hypocrisy." - Today
Contained in the volume Coward Plays 1 with Hay Fever, The Vortex and Fallen Angels.
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Fallen Angels
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 3w, 3mFallen Angels
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 3m
Noël Coward’s sublime comedy of manners, in which two married women consider dallying with the same former lover, is a champagne cocktail of wit and charm.
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Family Album (Coward)
Noël Coward
Short Play, Comedy 4w, 5mFamily Album (Coward)
Short Play, Comedy / 4w, 5m
Just back from their father's funeral, the Featherway children cannot pull long faces nor feign regret.
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Fumed Oak
Noël Coward
Short Play, Comedy 3w, 1mFumed Oak
Short Play, Comedy / 3w, 1m
One of the "Tonight At 8:30" series, produced in London and New York. In the middle class drawing room of amiable and hard working Henry Gow passes most of the family life surrounding his harridan wife Doris, his brat daughter Elise, and his complaining mother in law Mrs. Rockett.
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Hands Across the Sea
Noël Coward
Short Play, Comedy 3w, 6mHands Across the Sea
Short Play, Comedy / 3w, 6m
One of the "Tonight At 8:30" series produced in London and New York. Lady Gilpin (Piggie) is so busy with social duties and gossip that she has no time for coherent thinking.
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Hay Fever
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 5w, 4mHay Fever
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 4m
"An evening of intoxicating escape." - The New York Times
"Light, luminous, and charming, and hilariously funny." - The New York Post
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Home Chat
Noel Coward
Full-Length Play, Dramatic ComedyHome Chat
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy
I am shirking off the chains that have shackled me for so long - I have suddenly come to realise that I am a woman - a living, passionate, pulsating woman - it never occurred to me before.
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I'll Leave It to You
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 6w, 4mI'll Leave It to You
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 6w, 4m
Left a widow with five grown up children, Mrs. Dermot turns to brother Dan for help. Uncle Dan arrives to find an idle family ready to live on his money. He announces that he is doomed to die in three years and that he will leave his money to the member of the family who has made good by then. Each …
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Look After Lulu
Noël Coward, Georges Feydeau
Full-Length Play, Comedy 7w, 15m, 1girl(s), 2boy(s)Look After Lulu
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 7w, 15m, 1girl(s), 2boy(s)
A farce based on Occupe-toi d'Amelie by Georges Feydeau. A woman of the night is "entrusted" to a friend by her lover, when he goes into the army.
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Mild Oats
Noël Coward
Short Play -
Noel and Gertie: An Entertainment Devised by Sheridan Morley with...
Multiple Authors
Full-Length Musical, Drama 1w, 1mNoel and Gertie: An Entertainment Devised by Sheridan Morley with ...
Jonathan Cohen ,Sheridan Morley , Noël Coward
Full-Length Musical, Drama / 1w, 1m
Noel and Gertie is an entertainment for two actors and a pianist from Sheridan Morley, the writer, theatre critic and broadcaster who was also the biographer of both Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrance. '
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Nude with Violin
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 6w, 8mNude with Violin
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 6w, 8m
Brilliant painter Paul Sorodin dies; indecently close to death's heels come Sorodin's relatives, his business manager and others who, their grief not entirely untinged with greed, anxiously await the reading of the will. Sebastian, valet and companion extraordinary to Sorodin, steps in with some jol…
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Peace in Our Time (Coward)
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Drama 13w, 22mPeace in Our Time (Coward)
Full-Length Play, Drama / 13w, 22m
"A bona fide theatrical event, which must not be missed by devotees of Coward and should not be missed by theatergoers, rabid or casual." -NoHoArtsDistrict
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Post-Mortem
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Drama 5w, 18mPost-Mortem
Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 18m
A one-act play in eight scenes, written in 1930 by Coward after he saw, and was moved by, Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff.
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Red Peppers
Noël Coward
Short Play, Comedy 4m, 2boy(s)Red Peppers
Short Play, Comedy / 4m, 2boy(s)
One of the Tonight At 8:30 series produced in London and New York.
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Relative Values
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 5w, 5mRelative Values
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 5m
The classic comedy of manners.
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Semi Monde
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 14w, 16mSemi Monde
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 14w, 16m
Written in 1926, this play, originally titled Ritz Bar, offers a satirical take on the comings, goings and occasional collisions of elegant guest staying at an expensive hotel in Paris. It weaves storylines filled with clandestine affairs and betrayals into its decadent atmosphere. …
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Shadow Play
Noël Coward
Short Play, Drama 4w, 5mShadow Play
Short Play, Drama / 4w, 5m
One of the "Tonight At 8:30" series produced in London and New York. Victoria has just returned from the theatre where she saw a romantic musical. She quells a headache with three Anytal tablets just before her husband enters and announces divorce plans. Victoria, head buzzing, attempts to understan…
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Shadows of the Evening
Noël Coward
Short Play, Drama 2w, 2mShadows of the Evening
Short Play, Drama / 2w, 2m
Linda, George's mistress and Anne, his estranged wife decide to settle their animosities for George's sake as he has now only a few months t…
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South Sea Bubble
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Comedy 3w, 8mSouth Sea Bubble
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 8m
The governor of the South Seas island of Samolo, Sir George Shotter, favours self-government for the island, but is opposed by an old-Etonian local grandee, Hali Alani.
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Star Chamber (Tonight at 8.30)
Noël Coward
Short Play, Comedy 5w, 6mStar Chamber (Tonight at 8.30)
Short Play, Comedy / 5w, 6m
A meeting takes place of the management comittee of a theatrical charity, the "Garrick Haven Fund", to benefit a retirement home for destitute actresses. Contained in Tonight at 8.30.
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Star Quality
Noël Coward, Christopher Luscombe
Full-Length Play, Comedy 4w, 5mStar Quality
Noël Coward , Christopher Luscombe
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 5m
In his wickedly funny final play, Noel Coward takes us behind the scenes of a new West End production. Conjuring up an authentic backstage world of talent and treachery, Coward creates a gallery of unforgettable characters including a temperamental leading lady, ruthless director, jaded old troupers…
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The Astonished Heart
Noël Coward
Short Play, Drama 3w, 4mThe Astonished Heart
Short Play, Drama / 3w, 4m
One of the "Tonight at 8:30" series produced in London and New York. In psychiatrist Christian Faber's drawing room sits his weeping wife and his sad assistants, waiting for the siren Leonora. In four flashbacks the story emerges: Leonora, a girlhood chum, visited Christian's wife and was introduced…
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The Better Half
Noël Coward
Short Play, Comedy 2w, 1mThe Better Half
Short Play, Comedy / 2w, 1m
A recently discovered play written two years before The Vortex, prior to Coward becoming famous. It was in a season of Grand Guignol plays s…
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The Marquise
Noël Coward
Short Play, Comedy 3w, 6mThe Marquise
Short Play, Comedy / 3w, 6m
When a Count and a Duke, having been close friends since their youth, want their respective children to marry each other, the young couple concerned, Adrienne and Miguel, are not happy with this arrangement, for, although fond of each other, they both love someone else.
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The Vortex
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Drama 3w, 7mThe Vortex
Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 7m
In The Vortex, Coward explores the darker side of the Cocktail Party set. Emotional blackmail, drug abuse and shattered relationships are minutely observed in this disturbing, early piece from a playwright whose sharp eye was more usually turned towards towards the light.
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The Young Idea
Noël Coward
Short Play 7w, 7mThe Young Idea
Short Play / 7w, 7m
A modern social remedy of character and situation, successfully produced at the Savoy Theatre, London.…
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This Was A Man
Noël Coward
Full-Length Play, Drama 3w, 6mThis Was A Man
Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 6m
“I loathe this age and everything to do with it. Men of my sort are the products of over-civilisation. All the red-blooded honest-to-God emotions have been squeezed out of us.”
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Travelling Light
Noël Coward
Sketches / Scenes 1w, 2m -
Ways and Means
Noël Coward
Short Play, Comedy 4w, 5mWays and Means
Short Play, Comedy / 4w, 5m
In a bedroom in Mrs. Lloyd Ransome's fabulous villa on the Cote d'Azur are heiress Stella Cartwright and her husband, a gambler. They are plagued by debts and their prolonged stay at the villa is becoming embarrassing when a scandalous chauffeur attempts to rob them and ends up saving their honor.
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We Were Dancing
Noël Coward
Short Play, Comedy 3w, 5mWe Were Dancing
Short Play, Comedy / 3w, 5m
One of the Tonight At 8:30 series produced in London and New York. Single Karl and married Louise spend the night dancing and plan to run away together, but the next morning they realize how little they know about each other.