After the Ball

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, a fascinating older woman, so she determines to run away with her admirer, Lord Darlington. Her honor is saved when Mrs. Erlynne intervenes and, in the process, compromises herself in the eyes of Victorian society. Lady Windermer never learns that her savior is the mother she thought was dead. This period concert version restores Coward's original libretto, reinstates important cut songs and adds new linking material.

After the Ball was first performed at the Covent Garden Festival on May 27th, 1999 at the Peacock Theatre in London. It was directed by Paul Curran. It was first performed in the United States at the Chicago Humanities Festival on November 13, 1999 in the Auditorium Theatre.