British Theatre Programs: Relative Values (1952)

This program is for the original production of Noel Coward's Relative Values, in 1952. Note that the program was sealed (presumably so that people couldn't try to resell their programs to others), and cost 6d (pence).

There were no photos, no biographies of actors with a list of their credits. Presumably this was taken care of in the Theatre World magazines, which always focused on a few plays and showed photos of them (for example the April 1952 issue of Theatre World that had several photos of Relative Values, a few of which I have shared in this blog.)













These photos are shown for reference and research purposes only. No copyright infringement intended. (Click on each photo - if you're reading via the web rather than Kindle - so download a full-size version of each page.)

Noel Coward's Plays: Sirocco (1921)

Sirocco is a play, in four acts, by Noel Coward. It originally opened at Daly's Theatre, on November 24, 1927. The production was directed by Basil Dean.

Ivor Novello was part of the original cast. The plot told a tale of free love among the wealthy.

The London opening of Sirocco met with violently unfavorable audience reaction and a very harsh critical reception. Coward was later asked whether he had ever despaired when faced with a failure like Sirocco. He replied, "Well, if I'm going to have a flop, I like it to be a rouser. I didn't despair at all. What made it much more interesting was that my mother, who is slightly deaf, thought the booing was cheering. Incredibly Basil Dean, the producer of the play, made the same mistake. He was ringing the curtain up and down with a beaming smile. I said, 'Wipe that smile off your face, dear - this is it.'"


From: http://www.musicals101.com/noelbio2.htm

Coward's comedy The Marquis (1927) opened in his absence, and was a mild success. On his return to England, he avoided performing for more than a year and focused on writing. However, two of his weakest early plays were produced in London during the autumn of 1927, with disastrous results. Home Chat merely closed in a matter of weeks, but Sirocco had one of the most infamous opening nights in theatrical history. The audience responded to this tale of free love among the wealthy with jeers, catcalls, and fistfights after the final curtain. Coward faced the mob at the stage door, where they spat at him. He reacted with extraordinary calm, and the next day insisted on dining at The Ivy (a popular West End restaurant frequented by the theatrical community). But Coward had learned that the same public that fed his popularity could turn on him without warning.

Noel Coward's Plays: The Young Idea (1922)

The Young Idea (1922), comedy of youth in three acts

In 1921, Coward made his first trip to America, hoping to interest producers there in his plays. Although he had little luck, he found the Broadway theatre stimulating. He absorbed its smartness and pace into his own work, which brought him his first real success as a playwright with The Young Idea.

The play opened in London in 1923, after a provincial tour, with Coward in one of the leading roles. The reviews were good: "Mr Noël Coward calls his brilliant little farce a 'comedy of youth', and so it is. And youth pervaded the Savoy last night, applauding everything so boisterously that you felt, not without exhilaration, that you were in the midst of a 'rag'."

One critic, who noted the influence of George Bernard Shaw on Coward's writing, thought more highly of the play than of Coward's newly found fans: "I was unfortunately wedged in the centre of a group of his more exuberant friends who greeted each of his sallies with 'That's a Noëlism!'" The play ran in London from 1 February to 24 March 1923.

http://www.noelcoward.net/html/plays.html

The Young Idea - Sep 25 1922 Opened at the Prince's Theatre, Bristol - actors included Herbert Marshall, Kate Cutler and Noël Coward as Sholto. went on to the Savoy Theatre, London on Feb 1 1923.

Noel Coward's plays: I'll Leave It to You (1920)

I'll Leave It to You (1920), light comedy in three acts

In 1920, at the age of 20, Coward starred in his own play, the light comedy I'll Leave It to You. After a tryout in Manchester, it opened in London at the New Theatre (renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in 2006), his first full-length play in the West End.

Neville Cardus's praise in The Manchester Guardian was grudging. Notices for the London production were mixed, but encouraging. The Observer commented, "Mr Coward... has a sense of comedy, and if he can overcome a tendency to smartness, he will probably produce a good play one of these days." The Times, on the other hand, was enthusiastic: "It is a remarkable piece of work from so young a head – spontaneous, light, and always 'brainy'."

From Logos Theatre, which produced the play in 2006:
http://www.logostheatre.co.uk/productions/coward.html

When the 20-year-old Noël Coward was waiting for the start of rehearsals for I’ll Leave It to You, he told a friend that he’d hate to have a settled income. “It would,” the wunderkind grandly explained, “take away my determination to succeed.” And that suggests that he had taken personally the moral of the play, in which a supposedly rich man prods, manipulates, bribes and wins his idle nephews and dependent nieces over to work, work, profitable work.

The enterprising little Pentameters claims that the play hasn’t had a professional production since 1920, when it gave Coward his first West End showing, though one that lasted only 37 performances. It’s easy to see reasons for its neglect. It’s predictable, has a sentimental ending and skims across surfaces like a paper boat in a breeze. Yet it’s also lively, diverting and of real interest to Coward fans, foreshadowing as it does much that was to come later and better in Coward’s career.

Theatre: Noel Coward's Relative Values, 1952

Noel Coward's play Relative Values made its debut in 1952, with Gladys Cooper, Angela Baddeley, Richard Leech, Ralph Michael Hugh McDermott, Judy Campbell, and Simon Lack.