A Song At Twilight

Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899 – 26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called “a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise” Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta Bitter Sweet and comic revues), screenplays, poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a three-volume autobiography. Coward’s stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works, as well as those of others. 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. At the outbreak of the Second World War Coward volunteered for war work, running the British propaganda office in Paris. He also worked with the Secret Service, seeking to use his influence to persuade the American public and government to help Britain. Coward won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama In Which We Serve and was knighted in 1969. In the 1950s he achieved fresh success as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs, such as “Mad Dogs and Englishmen”, “London Pride” and “I Went to a Marvellous Party”. Coward’s most enduring work from the war years was the hugely successful black comedy Blithe Spirit (1941), which was adapted into a 1945 film, directed by David Lean. Coward’s new plays after the war were moderately successful but failed to match the popularity of his pre-war hits. Coward’s final stage success came with Suite in Three Keys (1966), a trilogy set in a hotel penthouse suite. In A Song at Twilight, Coward abandoned his customary reticence on the subject and played an explicitly homosexual character. The daring piece earned Coward new critical praise. Coward’s plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. He did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, but it was discussed candidly after his death by biographers including Graham Payn, his long-time partner, and in Coward’s diaries and letters, published posthumously. Coward was knighted in 1970, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 1970. In 1972, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Sussex. Coward died at his home, Firefly Estate, in Jamaica on 26 March 1973 of heart failure[ A Song At Twilight (Act 1), by Noël Coward (Playing time: 46:05)<br /> Starring George Backman, Gretchen Evans, Sylvia Short and Jason Campbell (A famous author’s ex-wife suddenly appears with disturbing intentions.) The post A Song At Twilight (Act 1) appeared first on SANTA BARBARA THEATRE OF THE AIR.