MARK AUERBACH
Oh, Coward!
Two gems from the pen of British playwright (and composer, director, actor and singer) Noel Coward play area stages this month. Sir Noel Coward (1899-1973), known for his wit, flamboyance, and suave style, gave the contemporary theatre comedy classics like “Blithe Spirit”, “Private Lives” and “Hay Fever”, songs like “Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs. Worthington”, “Mad Dogs and Englishmen”, and “Poor Little Rich Girl”. He wrote some juicy parts for himself, and his friends, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Elaine Stritch, Gertrude Lawrence and Laurence Olivier.
“Private Lives”, one of Coward’s wittest efforts, plays Shakespeare & Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre in Lenox through March 30.
David Joseph and Dana Harrison in Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” at Shakespeare & Company. (Photo by Kevin Sprague.)
Artistic Director Tony Simotes stages the comedy. Picture this premise. You’ve just gone through an extremely messy and bitter divorce. Ever so slightly scarred, you move forward with a new relationship, marry, and go off on a honeymoon at a chic resort hotel. To your surprise, your ex and his or her new spouse are also honeymooning at the same hotel–in the suite next to yours.
“Private Lives” (written in 1930) offers a delectable comedy of manners, with rapier sharp wit, a lot of innuendo, and well-written parts that major stars clamor to play. Coward, Lawrence and Olivier starred in the original. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton sparred in a Broadway revival. Talullah Bankhead, Maggie Smith, and Kim Cattrall have also starred.
Mark Lamos
For tickets to “Private Lives” in Lenox: (413) 637-3353 or www.Shakespeare.org.
The lesser-known “A Song at Twilight” comes to Hartford Stage (February 20-March 16), in a co-production with the Westport Country Playhouse. Mark Lamos, former Artistic Director of Hartford Stage and now Westport’s Artistic Director, stages the Coward comedy, which was part of a trio of Coward comedies called “Suite in Three Keys”.
Produced for the theatre in 1966, Coward’s comedy involves an elderly writer, who is confronted by his former mistress with facts about his past life that he would prefer to forget. Coward starred opposite Lilli Palmer in the original production.
Broadway veterans Mia Dillon, Brian Murray and Gordana Rashovich headline the cast, along with recent Yale School of Drama graduate Nicholas Carriere. After Hartford, the production moves to Westport, where it opens on April 29.
Jon Nakamatsu
For tickets: 860-527-5151 or www.hartfordstage.org
Time Magazine once referred to Coward as a man with “a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise”. Both productions ought to provide sophisticated laughs to move audiences towards spring..
Keep in Mind…
***Jon Nakamatsu, the pianist, joins the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Kevin Rhodes for some Beethoven, Schoenberg, and Brahms (Piano Concerto No. 1) on February 22 at Springfield Symphony Hall. For tickets: 413-733-2291 or www.springfieldsymphony.org.
***The Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s Talcott Mountain Music Festival kicks off June 27, with a mostly Mozart program featuring conductor Carolyn Kuan. The “Celebrate America” program with fireworks will be held on July 3; a Broadway concert with Christiane Noll, Capathia Jenkins, and Rob Evan is on the bill. the Hartford Symphony Orchestra will also celebrate the music of Queen, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong. Program and ticket information for the series in Simsbury, Conn. is available at 860-244-2999 or www.hartfordsymphony.org.
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
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