CAREER OF NOEL COWARD

Evening Star, Issue 19274, 12 June 1926, Page 15

CAREER OF NOEL COWARD

Utterly a misnomer is Noel Coward’s name, for that youthful English playwright has had the ardent courage of youth to sting all London and New York with his daring; wit. Coward is still in nis twenties, but he is old in Broadway and West End experience. He attracted notice in London as Prince Mussel in a children’s fairy play, ‘ The Gold Fish,’ at the Play-house ten years ago, and has since then been writing his own plays, and acting in them, too. Not long after plaving in 1 War in the Air ’ at the Duke" of York’s, he heard of a real war in France, and belied his name again by going to it. In “civvies” once more, be played lead in his own comedy, ‘ I’ll Leave it to You,’ at the Kingsway, and left not a shadow of doubt about his dramatic abilities. Another London part of his was Clay Collins in ‘Polly With a Past.’ The thousands who go to his plays in London and New Y 7 ork, however, know little of another side of his genius, ior Noel Coward is a prolific song-writer. For years the youthful and versatile author depended upon song lyrics and melodies, plus an inspired talent for tlie footlights, to keep him in food, clothing, and Thus, when he turns to the drama with ‘ The Vortex.’ ‘Hay Fever,’ and ‘ Easy Virtue,’ all produced within one brief season in New York, even the critical gentlemen of the Press become oblivious to the fact that he still stands supremo as a Ivricist in England, if, indeed, not the United States as well.

‘ Hay Fever,’ the most successful of his comedies to be produced in London, was rejected by nearly all the managements before Albert Limpus staged it. it proved an excellent vehicle for Marie Tempest and Graham Browne, who acted in it for months.