Press
Here is where we highlight the many press notices we receive for productions of plays by Noël Coward, book releases, events, and more.
Please direct all media enquiries to:
Anthony McNeill
Press Representative
Noel Coward Foundation
anthony@alanbrodie.com
07967 480844
Stephen Mangan in Private Lives at Donmar Warehouse (© Marc Brenner)
Private Lives Reviews (Donmar)
“A perfect rendering of a perfect play, violence and all, shying away from none of its darker streaks.”
theatreCat / Read More →
“This stylish, thought-provoking production is the Donmar at its very best.”
The New European / Read More →
“There is a danger of dismissing Noël Coward as a man of bon mots and sophisticated dressing gowns. But beneath the silken sleeve lies a fist of powerful emotion. Michael Longhurst’s production of Private Lives proves this with crystalline understanding of the play’s surface frivolity and the profound undercurrents of love and loathing lying just beneath its surface. It is drama of such knife-edge ferocity that it’s impossible to turn away. You want to cry, even as you are laughing.”
Whats On Stage / Read More →
“Stirling gives us a beguiling force of nature whose self-possession isn’t enough to see off the restrictive expectations of her age. Mangan roguishly charms and drolly delights, but he’s pricklier and edgier than any Elyot I can recall – a powder-keg of emotion lying beneath that smiling, silk-dressing-gowned exterior.”
The Telegraph / Read More → (paywall)
Masquerade (Coward Biography)
“Soden’s handsome book pays a tribute to the man – as playwright, director, composer, lyricist and wag – that will be good for another 50 years.”
The Guardian / Read More →
“What a pleasure it is to read a book into which so much labour, and so much affection, have evidently gone. But the labour is never flaunted and the affection is mingled with the same sophisticated irony that made Coward such a giant of the theatre. This is the biography – truthful, sympathetic and thorough – that Coward deserves.”
The Telegraph / Read More → (paywall)
“The man himself remains both on full display and forever occluded in this biography, the first cradle-to-grave account since the 1995 book by Philip Hoare. His dramatic universe, however, as Soden concludes, was “generous . . . prising amusement from bleakness, and it was created for a character called Noël Coward”.”
The Times / Read More →
“Oliver Soden offers us Noël Coward for an online generation, to whom a precarious life of permanent self-performance should feel familiar. We never quite find the man behind Coward’s mask, but that is somewhat the point.”
Financial Times / Read More → (paywall)
“If anyone else has plans to write a biography of Noël Coward, they can give up now. Oliver Soden’s magisterial work, weighing in at 634 pages, is undoubtedly definitive.”
British Theatre Guide / Read More →
“There’s every reason to think Coward will last forever – and this excellent biography is just what he deserves.”
The Spectator / Read More →
“Lifting the mask of a mercurial master. Soden shares the spoils of untrammelled access: vivid evidence of the man not seen”
The Critic / Read More →
50th Anniversary
“Noël Coward was not just an amiable jester but a scathing social satirist. He presented himself as a message-free entertainer but, 50 years after his death, it is time to reconsider the variety of the great playwright’s work.”
The Guardian / Read More →
“Since his death at 73, half a century ago today, his words and music have not lost their capacity to dazzle audiences around the world with their crisp wit and sense of mischief.”
Independent / Read More →
“On this day 100 years ago: New Noël Coward play at the Savoy”
From The Times, February 2, 1923 / Read More → (paywall)
Dame Patricia Routledge remembers the genius of Noël Coward
Sussex World / Read More →
Mad About the Boy – The Noel Coward Story
Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward Story review — an extraordinary life. The Times / Read More → (paywall)
Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward story review – fascinating portrait of a 20th-century great. The Guardian / Read More →
Rupert Everett on voicing Noel Coward. Channel 4 / Watch →
“Noel Coward: The dark side of the quintessential Englishman. The great playwright is famous for his sparkling, upper-crust comedies. But 50 years on from his death, it's worth remembering how radical and scandalous he really was.” BBC / Read More →
Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward Story — and other films to watch this week. The Times / Read More → (paywall)
Mad About the Boy - The Noël Coward Story review – brisk trot through life and career. The Guardian / Read More →
Mad About the Boy – The Noël Coward Story review: a toe-tappingly infectious documentary The Independent / Read More →
“Rupert Everett and Alan Cumming to voice Noel Coward documentary”
Evening Standard / Read More →
“Mad About the Boy — Noël Coward’s wit and charm remain undimmed. A new documentary adds to play revivals and a hefty biography in appreciation of the Master 50 years after his death” Financial Times / Read More → (paywall)
Alan Cumming: ‘Noël Coward was a victim of the English class system’ Read More → / The Times → (paywall)
Mad About the Boy — Noël Coward’s wit and charm remain undimmed. A new documentary adds to play revivals and a hefty biography in appreciation of the Master 50 years after his death. Read More →
“Alongside his work with Queen, Adam Lambert has maintained a busy solo career of music and acting, and his latest project is Mad About the Boy – The Noël Coward Story, a documentary for which he performed the title track, which was also released on his latest album, High Drama.” Metro / Read More →
Documentary MAD ABOUT THE BOY – THE NOËL COWARD STORY to be Released in UK & Ireland in June. Broadway World / Read More →
“Narrated by Alan Cumming and with Rupert Everett as the voice of Noël Coward, this collage of archival material, unseen home videos and fascinating stories is not to be missed.” Cent Magazine / Read More →
Sir Nöel cast in Mad About the Boy – The Nöel Coward Story. Film Book / Read More →
Lia Williams and Joshua James in rehearsal for The Vortex at Chichester. Image: Helen Murray
The Vortex
“The Vortex: why Noel Coward’s classic endures 50 years after his death”
The Stage / Read More → (paywall)
“The first time Lia Williams saw her new co-star on stage, he was a four-year-old boy playing the role of a soldier. “I thought, ‘Odd casting,’ ” she says of Joshua James, who is now playing her son in a revival of Noël Coward’s first hit, The Vortex, at the Chichester Festival Theatre.”
The Times / Read More →
Brief Encounter at the New Wolsey Theatre. (Image: Marc Brenner)
Brief Encounter
“Witnessing the marvel that was Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter staged at the New Wolsey Theatre, I can't remember a time in which I have shared such pure joy with audience and cast members alike.”
East Anglian Daily Times / Read More →
Podcasts
Colin Currie performs live, author Catherine Lacey, the influence of Noël Coward
So why has Private Lives endured long after the world it is set in has disappeared. Is there more to this piece of fluff than high style and flippant wit? Oliver Soden, author of a brand-new biography of Noël Coward, joins The Play Podcast to help answer that question.