I Like America – Celebrating 125 Years of Noël Coward
Sir Noël Coward (1899-1973) left a unique legacy of songs, recordings, theater and film performance, plays, and letters we’ll never see the likes of again. A multifaceted talent who arguably invented himself, Coward was equally adept at the heartrending and sharply witty without losing a beat. He was stylish, prickly, loyal, deeply patriotic, and infinitely droll.
This high spirited, gala evening is a salute to Coward and to Barry Day OBE (Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Trustee of the Noël Coward Foundation) and his unrelenting efforts towards keeping the Coward oeuvre alive. In 2019, Day was responsible for Love Noël, also featuring KT Sullivan and Steve Ross. This is, in its way, a follow up with the appealing addition of Simon Jones.
Coward by Allan Warren 1972 -This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
We open with photos and film clips of Coward performing and sitting for interviews. At one point, a young Dick Cavett stumbles, “What’s the word for terrific, prolific qualities?” “Talent,” Sir Noël quips deadpan. Presenting him with an Honorary Tony Award, Cary Grant calls him “One of the world’s blithest spirits.” “This is my first award. Please be kind,” the honoree says accepting.
The resigned “I Travel Alone” finds Coward coming to New York for the first time in 1921 with 17 pounds in his pocket and nowhere to sleep. Songs are bridged with brief biographical information. The first trip was short lived, but later, when he most needed the work, Las Vegas made an offer and a new chapter began for the artist. There’s a wonderful recording of this Desert Inn run.
Steve Ross
Each cast member sings light and precise verses of “I Like America”:I like America/I have played around/Every slappy-happy hunting ground/But I find America-okay… sings Ross. I’ve exploded the myth/Of those Flying Fith/On the Road to Mandalay…sings Jones. I’ve roamed the Spanish Main/Eaten sugar-cane/But I never tasted cellophane/Till I struck the U.S.A… sings Sullivan.
We hear Ross’s “Nina” (from Argentina), replete with the lady’s accent, a jaunty “Together With Music” from a television special with Mary Martin (Ross and Sullivan), and Jones’ vivid interpretation of “A Bar on the Piccola Marina” with just the right acidic accents. The vocalist’s eyebrow-raised, Halleluhua, heigh-nonny-no Heigh-nonny-no, heigh-nonny-no is sublime.
Simon Jones
Two wistful songs about change preface “teasing his own profession” with a rousing company rendition of “Why Must the Show Go On?” or as Sullivan sings, “Why must the show go on,” (arm launches up) “oh Mammy!” “Just when you’re an arms’ length from a gin and tonic, some lady comes up to you…” Jones narrates. Barely drawing a breath, Sullivan delivers a babbling suburban fan monologue Coward entitled “Social Grace.” She’s great.
Travel warning for Yankees going “the other way” is presented by way of “You’re a Long, Long Way From America.”: While guitars are strumming/’The Yanks are coming’,/You’ll find the plumbing/Rather frightening at first…(Ross and Sullivan) “Why Do the Wrong People Travel?” follows with impeccable wit. “Oh, look Harry!” Jones exclaims. (The company) Ross’s performance of the heady “New York Pride” – melody by Coward from “London Pride,” excellent lyrics by Barry Day – was written in appreciation and sympathy after 9/11.
Steve Ross and KT Sullivan
Surprise guest Jim Dale (most know the fine thespian from Barnum) delivers a monologue Barry Day put together from a character out of Coward’s play, The Working Class. Long suffering Henry (pitch perfect accent) is addressing his wife and daughter just prior to finally flying the coop. It’s immensely moving, in turn rueful, angry and exuberant. How much have we missed with Dale in retirement!
A complete change of tone arrives with Jones’ rendition of “There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner”: There are bad times just around the corner/There are dark clouds hurtling through the sky/And it’s no good whining/About a silver lining/For we know from experience that they won’t roll by… Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!Trouble is on the way… Churlish, harassed, and a bit mad, the version is splendid.
KT Sullivan
Sullivan’s “He Never Did That to Me” is a coy, annoyed, disappointed treatise proving packaging isn’t everything. “Noël wasn’t all satire. He could be sincere, even confessional” introduces her version of “If Love Were All.” One of THE most heartbreaking songs, it’s a prime example of less is more. “I’ll Remember Her”, possibly written for lifelong friend, Gertrude Lawrence, is then sung with elemental candor by Ross: I feel inside, a foolish sort of pride/To think that she remembers me. Sigh.
Dale returns to the stage to award Barry Day for his more than ten Coward books, devising of entertainments, and helping set up the U.S. division of The Noël Coward Foundation. ”When I was a kid growing up during the war I knew about Coward, but after, I met Graham Payne (the maestro’s heir). He asked me to help him with the Coward estate…Then, one day, he said he’d like to write his own memoir, but wasn’t a writer and I said, I’ll help you. It was a wonderful time…”
Barry Day
A group of veteran vocalists rise from the front row to join the cast in “I’ll Be Seeing You” with audience participation. Nostalgia is rife, yet Jones is quite right in noting that most of Coward’s material rings entertaining, true and affecting today. “After something like half a century, I—like Noël—have some idea of how one creative culture nourishes another,” shares Barry Day. “I hope our show conveys something of what that fusion can produce.” It does.
At a reception after festivities, Day is again thanked by head of The Noël Coward Foundation, Alan Brodie and toasted by Melanie Hopkins – Deputy British Consul General as “an exceptional partner and friend to the Consulate over thirty years.” Glasses are raised, hugs abound, the room is buoyant.
Presented by The Noël Coward Foundation, James Morgan and The York Theatre, Concord Theatricals.
Production Photos by Genevieve Rafter Keddy.
Jim Dale, Melanie Hopkins, Alan Brodie, KT Sullivan, Simon Jones, Steve Ross
I Like America – Celebrating 125 Years of Noel Coward
Words and Music by Noel Coward
Devised and Directed by Barry Day OBE
Co-Directed by Joseph Hayward
Music Direction by Steve Ross
The York Theatre Company Theatre at St. Jean’s
76thand Lexington Avenue
COMING UP: Welcome to The Big Dipper- A new musical
November 19 – December 29, 2024
Mad About the Boy – Highly recommended Noel Coward documentary in theaters October 11.
See the story about the documentary.
