Reviewed Monday 22nd July 2013
Noël Coward's godson, Sheridan Morley, devised a work that opened in 1983, telling of the long working and personal relationships between Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, drawing on Coward's songs, plays, and other writings, as well as the correspondence between them. Noël and Gertie is filled with humour, wit, and occasionally poignant moments, songs, dances, and excerpts from his plays, with all of the sparkling dialogue that that entails.
Morley, who was the son of the late actor,
Robert Morley, passed away in 2007, leaving behind a huge body of work, including biographies of his father and his mother, Dame
Gladys Cooper, as well as one of
Noël Coward. As well as a writer, he was also a theatre director, a drama critic, and a film critic. The first person to play Gertie in the work was, incidentally, Morley's cousin,
Joanna Lumley.
When it comes to musical theatre in Australia, the name
Nancye Hayes OAM is one of the best known and most respected. She has brought her vast experience to bear on this production as Director and Choreographer. That is a cast iron guarantee of a quality production, and that is what this is. It oozes style from start to finish.
The style, of course, is Art Deco with large structures either side of the stage, joined together overhead by an elaborate arch. Graham Maclean's stunningly realistic set could be a part of any of the grand hotels or theatres of the period. His costumes put Noël in a conventional dinner suit and black patent leather shoes, always the height of style for men, and Gertie in a fabulous white Molyneux style gown. It all says class, and the grand piano, back under the arch, fits right in. The lighting, by Nicholas Higgins, helps to depict scene changes, from Coward narrating, to musical numbers and dialogue from his productions, to his conversations and correspondence with Gertie. Add in some fine piano arrangements, played with just the right feel for the era, by Musical Director and accompanist, Vincent Colagiuri, and everything is just perfect for the arrival of Noël and Gertie.
Sir
Noël Coward is played by the popular performer, James Millar, and
Lucy Maunder, an exceptional talent, plays
Gertrude Lawrence. Both of these performers were in Adelaide in June, delighting audiences at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and, interestingly both appeared in separate performances featuring the wonderful songs of
Jacques Brel.
Neither of them look one bit like their famous characters. Noël had dark hair and was hardly handsome, whereas Millar is, as well as being tall and fair haired, and Gertie was very plain, which certainly cannot be said of Maunder, nor do they attempt to impersonate the voices of the two characters. What they do is to capture the essence of Noël and Gertie, the elegance, the wit, the clever repartee, and the wealthy ambience that they carried with them, even though Gertie spent more than she ever earned and was eventually declared bankrupt, owing income tax on both sides of the Atlantic and losing everything that she owned in England and America.
They capably display the love and affection that Noël and Gertie shared throughout their whole lives, from the moment that he met her when he was thirteen and she was a little over a year older when appearing in a production together. They may have been an ocean apart later in life, but that mattered little. That love was, of course, purely platonic, since Noël was homosexual, something that, at that time, needed to be kept well hidden as it was illegal.
Suave and sophisticated, Millar and Maunder move around the stage with grace, her long dress making her seem to glide across the floor. Both are accomplished singers, dancers, and actors, graduates of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, which has turned out a fair number of these 'triple threats' over the years. All three skills are put to work in this demanding production that, to the audience, appears so relaxed, almost casual during the monologues and dialogue. One could easily forget that these are actors, in the face of their deeply engaged performances.
The audience was mostly senior but, encouragingly, there were a few younger faces here and there. So entertaining is this production that, even without knowing anything much about
Noël Coward and
Gertrude Lawrence, it is still appealing to younger people because of the quality of the production, the great songs, and the extracts from plays that they would recognise, as Coward's works are still a staple for amateur and professional companies alike.
Blithe Spirit, in particular, turns up regularly in Adelaide, as do
Private Lives and
Still Life, the play that became the film,
Brief Encounter. Excerpts from all three of these plays appear in this production, the parting scene between married lovers, Dr. Alec Harvey and Laura Jesson, from
Still Life, the balcony scene between Elyot and Amanda, from
Private Lives, and the scene where Charles Condomine confronts the ghost of his first wife, Elvira, in
Blithe Spirit.
Millar and Maunder showed their versatility, slipping easily from the main roles, into the those of the characters in these plays, dancing to a standard of which Fred and Ginger would have approved, and singing up a storm.
Has Anybody Seen Our Ship?, a comic number from
Red Peppers, recalled the era of the music halls, a play from a collection of short plays with the umbrella title of Something at 8:30, and gave Maunder and Millar a chance to break free briefly of the higher social class performances to play a beer drinking, bickering couple. They are superb in all that they do.
There is a wealth of entertainment and enjoyment to be had in this production, but it only has a short run in Adelaide, so book now.
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