Noel
Goodspeed Opera House
East Haddam, Connecticut, 1981
Role: Noel Coward

This play was breezy tribute to the late Sir Noel Coward and included dozens of his songs, bits of his writing and small portions of his plays.

The source for this production was Cowardy Custard, a hit on the London stage in previous years. Jeremy portrayed Noel Coward and Millicent Martin portrayed Gertrude Lawrence, the longtime friend who occasionally co-starred with Coward.

A May 31, 1981, New York Times review described the production like this: "At first glance, Noel has the look of a glossy revue. ... Although revues usually include sketches as well as songs and dances, Noel has no sketches but does have Jeremy Brett as Noel Coward wandering through the proceedings delivering snippets of Cowardiana."

The tone of the play stays "happy," avoiding any of Coward's failures, deeper writings, or his private life. The New York Times notes: "The final Noel Coward we see is not the hunched-over old man that Sir Noel became, but rather Jeremy Brett, tall and slim, casually saying 'Good night, my darlings' as the evening ends."

The review notes that "Jeremy Brett neither looks nor sounds like Noel Coward," but adds, "What Mr. Brett has come up with is a certain look of detached amusement, which he has linked with a collection of gestures and postures to create a man a home throughout the world who might very well be an inner Noel Coward. It serves Mr. Brett and the evening very nicely."

MORE ABOUT NOEL

Remembering Noel Coward
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1981
Role: Elyot and himself

Jeremy also took part in Remembering Noel Coward, a tribute presented at the University of Southern California in 1981. (Transcript - PDF)

Jeremy and Lynn Redgrave performed a scene from Coward's play Private Lives. (Redgrave and Brett had starred together in the Noel Coward play Design for Living in London in 1973.) For this tribute, they played Elyot and Amanda, two characters who once had been married to one another. They each have just re-married others and are honeymooning in the same French resort. They find themselves facing each other on a terrace overlooking the sea, in the moonlight. During the scene, a background piano plays "Someday I'll Find You," which is then sung by Redgrave and Brett.

After the scene, they talk with the master of ceremonies, Hal Kanter, and Jeremy describes the first time he met Noel Coward:

It was when I was doing a musical [Marigold] at the Savoy Theatre and he came into my dressing room and he gave me the most marvelous piece of advice. Straight off, he said, "Dear boy, don't boom out to the audience. Don't go out. Bring them to your teeth." [Laughter] "Make them come to you." That was the best advice I ever had in my life.

The Noel Coward Society // Noel Coward Wikipedia page