"ten most popular songs. ""Dear Little Café"" is among the top twenty. Bitter Sweet Bitter Sweet is an operetta in three acts, with book, music and lyrics by Noël Coward. The story, set in 19th century and early 20th century England and Austria-Hungary, centres on a young woman's elopement with her music teacher. The songs from the score include ""The Call of Life"", ""If You Could Only Come with Me"", ""I'll See You Again"", ""Dear Little Café"", ""If Love Were All"", ""Ladies of the Town"", ""Tokay"", ""Zigeuner"" and ""Green Carnation"". The show had a long run in the West End"
"famous, Coward would write a play for them all to star in. In the following decade, Coward became one of the world's most famous playwrights, with a succession of popular hits. These ranged from the operetta ""Bitter Sweet"" (1929) and the extravaganza ""Cavalcade"" (1931), to the intimate comedies ""Hay Fever"" (1924) and ""Private Lives"" (1930). Lunt and Fontanne too had achieved fame, and by the early 1930s the time was right for Coward to write their star vehicle. The Lunts' marriage was devoted and long-lived, but there were triangular relationships in their private lives which Coward could draw on for"
"of his works, such as ""Hay Fever"", ""Private Lives"", ""Design for Living"", ""Present Laughter"" and ""Blithe Spirit"", have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta ""Bitter Sweet"" and comic revues), screenplays, poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel ""Pomp and Circumstance"", and a three-volume autobiography. Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works. At the outbreak of the Second World War Coward volunteered for war work, running the British"
"Cavalcade (play) Cavalcade is a play by Noël Coward with songs by Coward and others. It focuses on three decades in the life of the Marryots, a quintessential British family, and their servants, beginning in 1900 and ends on New Year's Eve in 1929 and is set against major historical events of the period, including the Relief of Mafeking; the death of Queen Victoria; the sinking of the Titanic; and the First World War. The popular songs at the time of each event were interwoven into the score. The play was premièred in London in 1931 at the large Theatre"
"plays. During that summer, he befriended the playwright Hartley Manners and his wife, the eccentric actress Laurette Taylor. Their ""over-the-top theatrical lifestyle"" later inspired him in writing ""Hay Fever"". Coward wrote the play in three days in 1924, intending the lead role of Judith Bliss for the actress Marie Tempest, ""whom I revered and adored"". Though she found it amusing, she thought it not substantial enough for a whole evening, but changed her mind after the success of Coward's ""The Vortex"" later in 1924. ""Hay Fever"" opened at the Ambassadors Theatre on 8 June 1925 and transferred to the larger"
"adaptation of the same name received critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for best picture. Cavalcade (play) Cavalcade is a play by Noël Coward with songs by Coward and others. It focuses on three decades in the life of the Marryots, a quintessential British family, and their servants, beginning in 1900 and ends on New Year's Eve in 1929 and is set against major historical events of the period, including the Relief of Mafeking; the death of Queen Victoria; the sinking of the Titanic; and the First World War. The popular songs at the time of each event were"
"Henry Becque Henry François Becque (9 April 1837 – 12 May 1899), was a French dramatist. He was born in Paris. He is best known for being the creator of Theatre of cruelty («théâtre cruel» in French). In 1867, he wrote, in imitation of Lord Byron, the libretto for Victorin de Joncières's opera ""Sardanapale"", but his first important work, ""Michel Pauper"", appeared in 1870. The importance of this sombre drama was first realized when it was revived at the Odéon in 1886. ""Les Corbeaux"" (1882) established Becque's position as an innovator, and in 1885 he produced his most successful play,"
"played in London (1936), New York (1936–1937) and Canada (1938). The plays were performed in various combinations of three at each performance during the original run. The plays chosen for each performance were announced in advance, although a myth evolved that the groupings were random. The plays have enjoyed several major revivals, and several films and television adaptations are based on them. From August to October 2009, the series was presented in repertory by the Shaw Festival. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Coward wrote a succession of popular hits, ranging from the operetta ""Bitter Sweet"" (1929) and the"
"Yellow Fever (play) Yellow Fever is a play by R. A. Shiomi which takes place on Powell Street in Japantown, Vancouver, a gathering place for the local Japanese-Canadian culture. Set in the 1970s, the Sam Spade-like main character, Sam Shikaze, must work to unravel the mysteries that surround him. First produced by the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in 1982, it received positive reviews and had a successful run off-Broadway. Sam Shikaze, a smooth private-eye, narrates his own story about what happened when he was hired to find the missing Cherry Blossom Queen. He is soon trapped in a web of"
"la Renaissance, 7 February 1885). Henry Becque Henry François Becque (9 April 1837 – 12 May 1899), was a French dramatist. He was born in Paris. He is best known for being the creator of Theatre of cruelty («théâtre cruel» in French). In 1867, he wrote, in imitation of Lord Byron, the libretto for Victorin de Joncières's opera ""Sardanapale"", but his first important work, ""Michel Pauper"", appeared in 1870. The importance of this sombre drama was first realized when it was revived at the Odéon in 1886. ""Les Corbeaux"" (1882) established Becque's position as an innovator, and in 1885 he"
"Ben Jonson Benjamin Jonson (""c"". 11 June 1572 – ""c"". 16 August 1637) was an English playwright, poet, actor, and literary critic, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours. He is best known for the satirical plays ""Every Man in His Humour"" (1598), ""Volpone, or The Fox"" (c. 1606), ""The Alchemist"" (1610) and ""Bartholomew Fair"" (1614) and for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry; he is generally regarded as the second most important English playwright during the reign of James VI and I after William Shakespeare. Jonson was a classically"
"before mounting a full colour-blind stage production. Tomson Highway Tomson Highway, CM (born 6 December 1951) is an Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is best known for his plays ""The Rez Sisters"" and ""Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing"", both of which won him the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award. Highway has also published a novel, ""Kiss of the Fur Queen"" (1998), which is based on the events that led to his brother René Highway’s death of AIDS. He also has the distinction of being the librettist of the first Cree language"
"H. S. Kraft Hyman Solomon Kraft (April 30, 1899 – July 29, 1975), aka Hy Kraft or H.S. Kraft, was an American screenwriter, playwright, and theatrical producer. Among the notable comedy plays that he wrote were ""Ten Per Cent"" (1932), ""Poppa"" (1929), ""Cafe Crown"" (1942), and ""Top Banana"" (1952). In 1964 ""Cafe Crown"" was revised as a Broadway musical produced by Philip Rose and Swanlee with music by Albert Hague and lyrics by Marty Brill. The musical plot is set in the early 1930s in and around the Cafe Crown at the corner of Second Avenue and 12th Street in"
"Friend"", 1991), Carole Pope and Rough Trade (""Shaking the Foundations"", 1999) and Joni Mitchell (""When All the Slaves Are Free"", 2003). MacDonald is also a theatre director, most noted for his productions of Tennessee Williams' ""Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"", Joe Orton's ""What the Butler Saw"" and Judith Thompson's ""Perfect Pie"". He has taught at the National Theatre School of Canada, and served as playwright in residence at the Stratford Festival. He is openly gay. Bryden MacDonald Bryden MacDonald (born October 30, 1960 in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian playwright. His best known plays include ""Whale Riding"
"Frieda Inescort Frieda Inescort (born Frieda Wrightman, 29 June 1901 – 26 February 1976) was a Scottish-born actress best known for creating the role of Sorel Bliss in Noël Coward's play ""Hay Fever"" on Broadway. She also played the shingled lady in John Galsworthy's 1927 Broadway production ""Escape"". Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Inescort was the daughter of Scots-born journalist John ""Jock"" Wrightman and actress Elaine Inescourt, who was of German and Polish descent. They married in 1899 but parted ways when their daughter was still a young child. While she lived in Britain, Inescort wrote for a newspaper in London"
"Mary Chase (playwright) Mary Coyle Chase (born Mary Agnes McDonough Coyle; 25 February 1906 – 20 October 1981) was an American journalist, playwright and children's novelist, known primarily for writing the Broadway play ""Harvey"", later adapted for film starring James Stewart. She wrote fourteen plays, two children's novels, and one screenplay, and worked seven years at the ""Rocky Mountain News"" as a journalist. Three of her plays were made into Hollywood films: ""Sorority House"" (1939), ""Harvey"" (1950), and ""Bernardine"" (1957). Born Mary Agnes McDonough Coyle in Denver, Colorado in 1906, Chase remained in Denver her entire life. She grew up"
"haunt one's memory ..."" Cather scholar Bernice Slote, writing of Cather's commentary in the 1960s, opined that ""Although he was able to write good plays, Henry Guy Carleton had only moderate success in New York, and mostly with ""The Butterflies"" (1894)."" ""A Gilded Fool"" was adapted into a silent film in 1915. Henry Guy Carleton Henry Guy Carleton (June 21, 1851 – December 10, 1910) was an American humorist, playwright, and journalist. He was best known for his comedic plays ""A Gilded Fool"" (1892) and ""The Butterflies"" (1894). Carleton was born at Fort Union, New Mexico on June 21, 1851"
"Henry Pottinger Stephens Henry Pottinger Stephens, also known as Henry Beauchamp (1851 – 11 February 1903), was an English dramatist and journalist. After beginning his career writing for newspapers, Stephens began writing Victorian burlesques in the 1870s in collaboration with F. C. Burnand and the composer Edward Solomon. Stephens and Solomon wrote several comic operas together that briefly rivalled the Savoy Operas in popular esteem, including ""Billee Taylor"" (1880) and ""Claude Duval"" (1881). He also collaborated with Meyer Lutz at the Gaiety Theatre on burlesques including ""Little Jack Sheppard"" (1885). He worked again with Solomon on one of the first"
"Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a Nobel Prize-winning British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include ""The Birthday Party"" (1957), ""The Homecoming"" (1964), and ""Betrayal"" (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include ""The Servant"" (1963), ""The Go-Between"" (1971), ""The French Lieutenant's Woman"" (1981), ""The Trial"" (1993), and ""Sleuth"" (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and"
"both London and America caused a great demand for new Coward plays. In 1925 he premiered ""Fallen Angels"", a three-act comedy that amused and shocked audiences with the spectacle of two middle-aged women slowly getting drunk while awaiting the arrival of their mutual lover. ""Hay Fever"", the first of Coward's plays to gain an enduring place in the mainstream theatrical repertoire, also appeared in 1925. It is a comedy about four egocentric members of an artistic family who casually invite acquaintances to their country house for the weekend and bemuse and enrage each other's guests. Some writers have seen elements"
"of his own I can’t let anyone else at it."" Hayes co-wrote with his wife both the original novel (1956) and screenplay for the Walt Disney movie ""Bon Voyage!"" in 1962. Hayes also wrote his final Broadway play, ""Calculated Risk"" in 1962. Among his other novels are ""The Hours After Midnight"", ""Don't Go Away Mad, The Third Day, The Deep End, Like Any Other Fugitive, The Long Dark Night, Missing and Presumed Dead, Island on Fire, Winner's Circle, No Escape,"" and ""The Ways of Darkness."" Among his other plays are ""The Happiest Millionaire, The Midnight Sun, The Deep End, Is"
"Blanche Sweet, the novel ""Purple and Fine Linen"" as ""Three Hours"" (1927) starring Corinne Griffith, and later as ""Adventure in Manhattan"" (1936) starring Jean Arthur, and ""The Joy Girl"", adapted as ""The Joy Girl"" (1927) starring Olive Borden. Her two plays, co-written with Rudolf Besier, were ""Secrets"" (1922) and ""The Prude's Fall"" (1920). Both were later filmed, the first of them twice: ""Secrets"" (1924) with Norma Talmadge and Secrets (1933) with Mary Pickford. ""The Prude's Fall"" appeared as ""Dangerous Virtue"" (1924), directed by Graham Cutts, art direction by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Jane Novak and Julanne Johnston. Her work was translated"
"the dichotomy between rich and poor in the world take hold in the characters presented in his plays. ""Aunt Dan and Lemon"" earned Shawn his second Obie Award for excellence in playwrighting in 1986, and ""The Fever"" won Best American Play in 1991. Shawn's four plays have been adapted into films: ""The Designated Mourner"" (basically a film version of David Hare's stage production), ""Marie and Bruce"", ""My Dinner with Andre"" and ""The Fever"". Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave stars in ""The Fever"" (2004), which first aired on HBO on June 13, 2007. Shawn has also written political commentary for ""The Nation"","
"Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (30 October 17517 July 1816) was an Irish satirist, a playwright, poet, and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He is known for his plays such as ""The Rivals"", ""The School for Scandal"", ""The Duenna"", and ""A Trip to Scarborough"". He was also a Whig MP for 32 years in the British House of Commons for Stafford (1780–1806), Westminster (1806–1807), and Ilchester (1807–1812). He is buried at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. His plays remain a central part of the canon and are regularly performed worldwide. RB Sheridan was born"
"Lilies (play) Lilies () is a play written by Quebec playwright Michel Marc Bouchard, which premiered in 1987. The play concerns the confession of an aging prisoner to a bishop. Through the confession, and the staged scenes acted out by the male prisoners in the prison chapel, we learn that the bishop and the prisoner were part of a gay love triangle, and that the bishop was responsible for the death of a young man many years ago. The play's English translation by Linda Gaboriau was published in 1991, and was made into a film called ""Lilies"", which was directed"
"Henry Guy Carleton Henry Guy Carleton (June 21, 1851 – December 10, 1910) was an American humorist, playwright, and journalist. He was best known for his comedic plays ""A Gilded Fool"" (1892) and ""The Butterflies"" (1894). Carleton was born at Fort Union, New Mexico on June 21, 1851 (or 1856), the son of General James H. Carleton. He graduated from Santa Clara College and briefly served in the army during the Indian Wars of the 1870s before going to work for the New Orleans ""Times"" in 1876. He later spent time in Chicago, and then went to New York and"
"Laurence Olivier's ""Henry V"" (1944) and ""London Belongs to Me"" (1948). Ivy St. Helier Ivy Janet Aitchison (1886, Saint Helier, Jersey – 8 November 1971, London, England) better known as Ivy St. Helier was a British stage actress, composer and lyricist. On the stage, St. Helier played Manon la Crevette in the original production of Noël Coward's operetta ""Bitter Sweet"" (1929), a role she reprised in the 1933 film version. She also starred in Coward's revue ""Words and Music"". As a lyricist, she wrote additional songs for ""The Street Singer"", and for ""The Blue Train"", the London musical by Reginald"
"Fair and Warmer Fair and Warmer is a three-act comedy play by the American writer Avery Hopwood. It was first staged at the Eltinge Theatre in New York City on November 15, 1915, running for 377 performances, featuring Madge Kennedy, John Cumberland, Janet Beecher, Ralph Morgan, Hamilton Revelle, Olive May, Robert Fisher and Harry Lorraine. Staged by Robert Milton, it was well received by critics. It is a farce about a mild-mannered banker who becomes embroiled in an innocent scheme to rekindle the romance in his marriage using his best friend's wife. Friends Laura Bartlett and Jack Wheeler enjoy going"
"Fair and Warmer Fair and Warmer is a three-act comedy play by the American writer Avery Hopwood. It was first staged at the Eltinge Theatre in New York City on November 15, 1915, running for 377 performances, featuring Madge Kennedy, John Cumberland, Janet Beecher, Ralph Morgan, Hamilton Revelle, Olive May, Robert Fisher and Harry Lorraine. Staged by Robert Milton, it was well received by critics. It is a farce about a mild-mannered banker who becomes embroiled in an innocent scheme to rekindle the romance in his marriage using his best friend's wife. Friends Laura Bartlett and Jack Wheeler enjoy going"
"Maurier), ""Fame"" (1929), ""Q"", ""Late One Evening"", ""Gay Love"", ""Destination Unknown"", ""Strawberry Leaves"" and two adaptations, ""Mademoiselle"" and ""My Crime"". Beginning of the 1930s, Audrey Carten continued to write alone. In 1932 Waveney Carten married Vladimir Provatoroff. Waveney Bicker Caarten Waveney Hare Bicker-Caarten (1902-1990) was an English playwright writing under the name of Waveney Carten in collaboration with her sister, Audrey Carten. Waveney Hare Bicker-Caarten was born in 1902 into a middle-class family in Blomfield Road, Maida Vale, London, the daughter of Catherine and Edwin Hare Bicker-Caarten. Among her siblings: Audrey Carten (1900-1977) and Kenneth Bicker Caarten (1911-1980). At the"
"Tomson Highway Tomson Highway, CM (born 6 December 1951) is an Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is best known for his plays ""The Rez Sisters"" and ""Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing"", both of which won him the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award. Highway has also published a novel, ""Kiss of the Fur Queen"" (1998), which is based on the events that led to his brother René Highway’s death of AIDS. He also has the distinction of being the librettist of the first Cree language opera, ""The Journey or Pimooteewin"". Tomson Highway"
"The Winter's Tale The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics consider it to be one of Shakespeare's ""problem plays"" because the first three acts are filled with intense psychological drama, while the last two acts are comedic and supply a happy ending. The play has been intermittently popular, revived in productions in various forms and adaptations by some of the leading theatre practitioners in Shakespearean performance history, beginning"
"and ran for 155 performances in the West End. Frederick Lonsdale Frederick Lonsdale (5 February 1881 – 4 April 1954) was an English playwright known for his librettos to several successful musicals early in the 20th century, including ""King of Cadonia"" (1908), ""The Balkan Princess"" (1910), ""Betty"" (1915), ""The Maid of the Mountains"" (1917), ""Monsieur Beaucaire"" (1919) and ""Madame Pompadour"" (1923). He also wrote comedy plays, including ""The Last of Mrs. Cheyney"" (1925) and ""On Approval"" (1927) and the murder melodrama ""But for the Grace of God"" (1946). Some of his plays and musicals were made into films, and he"