Search - Noel Coward, Scottish Traditional, Cole Porter :: Noel Coward at Las Vegas

Sir Noel, A Delight, Arch, Campy, and Hilarious

John F. Rooney | 03/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Here are twenty-nine songs written and sung by Noel Coward--the sophisticated, urbane, brittle, witty, and arch performer who charmed his listeners with his great sense of humor, his upper-crust vowels, his frequently trilled r's, and his perfect enunciation. Partly a product of the British music hall tradition, he became a darling of the West End theater with his plays in the twenties, thirties, and early forties.

This CD captures his cabaret act in Las Vegas in 1955 with a live audience, and the second half was recorded in a New York studio in 1956. Mainly we are entertained by his hilarious, campy numbers like "Let's Do It" or "A Bar on the Piccola Marina", but there are tender ballads like "Sail Away" and "Time and Again." Some of his songs resemble patter songs.

This recording originally on LP was a rite of passage performance for some gays. Underneath his ironic and witty lyrics we can find a certain amount of social commentary. We haven't had as brilliant or as original a performer as Sir Noel Coward since his passing. His influence on a whole generation of movie actors was enormous. Cary Grant, James Mason, Laurence Olivier, Rex Harrison, and Anthony Hopkins owe some of their actorly personas to him.

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