Background
Noël Coward (1899-1973) was an English playwright and actor who achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more
than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, 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,
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, as well as those of others.