Noel Coward's "Present Laughter"

[Cooper]

Noel Coward's play "Present Laughter" was written in 1939. It's light comedy about the life of a successful and self obsessed middle age actor played by Kevin Kline who's preparing for a trip to Africa. It covers the few days before his trip and all the craziness of women, fans, and staff in his life. Btw, many want to seduce him.

 

Along with the very talented Kevin Kline, other cast members include his estranged wife played by Kate Burton (Richard Burton's daughter), and his personal secretary Monica played by Kristine Nielsen.

 

I enjoyed it. Found the plot funny and entertaining.

 

http://www.newyorktheatreguide.com/images/flyers/presentlaughter10nov2016w350h250.jpg

[foxy]

I first saw Kevin Kline in the original production of On The 20th Century in 1978 which had an incredible cast. The late great Madeline Kahn and Imogene Coca as the crazy rich lady. At the time Kline was dating Gilda Radner. Just before the curtain went up on the first act and the lights were starting to dim Gilda slid into the seat next to me. She was a pretty big deal on Saturday Night Live at the time. During intermission as the lights were coming back on and everyone was applauding I looked in her direction and had I think a "wasn't that good" smile on my face. She gave me a frozen look that stopped any further interaction. I learned later she did not like to be recognized in public but also got upset if she wasn't. A complicated woman.

Later saw Kline in the Pirates of Pnzance in 1981 with Linda Ronstadt. A terrific production. After all these years he hasn't lost his charm or timing.

[actor61]

Present Laughter is my favorite Coward play, although it's one of his lesser produced. Underneath its very obvious cleverness is a little melancholy. Essendine (the character Kline plays) seems to have it all, and yet there's a feeling that he's still kind of lonely, afraid of aging, and maybe even bored in spite of all the hysteria surrounding him. It is a very, very smart play. I saw Donald Sinden do it in London in the 1970s, and then a very good production in New York with Victor Garber. Design for Living I think is Coward's most perfectly executed play, and Hay Fever is by far his funniest, but Present Laughter is his most subversively emotional.

 

I'm a Coward fan. Can you tell?

[+ beethoven]

One vote here for Private Lives as Noel Coward's funniest. I once saw Hay Fever in London, and loved it. I'm seeing Present Laughter later this week; I saw Frank Langella in it on Broadway some years ago. Delightful!

Thanks for your views on Present Laughter.

[actor61]

One vote here for Private Lives as Noel Coward's funniest. I once saw Hay Fever in London, and loved it. I'm seeing Present Laughter later this week; I saw Frank Langella in it on Broadway some years ago. Delightful!

Thanks for your views on Present Laughter.

I didn't mention Private Lives because it is his best known and most often produced work and undoubtedly his masterpiece. I put Present Laughter right up there with it but I think it's an even more complex and profound piece than Lives. If you look at both plays, their seriousness is very surprising. Coward had some very pescient things to say about relationships and how people treat each other and most of the things he had to say - very funnily - were rather bitter and tremendously honest. People criticize him for portraying only the "upper crust" in his comedies but look at Brief Encounter, Fumed Oak, In Which We Serve which deal with so called ordinary people and their lives. They are beautifully drawn portraits of people trying to behave well and not always succeeding.

 

I'm a great admirer of Terence Rattigan's plays as well for many of the same reasons. He and Coward were both homosexuals working at a time when that could be dangerous and so had to frame their views within straight marriages and relationships but they were wondrously subversive in discussing important topics. In Rattigan's best known play, Separate Tables, its principal male is a sexual predator. In Private Lives, Amanda and Elliot are verbally and physically abusive. The Bliss family in Hay Fever is monstrous on every level.

 

It's great stuff.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Kline rarely does wrong. While I'm not scheduled to see this until mid-May, it's great seeing him back onstage.

[BasketBaller]

I'm very fond of Present Laughter. A favorite exchange--

 

Morris: I'll never speak to you again until the day I die!

Gary: Well, we can have a nice little chat then, can't we?

[+ WilliamM]

Noel Coward also had a successful nightclub career in the 1950s. The entire Noel Coward in Las Vegas album is available on YouTube. Noel and Mary Martin performed in a 90-minute TV special on CBS titled "Together with Music" in the late 1950s.

 

Carnegie Hall presented a two-week revival of Coward's musical "Sail Away" with the original star Elaine Stritch to celebrate what would have been Noel Coward 100th birthday in December 1999. I night I saw the musical Stritch talked about Noel Coward after the performance saying, "And Noel thought he would be forgotten after he died...."

 

I believe all of Noel Coward's TV appearances are available at the Paley Centers in New York and Beverly Hills. A great man.

[+ beethoven]

I saw "Present Laughter" last night, and LOVED it! I certainly agree with Actor61 about Garry Essendine's underlying loneliness and boredom. One of the characters says that she feels like she's in a French farce, and there were most definitely farcical aspects -- hilarious! -- in the staging. Kevin Kline will certainly be nominated for a Tony, and he deserves to win.

The St. James is really a theater for musicals ("Oklahoma!"), but my seat in the rear orchestra was just fine, as were the sight lines -- always a source of anxiety for me in a old theater like this one. I haven't been to the St. James in years, so -- unlike Eliza Doolittle -- I can't call it the St. Jim.

[Cooper]

I'm very fond of Present Laughter. A favorite exchange--

 

Morris: I'll never speak to you again until the day I die!

Gary: Well, we can have a nice little chat then, can't we?

 

Oh, yes, a very funny exchange.

 

What impressed me about this play was how Noel Coward could creatively take something as simple as a handshake & make it funny over & over. That heavy handshake must have taken place a dozen times & every time it still got a laugh.

 

Also, every time Kline's character passed the mirror & he would comb his hair, no words were necessary, he pulled it off just with his jestures. Very funny routines that still work today.

[+ beethoven]

Yes, fixing Kevin Kline's hair and the "heavy" handshake were very funny. But are you sure that these were written by Noel Coward and not inserted by the director? I don't know; just asking.

[Cooper]

But are you sure that these were written by Noel Coward and not inserted by the director? I don't know; just asking.

 

Not having seen this play before, I can't answer your question. Coward did star as Garry Essendine in Present Laughter during the original run. I'd think, if the director did "insert" any changes, it would have to have met with Coward's approval. Either way, it was still a very funny routine.