[.ca] At Las Vegas

THE FIRST NOEL ... ALWAYS AND EVER!:
Celebrating Noel all year 'round? We can here the skeptics grumbling "Bah, humbug!" Yet pour the champagne and pop open the caviar because the best of Noel --- Noel Coward that is --- has finally made it to CD. DRG Records has given Cowardophiles a most welcome gift: the 1955 Noel Coward at Las Vegas, and the 1957 follow-up recording, Noel Coward in New York. One listen and you'll understand why playwright Terence Rattigan was hardly cowardly when he said: "Noel Coward is simply a phenomenon --- and one that is unlikely to occur ever again in theatre history." To be sure, Coward is more than a performer. He is also an important composer and lyricist; for the stage, he has created brilliant and absorbing comedies (Private Lives, Hay Fever), musicals (Calvacade, Bittersweet) and dramas (The Vortex, This Was a Man). He has also written a vast number of short stories, a novel, a few TV shows, even a ballet. He was an intimate of everyone worth knowing --- from Churchill to Kennedy, from Dietrich to Garland, from Maugham to Chaplin. For more than five decades, Coward consistently recreated his cool, British persona into an au courant, up-to-the minute, infinitely successful show-biz mogul. And it must be noted that he did this all by himself, with no handlers, no press agents or lawyers or managers to aid, help or protect. The Las Vegas show, recorded live, is an astounding accomplishment considering the conservatism and blandness of the Eisenhower era. The songs span the decades from the '20s ("Dance, Little Lady") to material written just for Vegas, like the incomparable "Nina," about the only Argentinean lady who refuses to dance. One of the more remarkable things about this recording, however, is the manner in which the audience feasts on each and every morsel the performer sets before them. Shrieks of laughter and deafening applause greet each song and comment. The art of the cabaret performer has fallen into deep decline and of this art Coward is undoubtedly the master, but the audience of almost 50 years ago seems infinitely hipper, faster and more intelligent than those hordes that drag themselves slovenly to theaters, nightclubs and concert halls of today ... with forced-fed reminders to 'please silence all cell phones and pagers' --- and then still hearing them go off. The New York gem is a studio recording, and, although lacking the spontaneity of a live audience, it presents Coward with a greater variety of his material, brilliantly performed. From the faux sophistication of "Marvelous Party" to the hysterical paean to show-biz angst "Why Must the Show Go On?," the wit and wonder of his words are, as always, extraordinary to behold. But in the bittersweet "Sail Away" and the haunting "Twentieth Century Blues," Coward's true power, not only as a brilliant composer/lyricist but also as the best interpreter of his own material, shines dazzlingly. Coward died at his beloved Jamaican estate in 1973. He was 74. All these years later, he remains, as his good friend Dietrich referred to him, "a master." If we can't experience the likes of him today --- sorry Bobby, but even you fall Short --- at least we have these new CDs presenting him at his best ... now every day can seem like Christmas with some Noel to share.

• Noel Coward Medley: I'll See You Again/Dance, Little Lady/Poor ...
• Uncle Harry
• Loch Lomond
• Bar on the Piccola Marina
• World Weary
• Nina/Begin the Beguine
• Mad Dogs and Englishmen
• Matelot
• Alice Is at It Again
• Room With a View
• Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)
• Party's Over Now