Tonight at 8:30
Encyclopedia
Tonight at 8.30 is a cycle of ten one-act plays by Noël Coward
. In the introduction to a published edition of the plays, Coward wrote, "A short play, having a great advantage over a long one in that it can sustain a mood without technical creaking or over padding, deserves a better fate, and if, by careful writing, acting and producing I can do a little towards reinstating it in its rightful pride, I shall have achieved one of my more sentimental ambitions."
Tonight at 8.30 was first produced in 1935 in Manchester
and on tour and 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
.
Bitter Sweet
(1929) and the extravaganza Cavalcade
(1931), requiring a large cast, gargantuan sets and a complex hydraulic stage, to the intimate comedies Private Lives
(1930), in which Coward starred alongside Gertrude Lawrence
, and Design for Living
(1932). Coward said that after Private Lives, he felt that the public enjoyed seeing him and Lawrence together on stage, and so he wrote them as "acting, singing, and dancing vehicles for Gertrude Lawrence and myself".
Four of the plays in the cycle "break into spontaneous song... in the most unexpected places". The songs from Tonight at 8.30 are as follows:
, Red Peppers
, Hands Across the Sea
, Fumed Oak
and Shadow Play) were first presented at the Opera House, Manchester, beginning on 15 October 1935. A seventh play, Family Album, was added on the subsequent nine-week provincial tour. The final three were added for the London run: Ways and Means
, Still Life
(later expanded into the film Brief Encounter
) and Star Chamber
, which was performed only once.
In a programme essay, Coward praised the one-act play, hoping that the short plays in the cycle would well exploit the unique ability of the form to create and sustain moods. The styles and subject matter range from broad farce to intricate comedies of manners to melodrama to romance, giving Coward a chance to show off his range as a playwright and actor. Some of the plays, such as Hands Across The Sea, were typical of Coward's familiar style of well-made comedies about the insiders and outsiders in society. Fumed Oak and Still Life were darker comedies. Perhaps the most popular play in the cycle was Red Peppers, and affectionate satire of vaudeville
. Each group of three plays created an overall effect that demonstrated Coward's range of characters and techniques.
The first London performance was on 9 January 1936 at the Phoenix Theatre
. Matinées were sometimes billed as Today at 2.30. The Broadway
openings for the three parts took place on 24 November 1936, 27 November 1936 and 30 November 1936, again starring Coward and Lawrence. Star Chamber was not included. Coward directed all ten pieces in Tonight at 8.30, and each starred Coward and Gertrude Lawrence
in the original British and New York productions. The London and New York runs were limited only by Coward's boredom at long engagements.
Major productions of parts of the cycle included Broadway revivals in 1948 (Red Peppers, Hands Across the Sea, Fumed Oak, Family Album, Shadow Play, and Ways and Means, starring Gertrude Lawrence
and Graham Payn
) and 1967 (Fumed Oak, Still Life and Ways and Means), 1981 at the Lyric Theatre
in London (Shadow Play, Hands Across the Sea and Red Peppers), starring John Standing
and Estelle Kohler
and at the Chichester Festival in 2006 (Shadow Play, Hands Across the Sea, Red Peppers, Family Album, Fumed Oak and The Astonished Heart). In 1971, the Shaw Festival
revived We Were Dancing, Family Album and Shadow Play, and in 2000, the Williamstown Theatre Festival revived We Were Dancing, Family Album, Hands Across the Sea (all starring Blythe Danner
), Red Peppers, Shadow Play and Star Chamber. The Antaeus Company in Los Angeles revived all ten plays in October 2007, as did the Shaw Festival in 2009.
In 1991, BBC
television mounted productions of the individual plays with Joan Collins
taking the Lawrence roles. The sheer expense involved in mounting what are effectively ten different productions has usually deterred revivals of the entire Tonight at 8.30 cycle, but the constituent plays can often be seen individually or in sets of three.
. It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard
. The film starred Norma Shearer
and Melvyn Douglas
, and also featured Florence Shirley
, Lee Bowman
and Lenore J. Coffee
. Coward adapted Still Life for the screen as Brief Encounter
in 1945. The film was remade in 1974 starring Richard Burton
and Sophia Loren
. In May 2009, Houston Grand Opera
premiered an opera in two acts based on Brief Encounter, with music by André Previn
from a libretto by John Caird
. For a 1952 film Meet Me Tonight
, directed by Anthony Pelissier
, Coward adapted Ways and Means, Red Peppers and Fumed Oak (called Tonight at 8:30 in the U.S.) Coward himself played Christian Faber in a 1950 film of The Astonished Heart (also starring Celia Johnson
and Margaret Leighton).
In addition to the 1991 BBC series, television adaptations of Red Peppers were released in 1937, 1938, 1958 and 1969. Still Life was given a television production in 1951. The NBC
-TV anthology series Producers' Showcase
debuted on October 18, 1954 with Shadow Play, Still Life and Red Peppers, produced and directed Otto Preminger
, starring Ginger Rogers
in all three; Martyn Green
also starred in Red Peppers. Hands Across the Sea was adapted for television in 1938.
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
. In the introduction to a published edition of the plays, Coward wrote, "A short play, having a great advantage over a long one in that it can sustain a mood without technical creaking or over padding, deserves a better fate, and if, by careful writing, acting and producing I can do a little towards reinstating it in its rightful pride, I shall have achieved one of my more sentimental ambitions."
Tonight at 8.30 was first produced in 1935 in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and on tour and 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
Shaw Festival
The Shaw Festival is a major Canadian theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, the second largest repertory theatre company in North America...
.
Background
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Coward wrote a succession of popular hits, ranging from the operettaOperetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
Bitter Sweet
Bitter Sweet
Bitter Sweet is an operetta in three acts written by Noël Coward and first produced in 1929 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. It ran for a very successful 967 performances....
(1929) and the extravaganza Cavalcade
Cavalcade (play)
Cavalcade is a play by Noël Coward. It focuses on three decades in the life of the Marryotts, a quintessential British family, and their servants, beginning at the start of the 20th century and ending on New Year's Eve in 1929....
(1931), requiring a large cast, gargantuan sets and a complex hydraulic stage, to the intimate comedies Private Lives
Private Lives
Private Lives is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It focuses on a divorced couple who discover that they are honeymooning with their new spouses in neighbouring rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetually stormy relationship, they realise that they still have feelings for...
(1930), in which Coward starred alongside Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
, and Design for Living
Design for Living
Design for Living is a comedy play written by Noël Coward in 1932. It concerns a trio of artistic characters, Gilda, Otto and Leo, and their complicated three-way relationship. Originally written to star Lynn Fontanne, Alfred Lunt and Coward, it was premiered on Broadway, partly because its risqué...
(1932). Coward said that after Private Lives, he felt that the public enjoyed seeing him and Lawrence together on stage, and so he wrote them as "acting, singing, and dancing vehicles for Gertrude Lawrence and myself".
Four of the plays in the cycle "break into spontaneous song... in the most unexpected places". The songs from Tonight at 8.30 are as follows:
- "We Were Dancing", from We Were DancingWe Were DancingWe Were Dancing is a short play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed in alternating groups of three plays, across three evenings...
- "Has Anybody Seen our Ship?" and "Men About Town" from Red PeppersRed PeppersRed Peppers is a short comic play by Noël Coward, one of the ten plays that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings...
- "Then", "Play, Orchestra, Play" and "You Were There" from Shadow PlayShadow Play (play)Shadow Play is a short play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings...
- "Drinking Song", "Princes and Princesses", "Music Box" and "Hearts and Flowers" from Family AlbumFamily Album (play)Family Album is a short play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings...
Productions
Six of the plays (We Were Dancing, The Astonished HeartThe Astonished Heart
The Astonished Heart is a short play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings. The play, described at its first production as "a tragedy in six scenes", is told through a series of flashbacks in reverse order...
, Red Peppers
Red Peppers
Red Peppers is a short comic play by Noël Coward, one of the ten plays that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings...
, Hands Across the Sea
Hands Across the Sea (play)
Hands Across the Sea is a short comic play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings...
, Fumed Oak
Fumed Oak
Fumed Oak is a short play in two scenes by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings. Coward billed the work as an "unpleasant comedy in two scenes"...
and Shadow Play) were first presented at the Opera House, Manchester, beginning on 15 October 1935. A seventh play, Family Album, was added on the subsequent nine-week provincial tour. The final three were added for the London run: Ways and Means
Ways and Means (play)
Ways and Means is a short comic play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings. The story concerns an heiress and her gambling husband, who are plagued by debt and embarrassment as everything seems to always go wrong for them...
, Still Life
Still Life (play)
Still Life is a short play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings. The play depicts the love affair of Alec and Laura across a twelve-month period...
(later expanded into the film Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter is a 1945 British film directed by David Lean about the conventions of British suburban life, centring on a housewife for whom real love brings unexpectedly violent emotions. The film stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey...
) and Star Chamber
Star Chamber (play)
Star Chamber is a one act play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed in alternating groups of three plays, across three evenings...
, which was performed only once.
In a programme essay, Coward praised the one-act play, hoping that the short plays in the cycle would well exploit the unique ability of the form to create and sustain moods. The styles and subject matter range from broad farce to intricate comedies of manners to melodrama to romance, giving Coward a chance to show off his range as a playwright and actor. Some of the plays, such as Hands Across The Sea, were typical of Coward's familiar style of well-made comedies about the insiders and outsiders in society. Fumed Oak and Still Life were darker comedies. Perhaps the most popular play in the cycle was Red Peppers, and affectionate satire of vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
. Each group of three plays created an overall effect that demonstrated Coward's range of characters and techniques.
The first London performance was on 9 January 1936 at the Phoenix Theatre
Phoenix Theatre (London)
The Phoenix Theatre is a West End theatre in the London Borough of Camden, located on Charing Cross Road . The entrance is in Phoenix Street....
. Matinées were sometimes billed as Today at 2.30. The Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
openings for the three parts took place on 24 November 1936, 27 November 1936 and 30 November 1936, again starring Coward and Lawrence. Star Chamber was not included. Coward directed all ten pieces in Tonight at 8.30, and each starred Coward and Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
in the original British and New York productions. The London and New York runs were limited only by Coward's boredom at long engagements.
Major productions of parts of the cycle included Broadway revivals in 1948 (Red Peppers, Hands Across the Sea, Fumed Oak, Family Album, Shadow Play, and Ways and Means, starring Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
and Graham Payn
Graham Payn
Graham Payn was a South African-born English actor and singer, also known for being the life partner of the playwright Noël Coward. Beginning as a boy soprano, Payn later made a career as a singer and actor in the works of Coward and others...
) and 1967 (Fumed Oak, Still Life and Ways and Means), 1981 at the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
in London (Shadow Play, Hands Across the Sea and Red Peppers), starring John Standing
John Standing
Sir John Ronald Leon Standing, 4th Baronet is an English actor.-Early life:Standing was born John Ronald Leon in London, the son of Kay Hammond , an actress, and Sir Ronald George Leon, a stockbroker...
and Estelle Kohler
Estelle Kohler
Estelle Kohler is a British theatre and television actress. Born in South Africa, Kohler made a name for herself as a Shakespearean actor in England...
and at the Chichester Festival in 2006 (Shadow Play, Hands Across the Sea, Red Peppers, Family Album, Fumed Oak and The Astonished Heart). In 1971, the Shaw Festival
Shaw Festival
The Shaw Festival is a major Canadian theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, the second largest repertory theatre company in North America...
revived We Were Dancing, Family Album and Shadow Play, and in 2000, the Williamstown Theatre Festival revived We Were Dancing, Family Album, Hands Across the Sea (all starring Blythe Danner
Blythe Danner
Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...
), Red Peppers, Shadow Play and Star Chamber. The Antaeus Company in Los Angeles revived all ten plays in October 2007, as did the Shaw Festival in 2009.
In 1991, BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television mounted productions of the individual plays with Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
taking the Lawrence roles. The sheer expense involved in mounting what are effectively ten different productions has usually deterred revivals of the entire Tonight at 8.30 cycle, but the constituent plays can often be seen individually or in sets of three.
Adaptations
Several films have been based on the plays. We Were Dancing was broadly adapted as a film of the same name in 1942, with a screenplay by Claudine West, Hans Rameau and George FroeschelGeorge Froeschel
Georg "George" Froeschel was an Austrian screenwriter best known for Mrs. Miniver, Quentin Durward, and The Story of Three Loves, while working for MGM in the 1940s and 1950s. Before working in film he was a lawyer and journalist.-Biography:Georg Froeschel was born in 1891, the son of a Jewish...
. It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard
Robert Z. Leonard
Robert Zigler Leonard was an American film director, actor, producer and screenwriter.He was born in Chicago, Illinois...
. The film starred Norma Shearer
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...
and Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...
, and also featured Florence Shirley
Florence Shirley
Florence Shirley was an American stage and film actress.Shirley began her stage career in Boston and enjoyed moderate success on Broadway. After the sinking of in April 1912, she participated in a benefit concert for survivors held at the George M. Cohan Theatre...
, Lee Bowman
Lee Bowman
Lee Bowman was an American film and television actor.Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Bowman graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1936 and began his film career playing a bit part in Swing High, Swing Low .His many film appearances include A Man to Remember , Love Affair , Third...
and Lenore J. Coffee
Lenore J. Coffee
Lenore Jackson Coffee was an American screenwriter, playwright and novelist.-Biography:...
. Coward adapted Still Life for the screen as Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter is a 1945 British film directed by David Lean about the conventions of British suburban life, centring on a housewife for whom real love brings unexpectedly violent emotions. The film stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey...
in 1945. The film was remade in 1974 starring Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
and Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
. In May 2009, Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
premiered an opera in two acts based on Brief Encounter, with music by André Previn
André Previn
André George Previn, KBE is an American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world, and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings. -Early Life:Previn was born in...
from a libretto by John Caird
John Caird (director)
John Newport Caird is a British stage director and writer of plays, musicals and operas. He is an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a regular director with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and the Principal Guest Director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre,...
. For a 1952 film Meet Me Tonight
Meet Me Tonight
Meet me Tonight is a 1952 omnibus British comedy film adapted from three one act plays by Noel Coward that are part of his Tonight at 8:30 play cycle...
, directed by Anthony Pelissier
Anthony Pelissier
Harry Anthony Compton Pelissier was an English actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Biography:Pelissier was born in Barnet and came from a theatrical family. His parents were the theatre producer H. G. Pelissier and the distinguished actress Fay Compton...
, Coward adapted Ways and Means, Red Peppers and Fumed Oak (called Tonight at 8:30 in the U.S.) Coward himself played Christian Faber in a 1950 film of The Astonished Heart (also starring Celia Johnson
Celia Johnson
Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson DBE was an English actress.She began her stage acting career in 1928, and subsequently achieved success in West End and Broadway productions. She also appeared in several films, including the romantic drama Brief Encounter , for which she received a nomination for the...
and Margaret Leighton).
In addition to the 1991 BBC series, television adaptations of Red Peppers were released in 1937, 1938, 1958 and 1969. Still Life was given a television production in 1951. The NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
-TV anthology series Producers' Showcase
Producers' Showcase
Producers' Showcase is an American anthology television series that was telecast live during the 1950s in compatible color by NBC. With top talent, the 90-minute episodes, covering a wide variety of genres, aired under the title every fourth Monday at 8 p.m. ET for three seasons, beginning October...
debuted on October 18, 1954 with Shadow Play, Still Life and Red Peppers, produced and directed Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
, starring Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
in all three; Martyn Green
Martyn Green
William Martyn-Green , better known as Martyn Green, was an English actor and singer. He is best known for his work as principal comedian in the Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas, which he performed and recorded with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and other troupes.After army service in World War I,...
also starred in Red Peppers. Hands Across the Sea was adapted for television in 1938.