A prolific British playwright, songwriter and performer, whose work reflects both an acidic modern cynicism and a sentimental longing for his Edwardian childhood, the London-bred Noel Coward began acting as a child and was touring with road shows by his mid-teens. His first writing efforts included several minor comedies and revues, but fame (and notoriety) came in 1925, when Coward wrote and starred in "The Vortex", a scandalous drama about a young drug addict and his sexually voracious mother.

For the next forty years, Coward turned out play after play, many of them gems. His best-remembered