Suite in Three Keys review – Noël Coward hotel trilogy stares stylishly into the abyss
Tara Fitzgerald, Emma Fielding and Stephen Boxer deftly juggle roles in this marathon of marital malaise
March 2024
In brief: Four Shots in the Night; The Kellerby Code; Masquerade – review
The gripping real-life story of the murder of a spy; a funny and chilling debut in hock to the Ripley books; and the definitive biography of Noël Coward
June 2023
Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward story review – fascinating portrait of a 20th-century great
Barnaby Thompson’s well-researched documentary highlights the contradictions of the sparkling playwright’s life
May 2023
Mad About the Boy - The Noël Coward Story review – brisk trot through life and career
Speeding through Coward’s journey from humble origins to all-round megastardom, we don’t get to engage with his complex private life
The week in theatre: August in England; Blue Now; The Vortex – review
Lenny Henry draws his audience deep into the life – and its shattering – of a Windrush evictee; Derek Jarman’s final film is reverentially revisited; and Lia Williams and son ignite Noël Coward at his darkest
The Vortex review – Noël Coward’s swirling jazz age psychodrama
Lia Williams and her son Joshua James make a scintillating double act in a resonant revival of the 1924 hit
April 2023
The week in theatre: Dancing at Lughnasa; Private Lives – review
Private Lives review – Coward’s comedy becomes a stark theatre of cruelty
March 2023
Noël Coward was not just an amiable jester but a scathing social satirist
Michael Billington
Observer book of the week
Masquerade: The Lives of Noël Coward by Oliver Soden review – the man in the ironic mask
October 2022
‘I totally fondled her Oscar!’: Jemima Rooper on larking around with Angela Lansbury
In 2014 the legendary US grande dame – who died this month – returned to the theatre in Blithe Spirit. Her co-star remembers their Christmas together and getting the giggles on stage
May 2022
Revealed: Noël Coward’s unseen plays aimed to deal with homosexuality
Playwright planned scenes on same-sex relationship at a time when it was illegal and British theatres faced strict censorship
March 2022
Blithe Spirit review – drag take on Nöel Coward farce is good camp fun
Courtney Act plays a dead wife summoned to her husband’s dinner party with great melodrama, while the supporting cast land the biggest laughs
October 2021
Brief Encounter review – sparkling revival of Emma Rice’s forbidden romance
This polished production brings Rice’s innovative adaptation of the classic film to life, with an electric central partnership and personality to spare
September 2021
Blithe Spirit review – even Jennifer Saunders can’t save this deadly revival
From Mansfield Park to Mojo: why Harold Pinter’s acting deserves to be celebrated
June 2021
Notebook
No one got Angela Carter like Corinna Sargood
Susannah Clapp
The illustrator’s vivid depictions of her annual visits to Mexico reveal why she was the author’s kindred spirit
January 2021
Blithe Spirit review – unhappy reimagining of Coward's classic
Not even Judi Dench can save this feeble remake of the playwright’s 1941 comedy
Blithe Spirit review – Judi Dench presides over a deathly farce
Dan Stevens, Leslie Mann and Isla Fisher mug spiritedly but there is little life in this unfunny Noël Coward adaptation
That's the spirit! Judi Dench reveals how a clairvoyant chose her name
The Oscar-winning star, who plays the eccentric Madame Arcati in a new film of Blithe Spirit, says her name was revealed to her parents by a famous 1930s medium
