Playbill for original production

Cavalcade is a play by Noël Coward with songs by Coward and others. It focuses on three decades in the life of the Marryots, an upper-middle-class British family, and their servants, beginning in 1900 and ending in 1930, a year before the premiere. It is set against major historical events of the period, including the Relief of Mafeking; the death of Queen Victoria; the sinking of the RMS Titanic; and the First World War. The popular songs at the time of each event were interwoven into the score.

The play was premiered in London in 1931 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, directed by the author. The spectacular production presented by the impresario Charles B. Cochran, involved a huge cast and massive sets. The play was very successful and ran for almost a year. It took advantage of the large stage of the Drury Lane Theatre with its hydraulics and moving components to dramatise the events.

Background and production

During the run of his successful comedy Private Lives in London in 1930, Coward discussed with the impresario C. B. Cochran the idea of a large, spectacular production to follow the intimate Private Lives. He considered the idea of an epic set in the French revolution, but in an old copy of the Illustrated London News he saw a photograph of a troopship leaving for the Boer War, which gave him the idea for the new play. He outlined his scenario to Cochran and asked him to secure the Coliseum, London's largest theatre. Cochran was unable to do so, but was able to book the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, which was not much smaller,^[1] provided Coward could guarantee an approximate opening date.^[2] Coward and his designer Gladys Calthrop inspected Drury Lane and found it adequate in terms of the size of its stage and its technical facilities, although two extra hydraulic lifts had to be installed for quick changes of scenery, and unlike the Coliseum it lacked the revolving stage Coward wanted.^[2][3] While Calthrop began designing hundreds of costumes and twenty-two sets, Coward worked on the script, which he completed in August 1931.^[4]

Rehearsals began the following month.^[5] With four hundred cast and crew members involved in the production, Coward divided the crowd into groups of twenty and assigned each a leader. Because remembering individual names would be impossible, everyone was given a colour and number for easy identification, thus allowing Coward to direct "Number 7 red" to cross downstage and shake hands with "Number 15 yellow and black". Extras were encouraged to create their own bits of stage business, as long as it did not draw attention from the main action of the scene.^[6]

Cavalcade premiered on 13 October 1931, starring Mary Clare and Edward Sinclair as the Marryot parents and featuring John Mills, Binnie Barnes, Una O'Connor, Moya Nugent, Arthur Macrae, Irene Browne and Maidie Andrews in supporting roles. Despite a brief delay caused by a mechanical problem early in the first act, the performance was a strong success, and the play went on to become one of the year's biggest West End hits, running for 405 performances. The play closed in September 1932.

Original cast

Crowds, Soldiers, Sailors, Guests, etc.

Synopsis

Revivals and adaptations

The play was first revived in the West End in 1966, at the Scala Theatre, with a cast of 96 drama students from the Rose Bruford College. The reviewer in The Times found Coward's work remained "dazzling and durable".^[7] The first professional revival was in 1981 at the Redgrave Theatre in Farnham in a production directed by David Horlock and with a cast of 12 professional actors and 300 amateur performers. That production was filmed by the BBC and shown in 1982 as a two-part documentary, Cavalcade – A Backstage Story.^[8] In 1995 a production starring Gabrielle Drake and Jeremy Clyde as Jane and Robert Maryott played at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London and on tour.^[9] The Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, presented the play in 1999, in a production by Philip Prowse.^[10]

A film adaptation in 1933 won three Academy Awards, including "Best Picture".^[11] C. A. Lejeune called it "the best British film that has ever been made", and expressed exasperation that British studios had not taken the play up instead of allowing it to go to Hollywood.^{[12][n 1]} Cavalcade was adapted for BBC radio by Val Gielgud and Felix Felton and broadcast three times in 1936.^[13] A 1970s television series, Upstairs, Downstairs, was to some extent based on the play.^[14]

Reception

Opening just before the British General Election, the play's strongly patriotic themes were credited by the Conservative Party for helping them secure a large percentage of the middle class votes, despite the fact Coward had conceived the project a full year before the election was held, and strenuously denied having any thought of influencing its outcome.^{[15][n 2]} King George V and Queen Mary attended the performance on election night and received Coward in the Royal Box during the second interval.^[17] In The Daily Mail for 1 November 1931, Alan Parsons wrote:

When the curtain fell last night at Drury Lane on Mr Noel Coward's Cavalcade, there was an ovation such as I have not heard in very many years' playgoing. Mr Coward, after returning thanks to all concerned, said: "After all, it is a pretty exciting thing in these days to be English". And therein lies the whole secret of Cavalcade—it is a magnificent play in which the note of national pride pervading every scene and every sentence must make each one of us face the future with courage and high hopes.^[18]

Reviewing the 1999 revival, Michael Billington wrote that it displayed the contradictory elements in Coward's writings, a show "traditionally seen as a patriotic pageant about the first 30 years of the century" but strongly anti-militaristic and portraying "the anger that bubbles away among the working class". He concluded, "Cavalcade is actually about the way the high hopes at the start of the century have turned to senseless slaughter and hectic hedonism".^[19]

Music

A record with the title Cavalcade Suite was made by the New Mayfair Orchestra. It contained a selection of the contemporary songs used in Cavalcade, introduced by Coward. At the end he speaks the toast to England from the play. (HMV C2289)

Coward himself recorded "Lover of My Dreams" (the Mirabelle Waltz Song), with, on the reverse, "Twentieth Century Blues", played by the New Mayfair Novelty Orchestra, with vocal by an unnamed singer identified by Mander and Mitchenson as Al Bowlly. (HMV B4001)

Cavalcade—Vocal Medley: On this Coward sings "Soldiers of the Queen", "Goodbye, Dolly", "Lover of My Dreams", "I do Like to be Beside the Seside", "Goodbye, My Bluebell", "Alexander's Ragtime Band", "Everybody's Doing It", "Let's All Go Down the Strand", "If You were the Only Girl", "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty", "There's a Long, Long Trail", "Keep the Home Fires Burning", and "Twentieth Century Blues". (HMV C2431).

Coward later recorded "Twentieth Century Blues" on the LP album "Noël Coward in New York", with an orchestra conducted by Peter Matz. (Columbia ML 5163)

Notes, references and sources