Alistair McGowan & Charlotte Page – Sincerely Noel – Crazy Coqs

Alistair McGowan and Charlotte Page perform Sincerely Noel at the Crazy Coqs, London. Picture: Clare Park

This charming, funny, sad, romantic, poignant homage to The Master by impressionist and actor Alistair McGowan and his actress-opera singer wife Charlotte Page highlights the many-sided genius of Noel Coward in an unusual mix of song, drama and poetry which delights from start to finish.

There are the old favourites, of course, such as ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’, ‘Mad About the Boy’ and ‘There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner’ (with a spot-on William Hague voice), and ‘If Love Were All’, surely one of the most beautiful songs ever written, but also much that, unless you are a Coward anorak, will have been fresh and surprising.

If you are one of those who thought Coward wrote only dated comedies about silly, empty-headed, champagne-tippling toffs, your eyes will be opened wide as McGowan and Page seamlessly blend in more obscure work that moves the heart and demonstrates Coward’s uncanny gift with words.

From the 1960s, ‘Not Yet the Dodo’, a long poem about upper middle-class parents having to come to terms with their son’s homosexuality, fills much of the second half of a show that first came to life as Cocktails With Coward at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Earlier, the terrible sadness of ‘Re-Union’ when a husband and wife realise what the war has done to their marriage (many, like my parents’, were never quite the same again, so that had a particular resonance) engulfed us, just as did the touching ‘Honeymoon 1905’ in which newlyweds head off to Ilfracombe with nerves and fear getting in the way of joyful anticipation.

All this serious stuff is leavened by generous helpings of humour. ‘Social Grace’ gives Page the chance to do her Joyce Grenfell voice – there’s not much this multi-talented lady cannot do – while ‘We Must Have a Speech From a Minister’ and the very naughty ‘Alice is At It Again’ had us all in stitches.

And the encore, that frothy scene from Private Lives, where the recently-remarried couple run into each other again by chance on their second honeymoon and realise they had it much better than they’re having it now, is a perfect way to round off an evening that never stops sparkling.

Having tested the water in Edinburgh, McGowan added a second hour to the show and took it to Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios the following year under its present title. Here we had a 90-minute, slightly sawn-off version of that which fitted perfectly into the confines of a cabaret room, much helped by MD Warren Wills’ wonderful arrangements.

A large part of what makes it work so well is the genuine chemistry between McGowan and his loveable wife whom he met when they were working on The Mikado together in 2008, she as a very yummy Yum-Yum. His “Charlie” does most of the singing, although McGowan is no stranger to musicals for, Mikado apart, he’s done the Emcee role in Cabaret in the West End and Little Shop of Horrors.

Cabaret takes many different forms and this tribute to the Teddington piano-salesman’s son who made it to high society, got us through the war with some unforgettable songs, wrote plays which will be part of our heritage forever, and later won over the burgeoning Las Vegas with his wit and charm, was as different as it gets.

The Crazy Coqs prides itself on bringing top-line artists from other spheres such as Anne Reid and Celia Imrie to show off their ‘other’ talents and what a joy to catch these two rich talents from TV and stage showing off their versatility in this warm, intimate setting.

Jeremy Chapman

www.brasseriezedel.com/crazy-coqs/alistair-mcgowan-and-charlotte-page