Stefan Bednarczyk sing Noel Coward at the Crazy Coqs, London
Stefan Bednarczyk: Stefan Sings Coward at the Crazy Coqs, London, continues until 19 July.
Can there be a better interpreter of Noel Coward operating in the UK – in the world – than Stefan Bednarczyk? For those in the know, such as Coward’s biographer, the late Sheridan Morley, he was the preferred interpreter of choice. This fact was confirmed in his introduction at the Crazy Coqs by Morley’s widow – and Coqs artistic director – Ruth Leon at the beginning of Bednarczyk’s week-long stint at the venue. “No one can bring Coward to life like Stefan,” she said.
And who am I to doubt Leon? Bednarczyk is a multi-talented performer – pianist, music master, singer, composer, actor, musical director – and he draws upon all of these skills in his impeccable Coward cabaret. He also has the sound, the grace, the mannerisms of Coward; heck, shorn of the goatee beard in his publicity photographs and with his hair Brylcreemed back, he even looks like Coward.
Yet, importantly, what he presents is not an impersonation or caricature of his idol. Instead, we’re treated to an intelligent and sincere “channelling” of the performer.
As a non-initiate of Coward’s, I must confess that I had some apprehension about an entire evening of his work. Yet how wrong could I have been? Bednarczyk is a consummate performer – his piano playing is flawless and he exudes an irresistible charisma – and his two-hour-plus cabaret is a revelation. As he explains, his choice of song and verse – focusing largely on Coward’s war and post-war output sprinkled with a selection of earlier favourites – “debunks the idea of Noel Coward as a vacuous, cocktail-sipping airhead”. It was new to me – indeed, I had a near-Damascene conversion that almost had me signing up to the Noel Coward Society!
The first half of the evening presents the more familiar, crisp and wry Coward, ripe with favourites such as ‘Nina’, ‘The Stately Homes of England’, ‘Mrs Worthington’, ‘London Pride’ and ‘Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans’. If you’re going to hear these wonderfully witty songs, you might as well hear them from a master like Bednarczyk.
Others songs offer interesting twists or discoveries, perhaps even for those more intimately familiar with Coward’s work: ‘Mad About the Boy’, for example, features an excised verse from a middle-aged businessman, while ‘Put Out My Shooting Suit, Waters’, which existed only as verse, features Bednarczyk’s self-penned piano accompaniment.
The second half paints a more introverted picture of Coward, further cementing Bednarczyk’s notion that the composer’s thoughts were not always on “cocktails and copulation”. The poignant and beautiful ‘I Travel Alone’ begins a run of tellingly autobiographical songs that include the even more tender ‘I Am No Good At Love’ and ‘Never Again’, each more melancholic than the other.
Bednarczyk’s careful curating of numbers also hints at Coward’s political, patriotic and religious bent – both swaying to the agnostic – with ‘Do I Believe?’ (although when asked about God, Coward claimed “we have never been intimate… but we have a lot in common”!) and ‘There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner’. The latter is sung by Bednarczyk “in honour of Jeremy Hunt and Iain Duncan Smith for surviving the Cabinet reshuffle”, making his own political view of the Tories abundantly clear.
Throughout the evening, Bednarczyk intersperses the songs with recitals of Coward’s verse – “not poetry, verse”, as Coward insisted – and prose. These monologues further flesh out the portrait of the author as a thoughtful, introspective and razor-sharp wit, with Bednarczyk’s pacing and diction an absolute masterclass in reciting. While much of Coward’s patter songs fly by at breakneck pace – an encore of ‘Mad Dogs and Englishman’ is literally breathtaking – the more carefully paced and placed verse and prose allows the listener to ponder and reflect on Coward’s mastery of language.
Bednarczyk is entirely at home at the Crazy Coqs – the perfect venue for an intimate cabaret such as this – and credit must be given to lighting director Justin Smith, whose subtle but effective control of the cues add the final buff of polish to the evening. This is cabaret at its finest, so even if you don’t think you’re a Coward fan, indulge yourself in a sophisticated, charming night of discovery.
Craig Glenday
Readers may also be interested in:
Stefan Bednarczyk returns to Crazy Coqs with Noel Coward cabaret – Interview
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