MusicalTalk - The UK's Independent Musical Theatre Podcast

Episode 924: Mad About the Boys: Novello, Coward and Porter (part 1)

·48 min·4 clips

Foss Ribbits marks the 75th anniversary of Ivor Novello's sudden death, revealing why this British songwriting icon has faded from memory.

The episode begins with host Foss Ribbits commemorating the 75th anniversary of Ivor Novello's sudden death in 1951, highlighting his role as a major British musical theatre songwriter. Foss notes Novello's collaboration with Jerome Kern and contemporaries like George Gershwin and Cole Porter. He then introduces 'Mad About the Boys,' a cabaret show from the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe that features the stories and music of Ivor Novello, Noel Coward, and Cole Porter. The show is described as a sophisticated cabaret evoking the 1920s and 1930s with cigarettes, cocktails, and witty songs. Foss interviews Amanda Botmar, the writer and director, and Daniel Anderson, the performer, about the show. Daniel explains that the show originated during the COVID-19 pandemic when he and Amanda formed a theatre company in South Africa. They discuss why Novello's music has faded from popularity compared to Coward and Porter, citing factors like large-scale operetta productions and the erasure of personal letters after his death. The conversation explores the gay identities of all three composers and the masks they wore to survive in a time when homosexuality was criminalized. Daniel describes the show's staging, including opulent sets and a symbolic fur coat, and how it captures the Roaring Twenties as an escape from post-World War I guilt. They analyze the composers' styles: Novello's lush romanticism, Coward's satirical humor, and Porter's clever double entendres. Foss and Daniel also touch on Cole Porter's marriage of convenience and his late breakthrough on Broadway. The episode concludes with a teaser for part two, which will focus more on Coward and Porter.

As heard by us

Novello, Coward and Porter are framed through Fringe staging and the uneasy glow of the Roaring Twenties.

Musical Talk opens with a comic nod to I Can Give You the Starlight and the awkward business of gift-wrapping it, then uses that joke to frame Mad About the Boys, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe show built around Ivor Novello, Noel Coward and Cole Porter.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want Ivor Novello, Noel Coward, and Cole Porter with a purple fur coat and a wartime ache.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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