Product Description

First time in Paperback! Noel Coward and Cole Porter's fascinating lives celebrated.



Fresh on the heels of the popular motion picture based on Cole Porter's life called De-Lovely, Noel and Cole presents a fresh and often surpr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #393082 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

From Library Journal
Noel and Cole is a courageous and highly successful chronicle of two great legends of the theater, music, and film worlds during the first half of the 20th century. Citron carefully documents the pair's parallel careers and frequent collaboration. No book currently available is as comprehensive in its treatment of these two greats.The history is made engaging through a generous blend of facts, photographs, scores, and interviews. The dynamism of Porter and Coward, whether working together or separately, is made abundantly clear and appealing for readers at all levels. As a reference work, the volume is well indexed, and the useful bibliography directs readers to other useful resources. For most serious music collections.
- Richard Lornzen, Univ. of Washington
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Witty, urbane, and enormously gifted, Noel Coward and Cole Porter were both born in small towns and encouraged by strong mothers. Both were gay, died in their 73rd year, and, in a field dominated by collaborators (Rogers and Hart, etc.), wrote the music as well as the lyrics to their own songs. Here, Citron (The Musical from the Inside Out, 1992, etc.--not reviewed), himself a professional songwriter, anchors the pair in a tradition that reflects their restless times and analyzes the qualities that made each man an original. In alternating chapters that cover the composers in turn, Citron--who offers incisive analyses of their hit songs-- successfully traces the trajectories of the two musical stars. Born in 1891 to a wealthy but uncultured Indiana family, Porter was sent east for schooling. At Yale, he wrote undergraduate reviews, made important lifelong connections, and acquired his lavish way of life. Never dependent on songwriting for a livelihood (in addition to his own fortune, he married a wealthy divorc‚e), he was late in finding the limelight. By contrast, Coward, born in 1899 to an impecunious middle-class English family, bypassed a formal education and was on the stage by age 14. The more versatile of the two, he wrote fiction, plays, songs, operettas, and musical reviews, and acted and starred in many of his own productions-- while Porter wrote only complex harmonies, lilting melodies, and inimitable lyrics, many of them risqu‚. Porter emerges here as the colder personality, always a bit remote and, in his final, pain- ridden years (a leg, injured in a horse-racing accident 21 years earlier, had to be amputated), a semi-recluse. The two musical lions admired each other, Citron says, and they shared many friends and theatrical associates. A thorough introduction--featuring much original song interpretation--that's a valuable addition to existing memoirs and biographies (e.g., Coward's own Future Indefinite, 1986, and Charles Schwartz's Cole Porter, 1977). (Thirty halftones) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
'An exhilarating, scholarly, copiously illustrated tribute to two men who bought priceless perfection to literacy, and the art of popular entertainment.' - THE EVENING STANDARD

Customer Reviews

Classy, Insightful -- A First-Rate Dual Bio!
This book not only takes a fresh and thoroughly readable look at two extraordinary lives -- it also includes some excellent assessments of their songs. I've read most everything published on these two men and found this book worthwhile and highly enjoyable. If only all composer bios were so intelligently handled!

Parallel lives, winning presentation
Cole Porter and Noël Coward were, in many ways, the colossi of music and the theater during their era. And despite their different backgrounds, they had more than a few things in common. A parallel biography of the two men, and parallel analysis of their work, just makes sense. Stephen Citron has pulled it off admirably.

The book is arranged chronologically, and chapters alternate between the two men. Their lives frequently intersect and intertwine, but the still-significant differences between the two don't get lost. Citron is not only a skilled biographer. He also has an insightful eye for drama and music. His analysis of selected Porter and Coward songs, occupying the last sixty or so pages of the book, should be a handy reference and guide to the work of both men.

Quite surprising!
Another gift to my dad for Xmas and he was entertained with the stories and the lyrics. He didn't know about Noel...so we both learned something new. A very well-written and entertaining book.