Cavalcade

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, provided Coward could guarantee an approximate opening date. 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. While Calthrop began designing hundreds of costumes and twenty-two sets, Coward worked on the script, which he completed in August 1931. Rehearsals began the following month. 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".