Got your tickets yet for Jermyn Street’s historic staging of Noel Coward’s Tonight at 8.30? It’s the first time that all nine plays in the cycle have been staged together in London since their 1936 premiere. Check out our gallery of production shots from the complete cycle – and then get booking!
Noel Coward wrote Tonight at 8.30 as a vehicle for himself and Gertrude Lawrence, with whom he’d previously starred onstage in Privates Lives. The cycle of one-act plays and musicals had its West End premiere at the Phoenix Theatre in 1936 and has not been seen in full onstage in London since.
The nine short pieces range from music-hall pastiche to light comedies to heartbreaking drama. For this major revival at Jermyn Street Theatre, under the helm of artistic director Tom Littler, the one-acters have been arranged into three trios entitled Secret Hearts, Nuclear Families, and Bedroom Farces. Audiences have the chance to see the three trios (all nine plays) in a single day on Saturdays and Sundays during the run.
Nine actors play 73 roles across the nine plays. The ensemble cast comprises Sara Crowe, Ian Hallard, Nick Waring, Miranda Foster, Rosemary Ashe, Jeremy Rose, Boadicea Ricketts, Ben Wiggins and Stefan Benardzcyk, who also provides musical direction.
Photos
Production photography by Robert Workman.
