Doubleday -- hc
New York -- ©1974 -- 100pp
ISBN: 0385084455
A weak attempt at a story in order to get many Noel Coward songs together.
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Although I read a lot of plays, this may be the first musical review that I've read. And yes...it is strange to read a musical revue.
By its very nature, a musical revue has even less story (or 'book') than an opera. It's generally a compilation of songs by composer or lyricist that were written for other purposes. They are usually assembled in a way to generate some kind of story-line, albeit quite simple. In this case, the storyline was too simple. Nearly non-existent.
Musical Revues are quite popular and have evolved into their own genre. Good ones are essentially new musical plays with old songs from a variety of other sources (Crazy for You is one of my favorites). In the early days of this new genre, most didn't bother with much of a story.
And so...why read a book of a musical revue? The answer...I don't know. I wasn't aware that's what it was when I started, but I sure bored quickly.
Coward's lyrics are a delight, but without the music to accompany them, it was even harder to read this than a normal play, or even a typical musical comedy (in which case the lyrics lend themselves to furthering the storyline).
I wouldn't recommend the read, but it would be fun to see this staged some day.
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