Sail Away

Book music and lyrics by Noel Coward

Original London cast: Elaine Stritch, David Holliday, Sheila Forbes, Grover Dale, John Hewer, Edith Day, Sydney Arnold md Gareth Davies

Come To Me; Sail Away; Where Shall I Find Him?; Beatnik Love Affair; Later Than Spring; Useless Useful Phrases; The Passenger's Always Right; You're A Long Way From America; The Customer's Always Right; Go Slow, Johnny; Something Very Strange; Don't Turn Away From Love; Bronxville Darby And Joan; When You Want Me; Why Do The Wrong People Travel?

The last musical for which Coward was sole writer (he let someone else write the book of his next and final show The Girl Who Came To Supper) Sail Away originally played Broadway for 167 performances from October 1961, and in June 1962 opened at London's Savoy Theatre (252 performances). At last, Coward wrote a bright, breezy score that sounded reasonably modern. He borrowed the title song from his earlier flop Ace Of Clubs, but there was no trace of the mannerisms of operetta that had marked his work up to this time.

Sail Away didn't need much of a plot, with which Coward couldn't bother, setting his story on board a cruising ship with a gaggle of tourists marshalled by the forceful personality of their guide Mimi Paragon (Elaine Stritch). When it was about anything, it was about the problems of being middle-aged and in love. It's a piece that couldn't do without a sparky leading lady, and Stritch obliges, relishing the mostly revue-like numbers - 'Why Do The Wrong People Travel?' and 'Useless Useful Phrases' - that Coward supplies, with no dimming of the acknowledged wit.

David Holliday is a refreshingly macho hero for a Coward show, attacking the title song with enthusiasm and letting one forget what 'Go Slow, Johnny' might have seemed like in less capable hands. He brings real tenderness and theatrical know-how to one of Coward's loveliest but least known numbers 'Later Than Spring', a fate shared by Stritch's 'Something Very Strange'. These are fine songs with glorious lyrics. Grover Dale and Sheila Forbes make a valiant stand for the younger generation in a few numbers embellishing a youthful shipboard romance, but it's the wrinkled performers that have the best comic number, 'Bronxville Darby And Joan'.

That great star of 1920's musical theatre Edith Day, accompanied by Sydney Arnold, is convincingly terrifying in this description of a long married life. Sail Away is superior escapism, with some of the cleverest and most heartfelt stuff Coward ever wrote hidden away in it. As a recording, it doesn't quite make a whole, despite the considerable achievements of its great love songs, because that revue element keeps forcing its way to the front. It's a pity the recording finishes on a comedy number for Stritch, but that fact really emphasises Sail Away's emotional deficiencies.

 

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