Welcome to the 2008 production of Cowardy Custard

Recipe for Custard at The Mermaid Theatre

The Mermaid Theatre began considering its contribution to the 1972 City of London Festival in the early Summer of 1971.There were many different ideas at the time, but it was the desire to offer something in a different vein to past productions which resulted in the decision to stage ‘Cowardy Custard’, derived from the words and music of the acknowledged “Master” of 20th Century entertainment – Sir Noël Coward.

Coward’s roots for all his international success and cosmopolitan image, lie firmly in London, Born in Teddington just before the beginning of the century, his autobiographies and poems recall with great affection and wit his upbringing in London’s suburbs and his early days struggling to place his talent in the fiercely competitive London theatre of the 1920s. Musically too, London has always been a strong inspiration for Coward, such songs as London Pride, London at Night and the London song sequence from his 1960’s Broadway musical “The Girl Who Came to Supper”.

The show took many months of preparation; since Coward’s output includes 50 plays, musicals and operettas, at least 250 songs, not to mention sketches, his two autobiographies, plus the occasional poem, short story or novel, the main problem was obviously one of selection.

The songs in ‘Cowardy Custard’ extend from the archetypical 20’s Coward of Poor Little Rich Girl and Dance, Little Lady, the romantic, lyrical mood of his C.B. Cochran musicals such as ‘Bitter Sweet’, to the strong blues and jazz vein of Mad About the Boy and Twentieth Century Blues, and of course the perennially inventive comic songs (Marvelous Party, Nina, Mrs Worthington etc). Coward once wrote that the impulse to write songs was born in him, and the show covers half-a-century of composing, from earliest revue songs to the 1960’s Broadway musicals. With such variety, it is hardly surprising that it includes songs which Coward himself confessed he had almost forgotten having written.

With the script (which links the songs with material from the plays, autobiographies and poems, chosen to reveal unfamiliar aspects of Coward as well as the customary image) in its final form, the Mermaid gathered an impressive production team and a dazzling cast for the show. Only one thing was missing shortly before rehearsals began – a suitable title. A telegram from Coward himself in Jamaica, suggesting ‘Cowardy Custard’, added the final ingredient, and a production initially intended for a limited 8 week season turned out to be one of the most successful shows in the Mermaid’s history, with an extended London run and national tour.