A cabaret show about … making a cabaret show!
A WORK COMMISSIONED BY
MIRAGE MAKERS
ORIGINATING PRODUCER
JOHN MICHAEL SWINBANK
It’s 1955 and Las Vegas, a growing glitzy, neon drenched Mecca for gamblers and gangsters, is about to receive a surprise visit by one of the world’s most famous entertainers, Noël Coward.
Revered, refined and respected, this quintessential Englishmen is about to headline one of the newest and glitziest clubs on the strip. No one guesses that his career is on the line: he’s washed up, passé, middleaged, bereft and broke. Worse, he’s arrived in America without rehearsal, without an accompanist, WITHOUT A SHOW!
Set in New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the play reveals the backstage story of ambition, desperation, loss and guts as a career teeters on the edge. Seen through the eyes of his American accompanist, Pete Matz, A Coward in Vegas shows the personal sacrifice of stardom and the knife-edge difference between success and failure.
A COWARD IN VEGAS catches the entertainment legend at a pivotal point as he swings from being a hopelessly outdated queer Englishman to international performance icon with crowds – including the Hollywood A-list – clamouring for more.
The original cast was renowned Noël Coward exponent John Michael Swinbank as Coward and Swinbank’s long time accompanist Tim Cunniffe, who made his acting debut as Pete Matz, Coward’s American accompanist.
The Audition, Act 1 from A Coward in Vegas where Noël Coward (John Michael Swinbank) ‘auditions’ his new American pianist, Peter Matz (Tim Cunniffe) … or is it the other way round? Excerpt from 2007 workshop season, Old Mill Theatre, Perth Western Australia
Show specifics:
A COWARD IN VEGAS is a MIRAGE MAKERS PRODUCTION.
For more information, please contact Business Affairs Director, Christopher Keely on chris.keely@miragecorporation.com
Image gallery (click to enlarge):
Photography and Videography by Nigel Etherington.