Getting to the heart of multifaceted Noel Coward

"He's been in and out of favor over the years. He's either the hottest thing or really passé."

That would be the late actor-writer-composer-director Sir Noel Coward, as described by his ardent fan, David Ira Goldstein.

Several years ago, Goldstein launched a campaign to introduce Coward's oeuvre to modern audiences. He also wanted to entice people who only know Coward by his most enduring play, "Private Lives," or best-known movie, "Brief Encounter," to check out the multifaceted Englishman's legacy. That led to "A Marvelous Party," the award-winning, much-traveled "celebration of Noel Coward," which opens a run at ACT Theatre this week. The ACT staging is by Goldstein, who co-created the show with its original cast, Carl Danielsen, Mark Anders, Patricia Wilcox and Anna Lauris.

The artistic head of Arizona Theatre Company for the past 16 years, and formerly associate artistic director of ACT, Goldstein knows Coward may seem utterly retro.

As has been often said, Noel Coward (who lived from 1899 to 1973) virtually invented "Englishness" for the 20th century.

Rising from humble middle-class origins, Coward in the 1920s and '30s became a dapper blade, a theatrical jack-of-all-trades, and a toast of London and New York cafe society. (Or as Coward jested, "Nescafé Society).

But, insists Goldstein, "Coward wasn't just that famous image of the guy in the tuxedo, holding a cocktail glass. He was much more accomplished and eclectic than a lot of people realize."

Coward also was industrious — and, despite the party-boy image, highly disciplined. "Work is much more fun than fun," was one of his pithy epigrams.

Accordingly, he authored more than 50 published plays, composed scores of songs, wrote and appeared in numerous hit films, turned out novels, memoirs and reams of correspondence. For good measure, late in his career he also played swanky nightclubs as a solo act.

Coward embodied a certain soigné style and withering wit that became a hallmark of British élan and gay camp. (Given England's anti-gay laws and homophobia during his life, he kept his own homosexuality private.)

But his characters were not all swells. Coward also depicted regular middle-class folk (such as in "Brief Encounter," about an intense but unconsummated extramarital relationship). He championed patriotic British fortitude in wartime. And a few of his plays ("Design for Living," "The Vortex") were prescient reflections on sexual experimentation and drug addiction.

Eager to stage a musical tribute to Coward at Arizona Theatre Company, Goldstein found only two estate-sanctioned revues: "Oh, Coward!" (seen at Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1999) and "Cowardy Custard."

"Both were created when Coward was still alive," Goldstein notes. "They assume everybody knows him and his songs, but a lot of people today don't. Our show gives a loosely chronological overview of his career. We use entire songs, not medleys, and some dance, too."

More than 30 Coward songs are included in the show. Some familiar classics, like the archly iconic "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," made the cut. But the revue also offers such clever obscurities as the novelty tunes "London Is a Little Bit of Alright" and "What Ho! Mrs. Brisket."

And about 30 percent of the production is spoken, including an excerpt of "The Mideast Diaries," Coward's memoir about entertaining the troops in World War II. (He was also, briefly, an espionage agent for Britain.)

Also programmed: "20th Century Blues," a number from Coward's Oscar-winning 1933 movie "Cavalcade." An upstairs/downstairs chronicle of two British families over several decades, it was a favorite film of Adolf Hitler, of all people.

A favorite of Goldstein's is a highly acerbic ode to pessimism, "Bad Luck Is Just Around the Corner," which he claims "really resonates with what's going on in the world now."

To secure rights to the material for the debut run of "A Marvelous Party" at Chicago's Northlight Theatre, the company contacted Coward's executor and longtime companion, Graham Payn.

"He liked the idea but made two conditions," says Goldstein. "He said, 'You can't change any of the song lyrics. And you can't have anyone impersonate Noel Coward.' "

Blessed by Payn, "A Marvelous Party" was a 2005 hit at Northlight, and won four local Jefferson Awards (including a directing honor for Goldstein). Payn died that same year.

The piece has since been presented at many other companies — in Boston, New York, California and, of course, Arizona; it won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle prize.

ACT's cast of Seattle favorites includes co-creators Anders and Lauris, joined by Richard Gray and David Silverman.

Goldstein has staged "A Marvelous Party" eight times himself but claims he still doesn't tire of it.

"Coward's songs are not for dumb people," he says. "We're talking about wit, sophistication and classiness — which our society could use a lot more of."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com