After the Ball (musical)
Coward decided, in August 1953, to base a musical on Oscar Wilde's play, Lady Windermere's Fan; he worked on it until January 1954.[5] Coward cast Mary Ellis in the leading role of Mrs Erlynne, unwisely accepting without audition her assurance that, in her late 50s, she was singing as well as ever.He was distressed by what he saw and heard: "the absence of style in the direction... a great deal of the performance was inaudible.... Vanessa [Lee] sang divinely but acted poorly."[9] He was still more forthright to his friends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne: "I have been having a terrible time with After the Ball, mainly on account of Mary Ellis's singing voice which, to coin a phrase, sounds like someone fucking the cat.Lady Windermere, still believing the worst of her husband, is tempted by the amorous advances of the debonair Lord Darlington and agrees to visit him at his flat.[13] After the original run, there has been only one professional revival in the West End, a 1999 Coward centenary production at the Peacock Theatre, London, conducted by John McGlinn.