South Sea Bubble (play)
South Sea Bubble is a play by British actor and playwright Noël Coward. It was written in 1949 but not performed until 1951. The play was moderately successful but failed to match the popularity of Coward's pre-war hits.[1][2]
[edit] Background
The play is named for the South Sea Bubble, an economic bubble that arose due to speculation in the South Sea Company.
Originally written for Gertrude Lawrence under the name of Home and Colonial, her unexpected death meant that she never played it. Coward intended her to take it after her run in The King and I. The play was changed into Island Fling, which opened in 1951 with Claudette Colbert in the lead. It ran for eight performances in Westport, Connecticut, USA. South Sea Bubble itself finally opened in the West End under its final title with Vivien Leigh as Sandra, the wife of the governor of the imaginary island of Samolo.
Coward liked the character so much that he later made it one of the key characters in his novel Pomp and Circumstance.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Lahr, John. Coward the Playwright, Methuen, London, 1982. ISBN 0-413-48050-X
- Lesley, Cole. The Life of Noël Coward. Cape 1976. ISBN 0-224-01288-6.
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