After the Ball

After the Ball is a musical by Noël Coward based on the 1892 play by Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan. After a provincial tour, the musical premiered at the Globe Theatre, London, on 10 June 1954 and ran for 188 performances until 20 November 1954. Robert Helpmann was the director, and the cast included Mary Ellis, Vanessa Lee, Peter Graves and Irene Browne. After the Ball was the last Coward musical launched in the West End; his last two musicals debuted on Broadway before opening in London. After the Ball enjoyed a 1999 Coward centenary production at the Peacock Theatre, London. Background 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. He delegated the first draft of the script to his assistant Cole Lesley. Lesley "cut out the more glaringly melodramatic of Wilde's lines and divided the remainder into sections ending with a suitable 'cue for a song'" "I know that it is very good indeed," wrote Coward of the finished piece, "I have... turned out some of the best lyrics I have ever written" Coward worked on the piece during his customary winter holiday in Jamaica in December 1953. His music director, Norman Hackforth, flew to Jamaica to help him finish the score after Christmas. The scenery and costume design was by Doris Zinkeisen.