Showbiz royalty in Noel and Gertie

There's a blast from a 1930s showbiz past at Blackpool Grand this autumn as musical biography Noel and Gertie - the story of the personal and professional lives of legendary stage personalities Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence - arrives for its only northern performances (October 15-18).

Devised by the late writer, theatre critic, broadcaster and biographer of Coward, Sheridan Morley, the show is drawn from the songs, letters, poems, films and diaries of the man they called "The Master". The show opened in London in 1986, starring Simon Cadell and Joanna Lumley, and ran for nine years.

Celebrating the special bond between the famous playwright and the renowned actress, the show provides a series of memorable musical numbers from Coward’s works, including Private Lives and the classic song Don’t Put Your Daughter on The Stage,

Mrs Worthington.

The cast of Noel and Gertie - l-r Michaela Murphy, Gary Tushaw as Noel Coward, Rebecca Trehearn at Gertrude Lawrence and Joey Hickman.

This time round Gary Tushaw plays Coward, an actor whose credits include Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd, The Mousetrap, Les Miserables and many more. Rebecca Trehearn, whose credits includes City Of Angels, Kiss Me Kate, Sweet Charity and Les Miserables, plays Gertrude Lawrence. Rebecca won the Olivier Award for best supporting actress in a musical for her role of Julie in Showboat.

Writer, actor, director, film producer, painter, songwriter, cabaret artist and author Noel Coward's professional partnership with childhood friend Gertrude Lawrence began with Private Lives in 1931, and he enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a writer, songwriter, film maker and film actor until his final West End appearance in Song at Twilight in 1966, which he wrote. He was knighted in 1970 and died peacefully in 1973 in Jamaica.

Legendary British actress, singer, dancer and musical comedy performer Gertrude Lawrence's greatest role was in Coward’s Private Lives, written with her in mind, which opened at the Phoenix Theatre in London in September 1930. The play and the two - to modern audiences rather mannered - actors set a tone and acting style that would characterise comedies of manners for years thereafter. She died in 1951 during her run of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I on Broadway.

More info and tickets here