Noel Coward is a quintessentially English character, but the film Mad Dogs and Englishmen is set to give him a bit of a fish out of water spin, with Deadline reporting that Colin Firth is set to play the playwright, singer, composer, songwriter and actor, in a film about his time in Vegas.
Coward played the Desert Inn in 1955 to stand in for Liberace for a couple of weeks, who had fallen and had to cancel a string of dates. Willy Holtzman’s Mad Dogs screenplay will focus on Cowards two-weeks in Vegas, and the relationship he forged with the piano player who backed him up on the gig.
Firth should make an excellent Coward, although it will be a challenge to pull off Noel’s unque style of entertainment, which was as much about him as any of his songs or stories. There’s no news on when it might shoot.