gay icons: Noel Coward

I understand why people might persceive Noel Coward as outdated - but he is a gay icon for me

This graphic captures the joy of Coward's world for me!!

Noel Coward’s Outdated Defiance

by James Kirchick

First published in The Washington Times, June 12, 2009

Noel Coward's "Design for Living" — now in revival by the Shakespeare Theatre Company — shocked audiences when it premiered on Broadway in 1933. It's not hard to see why.

The play, about a polyandrous relationship between two men and a woman, makes no apologies for its liberationist view of sex and relationships and could hardly be more direct in its sympathetic presentation of gay attachment. "Design for Living" was considered so risque that Coward had to wait until 1939 before staging a production in London for fear of offending British censors.

Seen today, the play shocks, but for an altogether different reason: Its message is so outdated that it's bewildering why any theater would put it on except for its curatorial interest as a period artifact.

http://www.indegayforum.org/news/show/31850.html