THE NOEL COWARD CD AUDIO COLLECTION

In these Caedmon archival recordings of Coward’s work, Noel Coward and Margaret Leighton perform poems, monologues, and scenes from plays (two discs). Simon Jones reads two stories and several poems (three discs). Not surprisingly, Jones, though a fine reader, is outshone by Coward and Leighton; larger-than-life yet capable of ultrafine detail and coloring, they are, at times, marvelous. Jones’s only advantage is that his selections are complete; the archival dramatic pieces, while interesting demonstrations of acting, remain fragments unless one knows the plays, except for BRIEF ENCOUNTERS, which, oddly, is the weakest selection. Still, the two halves of this program succeed in portraying Coward as writer and actor, and that’s a gift. W.M. 2006 Audie Award Finalist © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 05]