The press night (Dec. 10) of Noël Coward's The Vortex marked the opening of Michael Grandage's first season as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, one of London's highest profile theatres.
The Vortex is already hard to get into — a combination of the Donmar's reputation, interest in Grandage's choice of a first play as director, and the continued box office appeal of Sir Noël Coward.
Performed in 1924, when he was still just 24 years old, The Vortex was a huge hit that placed Coward center stage in the West End — a position he was to occupy for the rest of the inter-war period and, sporadically, for the remaining decades until his death in March 1973.
—By Paul Webb Theatrenow
