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Fallen Angels: A Comedy in Three Acts
Genre: Comedy
Characters: 3 males, 3 females
Scenery: Interior Best friends now happily married to others, Julia and Jane both once counted the dashing Frenchman Maurice as their lover. Guess who's back in town and requesting the pleasure of the ladies company? Coward at his inimitable best, the story is a champagne cocktail of wit and charm.
Characters: 3 males, 3 females
Scenery: Interior Best friends now happily married to others, Julia and Jane both once counted the dashing Frenchman Maurice as their lover. Guess who's back in town and requesting the pleasure of the ladies company? Coward at his inimitable best, the story is a champagne cocktail of wit and charm.
65 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1925
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About the author
Noël Coward
432 books224 followersSir Noël Peirce Coward was an English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music. Among his achievements, he received an Academy Certificate of Merit at the 1943 Academy Awards for "outstanding production achievement for In Which We Serve."
Known for his wit, flamboyance, and personal style, his plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. The former Albery Theatre (originally the New Theatre) in London was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in his honour in 2006.
Known for his wit, flamboyance, and personal style, his plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. The former Albery Theatre (originally the New Theatre) in London was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in his honour in 2006.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
February 14, 2023
Julia and Jane have been married ladies for five years. They suddenly learn that a saucy lover from the past is in town and wants to see them. Yes, they both had sex with him and it was great fun. Their husbands are away on a sporty weekend and they are itching to restart...well, whatever. What seemed shocking in 1925 is accepted human nature today...as Julia and Jane get drunk with glee and also panic as they face a teasing future. Sure, they love their husbands, but after five years they're not "in love" with them. Often called too fluffy, this comedy is bruisingly contemporary.
February 6, 2026
This lesser-known Coward play will have a Broadway revival this Spring (2026). I knew the title but not the play, so I read it. I can't imagine why 'someone' felt it needs to be revived. It doesn't. It's awful.
Produced when he was in his mid-20s, 'FA' was Coward's sixth full-length play, produced before his career really took off. Most of what's wrong with the play can be chalked up to the playwright's youth. Nevertheless, it's dismal. Worse, it's labeled a 'comedy'.
There's one problem with that label: there are no jokes. I take that back - there's *one* joke, which comes in the play's last two minutes, making the play a one-trick pony. Here and there throughout, there are a few lines which could conceivably pass for jokes - but, in order for them to pass, they would have to be delivered by female actors who are masters at imbuing unfunny lines with funny tones (Maggie Smith had mastered that).
When first performed, the play was considered 'shocking' since it deals with two married women who (prior to their marriages) each had a brief affair with a Frenchman - who now, seven years later and for reasons unsaid, breezes back into their lives.
We don't actually see Maurice until his deus ex machina appearance in the last ten minutes (so, until then, the actor playing him must sit offstage for most of every performance; gee, what fun).
The bulk of the play has Julia and Jane - the married women (and rather annoying, to boot) - fretting over and hotly anticipating Maurice's arrival. All of Act Two is nothing but a display of their frayed emotions, as they debate whether or not to drink champagne while eating the sumptuous meal served to them. Act Two becomes 'food as comedy', when wit would have been the obvious option. The play would require a director who is quite adept at creating stage business, to hide the fact that there's very little actual comedy.
The 1925 Broadway premiere lasted a month. In 1956, there was a revival at the now-defunct Playhouse Theater which, inexplicably, ran for seven months.
Coward would go on, also in 1925, to begin a more interesting (though spotty) career. Sometimes he would be particularly inspired. 'FA', alas, was not one of those occasions.
Produced when he was in his mid-20s, 'FA' was Coward's sixth full-length play, produced before his career really took off. Most of what's wrong with the play can be chalked up to the playwright's youth. Nevertheless, it's dismal. Worse, it's labeled a 'comedy'.
There's one problem with that label: there are no jokes. I take that back - there's *one* joke, which comes in the play's last two minutes, making the play a one-trick pony. Here and there throughout, there are a few lines which could conceivably pass for jokes - but, in order for them to pass, they would have to be delivered by female actors who are masters at imbuing unfunny lines with funny tones (Maggie Smith had mastered that).
When first performed, the play was considered 'shocking' since it deals with two married women who (prior to their marriages) each had a brief affair with a Frenchman - who now, seven years later and for reasons unsaid, breezes back into their lives.
We don't actually see Maurice until his deus ex machina appearance in the last ten minutes (so, until then, the actor playing him must sit offstage for most of every performance; gee, what fun).
The bulk of the play has Julia and Jane - the married women (and rather annoying, to boot) - fretting over and hotly anticipating Maurice's arrival. All of Act Two is nothing but a display of their frayed emotions, as they debate whether or not to drink champagne while eating the sumptuous meal served to them. Act Two becomes 'food as comedy', when wit would have been the obvious option. The play would require a director who is quite adept at creating stage business, to hide the fact that there's very little actual comedy.
The 1925 Broadway premiere lasted a month. In 1956, there was a revival at the now-defunct Playhouse Theater which, inexplicably, ran for seven months.
Coward would go on, also in 1925, to begin a more interesting (though spotty) career. Sometimes he would be particularly inspired. 'FA', alas, was not one of those occasions.
March 11, 2026
2.5, rounded up.
I actually saw this performed 50 years back in my undergraduate days in Berkeley and believe I liked it well enough. The impetus for the revisit is the imminent Broadway revival opening in a few weeks; the last one was back 70 years ago! It's NOT by any stretch top-drawer Coward - it suffers that artificial trite and trivial banter so much a hallmark of 20's drawing room comedies - which, of course, this IS!
It concerns two women, both of whom have been married for 5 years, and who are suffering the malaise that sets in around then. They both receive postcards from a former French lover they dallied with prior to marriage, which sets them all a twitter with anticipation and nostalgic horniness. The end of the play suggests perhaps a menage a trois between the three. This was all considered quite shocking back in the day, but seems quite tepid now.
Worse, there are very few actually funny lines - a brilliant director, working with a first-rate cast, could perhaps make something of it - but I fear it just will not work on Broadway in today's market. The elephant in the room is that the women have been married for only five years - which would lead one to believe they are at most in their late 20's = and the Bway cast is led by Rose Byrne and Kelli O'Hara, both stellar talents - but about 20 years too old for the parts. Oddly, the Frenchman is also cast with Mark Consuelos - obvs. for his eye-candy appeal and NOT for being French (maybe they'll change that to Spanish?
I actually saw this performed 50 years back in my undergraduate days in Berkeley and believe I liked it well enough. The impetus for the revisit is the imminent Broadway revival opening in a few weeks; the last one was back 70 years ago! It's NOT by any stretch top-drawer Coward - it suffers that artificial trite and trivial banter so much a hallmark of 20's drawing room comedies - which, of course, this IS!
It concerns two women, both of whom have been married for 5 years, and who are suffering the malaise that sets in around then. They both receive postcards from a former French lover they dallied with prior to marriage, which sets them all a twitter with anticipation and nostalgic horniness. The end of the play suggests perhaps a menage a trois between the three. This was all considered quite shocking back in the day, but seems quite tepid now.
Worse, there are very few actually funny lines - a brilliant director, working with a first-rate cast, could perhaps make something of it - but I fear it just will not work on Broadway in today's market. The elephant in the room is that the women have been married for only five years - which would lead one to believe they are at most in their late 20's = and the Bway cast is led by Rose Byrne and Kelli O'Hara, both stellar talents - but about 20 years too old for the parts. Oddly, the Frenchman is also cast with Mark Consuelos - obvs. for his eye-candy appeal and NOT for being French (maybe they'll change that to Spanish?
April 12, 2024
Okay, this may not be my favourite Noel Coward, but it was still very entertaining. I was especially fond of the end, which gave me a good laugh. Performances in the LA Theatre Works production all delivered. Definitely worth the read!
May 16, 2021
Got to see a stage reading of this my friends put on. Probably my favorite Coward! So damn funny. And she’s much better than say Wildes Ernest. The pace to this is much more my style. Plus my friends are so talented it’s intimidating. Love love love high end classic British comedy. Genius.
February 22, 2017
really quite hilarious particularly the ending!
February 20, 2024
Luchtig als een zeepbel, deze situatiekomedie van Noël Coward, die als een minder scherpe Oscar Wilde de frustraties en spelletjes in het huwelijk op de hak neemt. De confrontatie tussen de 2 vriendinnen die zowel zusters in de zonde zijn als dodelijke concurrenten is geestig opgebouwd, de ontknoping valt dan weer tegen, is onwaarschijnlijk.
January 29, 2018
Refreshing after the previous attempt at making serious statements on art in Design for Living, I think Coward is at his best when he's being a frothy concoction. This farce involves two couples and a romantic Frenchman from the past of both of the wives. The camaraderie of the two wives at the play's start gives way to gentle sniping which amps itself up into outright warfare and the result is a lot of fun. The husbands are the weakest part of the play, being the usual sort of boring old duffers, though that's partly the point of the play -- they've sunk into that role as though it were their due for being middling good.
January 11, 2026
Hilarious - two married women get postcards from the same French lover who they had flings with before getting married. His impending visit sends them through a variety of convulsions. Loved the housekeeper too, singing, correcting their French, telling stories.
January 17, 2026
Wonderful wordplay with a couple of stalling loves have a "little spice" in the form of a French interloper rekindle hysterical girlish giggles and banter with hilarious redemption from former nun and "Jill of all trades" - Saunders!
September 1, 2017
Frothy and funny.
August 4, 2018
Hay Fever is my favorite, but in every case, Coward’s sensibility brings civilization in a funny book of manners.
January 17, 2021
annette benning and judith ivey. what fun!
October 13, 2021
2.5⭐️ The premise is dated and awful. The dialogue is fun.
November 19, 2021
Posh people affair and a French man
February 8, 2022
It could be entertaining on stage but I wasn’t blown away. Would need a big stage and some actors to really make themselves look ridiculous to pull off properly.
July 14, 2022
A reasonably funny, but also overwrought, reworking of “Merry Wives of Windsor.”
November 2, 2022
A light and delightful play, a pleasant character play in which everything is in the dialogues. A wonderful little play.
February 4, 2023
Fantastic audio production of Coward's naughty comedy.
December 30, 2015
If I hadn't checked again, and once more, I would have sworn this was an Oscar Wilde creation. It's so funny, and it's neat to hear Annette Bening and Ray Montegna doing British dialogue. I could picture every minute of this short, rollicking play, apparently recorded from an LA Theater Works production. I'm a fan and will look for more like this.
April 14, 2008
This was fun - crazy and silly. Not quite as good as Hay Fever...but still very funny. A comedy about two "happily" married women whose former lover comes to town and throws them into chaotic insanity.
March 7, 2016
A delightful musing on keeping up appearances, the importance of truth and a few too many cocktails. Not Cowards best work but provides snappy dialogue for two female characters and, as always, an air of complicated sophistication.
June 11, 2016
The character of Saunders the maid steals the show. Two women with newer marriages go all a twitter when a lover from their younger years unexpectedly shows up. Ridiculous and clever questioning of love and marriage and the double standard of "sowing oats."
May 1, 2013
Silly, but funny little play. I giggled a lot while reading it.
July 17, 2015
This play is an absolutely delightful comedy as well as a very quick read. Tickled my funny bone! I'd love to see this done in a local community theater.
July 1, 2025
Stage play. Was kinda cute.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews