Constant Laughter
Review of the Samuel French paperback edition (April 21, 2017) of the original written in (1939) and published by Samuel French (1943).

This is another case of my wanting to read the original playscript after seeing a theatrical production. The "live" production though was a recent rebroadcast by National Theatre Live (NTLive) of a 2019 performance filmed at the Old Vic theatre with actor Andrew Scott in the lead role of Garry Essendine.

The part of Garry Essendine was premiered by the playwright Noël* Coward and the role can be said to be a hyper-fictionalized version of himself, a successful actor, playwright, producer and songwriter. Various other roles in the play parallel his managers and secretaries in real life as well. Some of that background can be read on Wikipedia. In the play version, Essendine is a self-centred and needy character (someone noted that the name is an anagram for Neediness) who wants to be loved by everyone and tries to please everybody to their face, but regrets his overcommitments in hindsight. His secretary Monica and ex-wife Liz try to save him from various entanglements along the way.

Liz: Well, dial my number and when I answer just say, "I'm sorry - wrong number," then I shall know.
Garry: What will you know?
Liz: That everything's all right. But if you say I'm so terribly sorry it's a wrong number, I'll know everything's all wrong and be round in a flash to back you up.
Garry: Intrigue! My whole existence is enmeshed in intrigue.
...
[later, in Act 3, after three different people have tried forcing themselves on Garry and he has had to hide them in various rooms of his apartment so that they don't meet each other.]
Garry: What is the meaning of this Joanna?
Joanna: Don't you know?
Garry: Yes, I do.
Joanna: What are you going to do about it?
(Garry goes to the telephone. He dials a number.) (Pause.)
What are you doing?
Garry: Telephoning. (At telephone.) Hallo - Hallo - Oh, I'm so terribly terribly terribly sorry, it's a wrong number! (He hangs up.)

The NTLive production takes a radical step in adaptation though.

Spoiler

It gender-swaps the married couple of Joanna and Henry. So that it is Henry (renamed Hugo for the adaptation) that has a one-night stand with bi-sexual Garry, instead of Joanna. That also means that Henry/Hugo's affair with Morris was a homosexual one. These changes were approved by the Coward Estate as it was seen as a probable twist that Coward himself would have done, had homosexuality not been illegal in Britain at the time.

. The end result is the same regardless and the comedy antics of the "morning after" and the later revelations are just as funny.


Andrew Scott as Garry and Indira Varma as Liz in the NTLive production of Present Laughter. Image sourced from Sedona Film Festival.

The audience that I saw this with was roaring throughout and it is certainly Andrew Scott that carried the performance, but the entire cast played their roles to the hilt. Coward's original script is a timeless comic effort which was shown to handle contemporary adaptation with ease.

Footnote
* Coward apparently always insisted on having the diaeresis over the letter e, as he said that otherwise people might pronounce his name as "Nool".

Soundtrack
Nothing to do with this play, but I couldn't help but come across the Noël Coward classic song Mad Dogs and Englishmen while searching through YouTube, so here is a recording from 1932 which you can listen to here. The lyrics are partially displayed in the video but are also completely transcribed in the description.

Trivia and Links
There is a trailer for the 2019 NTLive production which you can see on YouTube here. Director Matthew Warchus and actor Andrew Scott discuss their adaptation of the play in a dialogue which you can see on YouTube here.