Greenwich Entertainment buys documentary about Noel Coward

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to Mad About the Boy: The Noel Coward Story, an intimate portrait of one of the greatest writers and funnymen of the 20th century.

Barnaby Thompson produced, wrote and directed the documentary about Coward, taking advantage of unprecedented access to Coward's estate. The film is told in his own words and with his own music, using his diaries, photographs and home videos, as well as archive interviews with Coward and his contemporaries. Alan Cummings is the narrator and Rupert Everett voices Coward.

Coward was a popular and celebrated playwright, actor, director, singer, songwriter and novelist. He wrote 60 plays, 500 songs, five screenplays, 14 films based on his plays, nine musicals, 300 poems, 21 short stories, two novels and three autobiographies. He also appeared in over 70 plays and 12 films.

But before he became famous, he grew up in poverty and left school at nine. He was also secretly gay, at a time when that was illegal. Despite his deprived childhood, Coward presented himself to the public as a heartthrob and the epitome of the laid-back English upper-class man. By the age of 30, he was the highest-paid writer in the world and a star on Broadway. He wrote, directed and acted in plays and films such as Private Lives, Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter and In Which We Serve. And despite having no formal musical training, he became a world-renowned songwriter and performer – Frank Sinatra once said, “If you want to hear how a song should be sung, go to Mr. Noël Coward.” He also discovered John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and David Lean and was a spy in World War II – but don't worry, he was for the Allies.

The documentary will arrive at New York's IFC Center on October 9, play in select theaters nationwide, and be available on home entertainment platforms starting October 11.

By the 1950s, Coward and his works fell out of fashion, replaced by a theater that emphasized realistic working-class stories, such as Look Back in Anger and A Taste of Honey. But after several of his shows flopped, he reinvented himself as a cabaret performer in Las Vegas. In the 1960s, Coward was knighted and his work received new recognition.

“One can only admire Coward's dazzling career, and the fact that his plays are among the most frequently revived suggests that his wit never goes out of style. It is Barnaby's telling of his personal story and the touch of pathos that Coward did his best to conceal that makes the narrative so poignant and relevant,” says Edward Arentz, co-president of Greenwich.

Thompson produced the film with Gregor Cameron. Executive producers were Stanley Buchthal, Bob Benton, Amanda Ghost, Len Blavatnik and Vince Holden. International sales were handled by London-based Altitude Film Sales and the deal was negotiated by Altitude's Mike Runagall and Greenwich's Arentz.