Ways and Means (play)

Ways and Means is a short comic play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings. The story concerns an heiress and her gambling husband, who are plagued by debt and embarrassment as everything seems to always go wrong for them. Their honour is saved just in time when a disgraced chauffeur tries to rob them but amiably ends up pulling them out of a hole.

In the introduction to a published edition of the plays, Coward wrote, "A short play, having a great advantage over a long one in that it can sustain a mood without technical creaking or over padding, deserves a better fate, and if, by careful writing, acting and producing I can do a little towards reinstating it in its rightful pride, I shall have achieved one of my more sentimental ambitions."

The play was first produced in London (1936), then in New York (1936–1937) and Canada (1938). It has enjoyed several major revivals and has been adapted for film.

Six of the plays in Tonight at 8:30 were first presented at the Manchester Opera House beginning on 15 October 1935, and a seventh play, Family Album, was added on the subsequent provincial tour. Ways and Means was added for the London run, together with Still Life and Star Chamber, the last of which was performed only once. The first London performance in the cycle was on 9 January 1936 at the Phoenix Theatre, but Ways and Means did not premiere until 5 May 1936.

Coward directed all ten pieces, and each starred Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. Coward said that he wrote them as "acting, singing, and dancing vehicles for Gertrude Lawrence and myself". The plays were performed in various combinations of three at each performance during the original run. The plays chosen for each performance were announced in advance, although a myth evolved that the groupings were random. Matinées were sometimes billed as Today at 2:30.

The Broadway openings for the three parts took place on 24 November 1936, 27 November 1936 and 30 November 1936 (including Ways and Means) at the National Theatre, again starring Coward and Lawrence. Star Chamber was omitted. The London and New York runs were limited only by Coward's boredom at long engagements.

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