Ace of Clubs (musical)
Ace of Clubs is a musical written, composed and directed by Noël Coward. The show is set in a 1949 London nightclub called "Ace of Clubs". Nightclub singer Pinkie Leroy falls in love with a sailor. Pinkie and her lover get mixed up with gangsters, a lost package and a missing diamond necklace. In the end, the police arrest the perpetrators, and Pinkie gets her man. The musical premiered at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, on 16 May 1950, followed by more tryouts at the Liverpool Empire Theatre and the Birmingham Alhambra Theatre. It transferred to the Cambridge Theatre, London, on 7 July 1950, where it ran for 211 performances until 6 January 1951. The cast included Pat Kirkwood, Sylvia Cecil, Graham Payn, Jean Carson and Myles Eason. Mantovani was the musical director. Stage and costume designs were by Gladys Calthrop. Despite its modest run, Ace of Clubs contained several songs that survived independently, in Coward's later cabaret acts and elsewhere, including "Sail Away" and "I Like America". A CD of the original London cast recording was released in 2004. Background After the Second World War Coward strove for a time to regain his pre-war popularity. His 1945 revue Sigh No