Gertrude Lawrence

Gertrude Lawrence was one of Great Britain's brightest theatrical stars during the first half of the 20th century. A lifelong friend and colleague of Noel Coward, Lawrence's forte was sophisticated musical comedy, where she exuded a lively, charismatic stage presence that easily overcame her shortcomings as a singer. She was sometimes criticized for a small vocal range and a tendency to sing flat, but her emotional commitment and flat-out star power earned her the approval of most of the musical legends she worked with (Coward, the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Rodgers & Hammerstein, etc.). Her recorded legacy is somewhat limited, as she was most in her element on-stage in theaters or cabarets, but enough documentation exists to bring her talents into focus for modern listeners. Gertrude Lawrence -- or Gertie, as she was affectionately called -- was born Gertrud Alexandra Dagmar Klasen on July 4, 1898, in the Newington area of London. Her father was a Danish-born singer and actor who worked under the name Arthur Lawrence, and her mother also had a strong interest in the theater. According to legend, Lawrence spent much of her childhood in poverty; while it was true that her father didn't earn much of an income, his alcoholism led to a divorce early in Lawrence's childhood, and her mother soon remarried into a more comfortable life. In 1908, supported by her mother and grandmother, Lawrence made her first stage appearance as a child dancer in the show Babes in the Wood. She subsequently trained as an actress with Italia Conte, who helped iron out her Cockney dialect, and landed chorus roles in several plays over 1911-1913. As part of the London-based Liverpool Repertory Company, Lawrence met the similarly teenaged Noel Coward during a 1913 production of Hannele,...