Design for Living (a comedy play), written by Noël Coward (1899-1973), and produced at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theatre, on January 24th, 1933 and ran for 135 performances.

   Scenes from Design for Living (a comedy play), written by the English dramatist Noël Coward (1899-1973), and produced at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theatre, on January 24th, 1933 and ran for 135 performances. 

   This play concerns a trio of artistic characters, Gilda, Otto and Leo, and their complicated three-way relationship. Originally written to star Lynn Fontanne, Alfred Lunt and Coward, it was premiered on Broadway, partly because its risqué subject matter was thought unacceptable to the official censor in London.

   Design for Living moved to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City on January 24, 1933, after opening at the Hanna Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 2. Although the play is high comedy, indirectly it reflects the grim world of the 1930’s, a world in which frivolous laughter barely conceals despair. 

Lynn Fontanne, Gladys Henson, Ethel Borden, Alan Campbell, Noel Coward, and Alfred Lunt in Design for Living.

Noël Coward and Lynn Fontanne in the original Broadway production of "Design for Living."

Lunt, Coward and Fontanne in Design for Living

The play starred ALFRED LUNT, LYNN FONTANNE and NOEL COWARD and featured CAMPBELL GULLAN, GLADYS HENSON, PHILIP TONGE, WARD BISHOP, ETHEL BORDEN, PHYLLIS CONNARD, ALAN CAMPBELL and MACLEARY STINNETT.