CALLING all Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Top cabaret artists Dillie Keane and Kit and the Widow have joined forces in a fabulous tribute to Noël Coward that is back on the stage after several decades of darkness.

Cowardy Custard is the story of Coward’s life made up frommore than 40 of his brilliant songs as well as unpublished material, excerpts from Coward’s diaries and autobiographies and scenes from Tonight at 8.30, Present Laughter and Design for Living.

The show stars Olivier Award-nominated actress, singer and comedienne Dillie Keane, best known as the lead member of Fascinating Aïda and frequent contributor to BBC’s Grumpy Old Women.

She shares the stage with leading society cabaret act Kit and The Widow and two of the West End’s fastest rising young performers, Stuart Neal and Savannah Stevenson.

The show was first staged in the 1970s and seen by Coward himself, who thought it was great. Due to the reservations of Coward’s estate, it was then taken off the stage and this is your fist opportunity to see it since.

Kit Hesketh, of Kit and the Widow, said: “The show is such a fantastic introduction to Coward because he was such a rich and varied songwriter and covered everything from heartbreak to really funny stuff. It is such a rich tapestry.

“Coward was just brilliant and I don’t think there has been his equal before or since. It was not just a case of combining his talents as an actor and playwright, but he was also a composer, lyricist, spy, man about town and a brilliant diarist.

“People said that his was a typical upper class, right-wing, out-of-date Englishness, but in fact he was a lower-middle class boy from Teddington who kept his finger on the pulse – and that can be seen in songs like London pride which he wrote in the war. He knew how people felt.”

This affectionate tribute has been revisited and revised by Alan Strachan, who with Gerald Frow and Wendy Toye created the original after the seventieth birthday of The Master in 1970.

It had a triumphant first night at the Mermaid Theatre in 1972 and ran for over a year.

“Our show is more of a revue than anything and it gives people the chance to listen to songs that are usually not heard outside cabaret. There is Dillie and us, who are the old timers, then we have Stuart and Savannah who are just brilliant,” said Kit.

“They are from the younger generation who grew up without Coward and didn’t know his stuff but they love it now. I, however, was brought up on a veranda in east Africa and at that time, Coward was the quintessential English gentleman.

“My favourite of his songs is Matelot, purely for sentimental reasons and because it is such an achingly beautiful song that you can’t imagine it not having been written before. The writing is so effortless you just sit there and think ‘why did no one write it before?’ ”

Cowardy Custard is at Lighthouse in Poole from today until Thursday. Call 0844 406 8666 for bookings and full details.