Mad Dogs and Englishmen (song) Mad Dogs and Englishmen (song) "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" is a song written by Noël Coward and first performed in "The Third Little Show" at the Music Box Theatre, New York, on 1 June 1931, by Beatrice Lillie. The following year it was used in the revue "Words and Music" and also released in a "studio version". It then became a signature feature in Coward's cabaret act. The song is especially known for the line "Only Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun" with which most verses begin and end. According to Sheridan Morley, Coward wrote the
Romney Brent End", and as a missionary in a sketch in which he sang Coward's famous song "Mad Dogs and Englishmen". While in London, he directed a Herbert Farjeon revue and wrote the book for Cole Porter's "Nymph Errant". In 1933 Brent was cast as Paul, Duc de Chaucigny-Varennes in Coward's "Conversation Piece" but struggled with the role and was replaced by Coward himself, to whom Brent gladly handed it over, adding "providing you let me still come to rehearsals and watch you find out what a bloody awful part it is." In New York in the 1930s, Brent created the role