Words and Music opened in London at the Adelphi Theatre on 16 September 1932, after a Manchester Opera House tryout in August 1932.

It consisted of a series of sketches, some with songs, and starred Ivy St. Helier, Joyce Barbour, John Mills, Romney Brent, Doris Hare, Moya Nugent and Effie Atherton and, in a small part, Graham Payn.

The paper thought "Something to do with Spring" the only failure in the show, praised "Mad About the Boy", "Midnight Matinée" and the parodies of Casanova and Journey's End, and was undecided about "Let's Say Goodbye."

[4] The Daily Mirror commented, Words and Music "bears the stamp of genius.... 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' is another song that goes with such snap and sparkle that it is bound to be heard wherever there are gramophones and pianos....

[7] In 2013 Lost Musicals presented the show in concert at the intimate Lilian Baylis Studio of Sadler's Wells Theatre in London.

The sketch ended with the song "Let’s Live Dangerously", "a merry little skit on present day habits"[5] (In the order printed in The Lyrics of Noël Coward, pp.