Can-Can / Mexican Hayride / The Pirate (Original Broadway Cast 1953, 1944)

Cole Porter was - without a doubt - the most well-travelled of all Broadway composers. His parties in Venice, cruises down the Rhine and hot nights in Bora-Bora were the stuff of legend.

But, most intriguingly, Porter's love of travel also made its way into his work. Some shows were set on cruises (Anything Goes), others on global journeys (Nymph Errant), or some in the kind of out-of-the-way places he adored, like Siberia (Leave It To Me) or the Panama Canal (Panama Hattie).

This collection is devoted to three musicals (two for stage, one for screen) that he wrote during the decade from 1943-1953 and it reflects a trio of his different geographic passions - France (Can-Can), Latin America (Mexican Hayride) and the Caribbean (The Pirate).

What's worth noting is the way that in each of the pieces he manages to give you a real flavour of the place you're visiting, while remaining quintessentially Cole Porter - with witty, wry lyrics and plangently haunting melodies.

Can-Can began with its producers, Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin. Feuer came back from a stint with the army in Paris during World War II convinced he wanted to do a musical set in Montmartre in the 1890s. Martin, who spent his life fighting censorship, knew the cultural climate of the times and felt it would make a great story.

The two men had scored their initial hits with Where's Charley? and Guys and Dolls, both scored by Frank Loesser, but they felt they needed a different sound this time around.

With musicals like Paris and Fifty Million Frenchmen under his belt, it's no wonder they turned to Porter. He instantly approved of the idea, but had no desire to meet with the librettist, Abe Burrows.

Even in this post-Oklahoma! era of increasingly integrated musicals, Porter wanted to keep working the way he always had.

'Just tell me what you want and I'll write it', he said to Feuer and Martin, 'let me stick to what I can do'.

Martin offered Porter one piece of advice before he began writing. He told him to avoid creating any songs about Paris itself because 'Songs about Paris are so stale'.

Had he known his composer better, he would have realized this was like waving a red flag at a bull. After one early production meeting, where Porter saw designer Jo Mielziner's spectacular painted backdrop of Paris, he calmly went home and went to work.