Susan Granger’s review of “Noel Coward’s Private Lives” (Music Box Theater 2011-2012 season)
After watching all three seasons of the hilarious Canadian cult TV series “Slings and Arrows,” I became convinced that Paul Gross is one of the most compelling of actors. Why he hasn’t become a Hollywood star baffles me. So when I realized that he’s paired with Kim Cattrall in this revival of Noel Coward’s campy romantic comedy, set in the 1930s, there was no keeping me away from the Music Box Theater.
Sexy Amanda (Cattrall) and debonair Elyot (Gross) were once married. Five years after their divorce, they’ve just acquired new spouses and meet by accident, sipping cocktails on adjoining balconies of a hotel in France. Sparks reignite as it becomes obvious that her doting but dull groom, Victor (Simon Paisley Day), is no match for petulant, powerful Amanda, and Elyot’s naïve bride, Sybil (Anna Madeley), is far too prim and proper to keep him interested for long. Impetuously, the reunited lovers bolt to an apartment in Paris, followed by the jilted spouses they left behind, demanding to know what happened.
“That sort of attraction can’t be explained,” Amanda says.
In Act II, Amanda and Elyot confront the reality of their tempestuous reconciliation. They’re still squabbling but, perhaps, now that they’re older and wiser, they can make the relationship work, invoking a two-minute period of silence when they’re in the midst of an argument. Amusing, incisive and insightful, Noel Coward’s droll romp explores the inability of women and men to live with or without each other.
Best known as vampy Samantha Jones in “Sex and the City,” curvy Kim Cattrall, who has been with director Sir Richard Eyre’s production since it debuted in 2010 in the U.K., is incandescent, while distinguished Paul Gross smolders as the endearing, irresistible cad who believes that women should be struck regularly, like gongs. Together, they exude combustible comedic chemistry.
Rob Howell’s stylish sets are glorious, particularly the Parisian pied-a-terre, complete with a round window, shaped like a ship’s porthole, love seats, a piano (which Gross plays) and an aquarium filled with goldfish in three tiers of bowls.
If you’re looking for romance and laughter, “Private Lives” a “must see.”