At times, Howard Davies' staging of Noel Coward's classic comedy feels like it's going to be the Private Lives. Lindsay Duncan, with her effortless glamour, smashing smile and insouciant delivery, could not be bettered as Amanda; while, apart from a couple of unnecessary winks to the audience, Alan Rickman casually underplays ex-husband Elyot. (He's so laid back, in fact, that he occasionally fails to project.) Adam Godley convinces as Amanda's stuffed-shirt new hubby; Emma Fielding makes a lively, wacky Sibyl. All those elements in place, the opening sequence is pure delight as the newlyweds conceal the presence of their exes to their newbies. Elyot and Amanda's romantic idyll is treated, rightfully, as a hermetic tryst that borders on despair as much as it does bliss, but the pace is slowed to a water drip, and Ms. Duncan simply should not sing. The slapsticky stuff that follows feels artificial, especially the let-down ending.
