There's a moment, about 20 minutes into Noel Coward's "Private Lives" — which opened at Broadway's Music Box Theatre last night — when Kim Cattrall (best known as the sexpot Samantha in "Sex and the City") proves that she's right where she belongs.

It doesn't come with a steamy sex scene.

It's not about suggestive dialogue.

It's a simple twist of the head and a flash of wide-eyed recognition.

Her character, Amanda, has just realized that her ex-husband, Elyot (the Canadian star

 

 

 

 

 

Kim Cattrall, an international star of film, TV and stage, starred as Amanda in Sir Richard Eyre's production of Private Lives at London's Vaudeville Theatre in 2010.  The production received rave reviews from the critics and played a sell-out season.  It will play a limited run at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre prior to Broadway.  Cattrall will be joined by Paul Gross in the role of Elyot.  One of Canada's most acclaimed actors, Gross starred in such TV shows as Due South and Slings and Arrows.  The cast is completed by Simon Paisley Day; Anna Madeley and Caroline Olsson.

Considered one of the greatest comedies ever written, Noël Coward's Private Lives premiered in London in 1930 and has been produced around the world ever since; it premiered on Broadway in 1931.  Glamorous, rich and reckless, Amanda (Cattrall) and Elyot (Gross) have been divorced from each other for five years. Now both are honeymooning with their new spouses in the South of France. When, by chance, they meet again across adjoining hotel balconies, their insatiable feelings for each other are immediately rekindled. They hurl themselves headlong into love and lust without a care for scandal, new partners or memories of what drove them apart in the first place…for a little while, anyway.

The design team is Rob Howell (set and costumes) and David Howe (lighting). Private Lives is produced by Duncan C. Weldon, Paul Elliott, Theatre Royal Bath, Terri and Timothy Childs, Sonia Friedman and David Mirvish.

 

 

 

 

Tickets are available through www.telecharge.com, 212 239 6200.
The playing schedule is Tue. @ 7 PM, Wed.-Sat. @at 8 PM, Wed. & Sat. @ 2 PM, Sun. @ 3 PM.
Tickets are $121.50 and $66.50 at all performances except Wednesday matinee when they are $121.50 and $46.50.

Top two photos by Cylla von Tiedemann; third photo by Nobby Clark.