Kay Hammond and John Clements as Amanda and Elyot. Photo by Alexander Bender. From Theatre World, December 1944, p.24.
Revival 1
Private Lives received its first London revival in November 1944 when it was staged at the Apollo Theatre under the direction of John Clements, with Clements and his wife Kay Hammond as the leads. The season commenced out of town with a tour that saw the play performed at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle (10 July), Lyric Theatre, Edinburgh (17 July), Theatre Royal, Glasgow (14 July), Her Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen (31 July), Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool (7 August), Opera House, Manchester (14 August), New Theatre, Hull (21 August), Prince of Wales, Cardiff (28 August), Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth (11 September), New Theatre, Oxford (18 September), Opera House, Leicester (25 September), New Theatre, Northampton (9 October) and Grand Theatre, Blackpool (16 October).
Ahead of the London production, The Tatler (11 October 1944) observed:
New Team-Work in “Private Lives”
Kay Hammond and John Clements Re-Live the Roles Created by Gertrude Lawrence and Noël Coward
Just fourteen years after its original presentation at the Phoenix Theatre, Noël Coward’s Private Lives is to be revived. The parts of Amanda and Elyot, created so unforgettably by Gertrude Lawrence and the author himself, are to be played by Kay Hammond and John Clements, and West End playgoers are to be given another chance of enjoying the wit and craftsmanship which have made this comedy generally acknowledged as one of Mr. Coward’s greatest successes. The play has been touring the provinces, and is due to come to London at the end of this month. At the dress rehearsal, which was played to an all-military audience, Mr. Coward made a preliminary speech in which he said that if he had been invited to name successors to the parts originally played by Miss Lawrence and himself in Private Lives, he could not have chosen better than the two people now standing behind the curtain “in a state of frozen misery laced with defiance.” Kay Hammond has been a Coward heroine since the summer of 1941, when she created Elvira, the ghost-wife in Blithe Spirit. John Clements (last seen in They Came to a City) is directing the production, and the parts played originally by Adrianne Allan and Laurence Olivier will be taken by Peggy Simpson and Raymond Huntley.
The London cast comprised:
On tour the role of Sybil was played by Lesley Brook.
Private Lives held the stage at the Apollo from 1 November to 8 June 1946, transferring to the Fortune Theatre on 10 June. The final performance was given on 20 July 1946. A total of 717 performances.
During the course of the run, the roles of Amanda and Elyot were also played by Googie Withers and Hugh Sinclair. In his autobiography Life with Googie (1979), John McCallum recalled: ‘Private Lives is still Googie’s favourite play, and Amanda is her favourite part. It is witty and spirited, and in addition to getting all the comedy out of the part Googie also brought a sincerity and warmth to it ... Googie told me later that she used to look forward all day to going to the theatre at night to play Amanda. And that is something which is rare in the theatre.’ McCallum also noted Withers’ admiration of Noël Coward, saying he ‘gave her more direction in three words that many other directors had given her in three weeks’.
Program cover
Closing scene from Act 2. Photo by Alexander Bender.
From The Tatler and Bystander, 10 January 1945, p.49.
THE APOLLO “PRIVATE LIVES”
On Wednesday last H.M. Tennent, Ltd., and John C. Wilson presented here a revival of the comedy by Noël Coward.
After the first performance one was told separately by both professional and amateur play goers that no play recently revived after a long interval seemed to them so little “dated.” This view runs counter to the general opinion of theatre-goers, but it is worth considering. In one sense at least the minority view has justification. Unless memory falls, there is not a single reference in the text of “Private Lives” to world affairs or personalities. Elyot, Amanda, Victor, and Sybil live in a peace-time world of leisured luxury, with every chance to travel abroad. Otherwise, the story of the play, such as it is, might have been as easily set in the London of 1944 as the Paris of 1930. The next question, in considering the play as a modern work, is whether the characters could exist in the Europe of today. No dogmatic answer is possible. The divorced couple who come together again and alternately coo and quarrel until one quarrel ends in a rough-and-tumble fight all over the furniture and floor are indeed typical of Mr. Coward’s creations before he discovered the virtues of “this happy breed” of middle-class English people. But it is only necessary to read the columns of the popular Press, and to study the queer human stories which they throw up even in this sixth year of total war, to guess confidently that people such as Elyot and Amanda may well be carrying on in precisely the same way to-day. And the cynic is even more certain that it the war ever ends the re-actions of peace will produce precisely similar types over again. Patrons of this revival, therefore, need not necessarily regard “Private Lives” as a period-piece, as a study of people, however essentially worthless, whose way of life has gone for ever. It is virtually certain, on the contrary, that such considerations will not occur to the mind of the average man or woman revelling in this slight but irresistible frolic.
It is almost certainly the best and wittiest of the author’s cocktail comedies, although the last act is inevitably something of an anti-climax. For we never doubt that Elyot and Amanda will once again become partners in amity after their scrap. Incidentally. Mr. Coward seems to have regarded his final curtain with peculiar satisfaction. At any rate, he used almost an identical device to round off his “Present Laughter,” seen in London only last year.
The production at the Apollo reaches the West End after a longish tour, and the company have had plenty of time to bring their performances to the high state of polish which they have in fact attained. John Clements, whose perfectly-timed production doubtless owes much to the original presentation at the Phoenix in 1930, plays the old Coward part in almost precisely the old Coward manner—easy, assured and impudent. Elyot thoroughly deserves every insulting epithet that is hurled at him (with cushions and ornaments) by Amanda and (without these accompaniments) by Amanda’s deserted second husband, Victor, and his own deserted second wife, Sybil. Yet it is the author’s—and the actor’s—achievement to make the man rather charming in his way. Certainly, we never have a dull moment in his company. Kay Hammond, as the new Amanda, may lack just the ultimate touch of provocative audacity which Gertrude Lawrence achieved 14 years ago. But her delicious, petulant, husky manner is alone sufficient to account for Elyot’s continued attraction by this naughty but most charming magnet. In his curtain speech on the first night Mr. Coward referred to Miss Hammond as his “dear Blithe Spirit.” She is indeed the ideal actress to carry on the Coward comedy tradition. Her performance in this revival is as attractive as it is amusing. Raymond Huntley, whom we have come recently to associate mainly with rather serious parts, often in Mr. Priestley’s plays, shows the soundest sense of humour as the solemn, humourless dog, Victor, while Peggy Simpson sobs her way conscientiously through the part of Sybil, who is so basely treated by Elyot but is driven ultimately to strike her protector, Victor. Yvonne Andre is a realistic French servant in the new revival. Gladys Calthrop’s decor is as attractive as ever. Acknowledging the enthusiastic first-night reception, Mr. Coward put on an excellent extra turn on his own account. In the manner of an old man, he recalled nostalgically the original production, talked of his “ageing eyes,” and of his former squabbles with the dramatic critics, and regretted that poor old Gertie Lawrence could not have come along in her bath-chair to revive ancient memories.
The Stage, 9 November 1944, p.1
Tom Titt once again captured the antics of Elyot and Amanda. From The Tatler and Bystander, 15 November 1944, p.198.
APOLLO THEATRE, “PRIVATE LIVES”, BY Noël COWARD
Mr. John Clements and Miss Kay Hammond succeed in renewing an old theatrical delight, and there need be no false note in the enthusiastic applause which comes to them by right. But it would be a mere politeness to pretend that they succeed perfectly in their extraordinarily difficult task and to spare them the comparisons. Comparisons are inevitable, for Elyot and Amanda are not so much characters in a play as “turns” devised by Mr. Coward for himself and Miss Gertrude Lawrence. Fresh readings of character are barely conceivable. Mr. Clements is practically bound to impersonate Mr. Coward, and this he does remarkably well. Naturally he lacks something of the speed which Mr. Coward can impart to a sudden flippancy, the intensity with which a highly individualized kind of bickering remark is apt to be flung across the stage. That is to say little more than that he lacks the precise hue of a personality not his own. But he is suave, he can preserve his amiability through jealous tantrums and the free fight on the sofa, and in the sentimental passages he has skill in embellishing speech with silence.
Miss Hammond and he are well matched, she succeeding no less well than he in overcoming inevitable difficulties rather greater than his. When Amanda is wayward (and the intervals in her waywardness are of an astounding brevity), and when Amanda is petulant (which is pretty often), Miss Hammond has a brilliant sparkle. It is only in the transitions from sentiment to capricious speculation that her lightness of movement is in doubt. At any rate, both players handle their nonsense amusedly and both are highly amusing, while poor Miss Peggy Simpson and poor Mr. Raymond Huntley do wonders with necessary appearances which are not even “turns”. When the play was new, it was just one more revelation of Mr. Coward's unsurpassed gift for combining entertainment with nothingness. Now it is scarcely less entertaining and it has also the taking air of being a period piece. It reflects a now incredibly remote day when it was theatrically fashionable to be not quite adult and to flourish with mocking self-pity, souls which were “jagged with sophistication.” Theatrical fashions are apt to cling to periods, and so plausible is the reflection which Mr. Coward cast in this and other comedies that it would not be surprising if dramatists of the future, wishing to set a play in the nineteen twenties, were to accept his authority as naturally as they would go to the Restoration dramatists for their ideas of the Restoration.
The Times, 2 November 1944, p.6
Revival 2
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The cast
The next major London revival took place in 1963, the play opening at the Hampstead Theatre Club on 24 April 1963, with Rosemary Martin and Edward de Souza as the on-again, off again couple. It transferred to the Duke of York’s Theatre, running from 3 July 1963 to 4 January 1964.
This modern dress production was directed by James Roose-Evans; with sets by Christian Kurvenal and costumes by William Rothery.
The cast comprised:
TIMELESS REVIVAL OF COWARD
Hampstead Theatre Club: Private Lives.
Those who, not having seen them or having done so but not having enjoyed them, still are curious about Mr. Noël Coward’s earlier plays, should take care not to miss Mr. James Roose-Evans’s production of Private Lives. It recaptures the element that has often been missing from revivals, especially those which emphasized the outward signs of the play’s period. That is the element of disciplined gaiety, of delight on the author's part in exercising his wit and indulging his love of life in a manner worthy of them. Mr. Roose-Evans has deliberately got away from “period”. Amanda (Miss Rosemary Martin) here wears slacks at dinner. The Duke of Westminster’s yacht, which Elyot (Mr. Edward de Souza) identifies, has become Mr. Aristotle Onassis’s. The effect of modern dress is to abolish the significance of dress, and to invite us to consider the couple not as creatures of an epoch but as timeless figures of fun pinned down by one man’s intermittent wit. Miss Martin really draws us inside Amanda’s mind during the long duologue in Act Two.
The Times, 26 April 1963, p.6
DELIGHTFUL COWARD REVIVAL
The Hampstead Theatre Club’s delightful modern dress revival of “Private Lives” which opened last week, emphasises the agelessness of this irresistible comedy. Like some priceless ornament Mr. Coward’s piece is simply to be looked at, enjoyed, and admired for its artistry; serious effort on behalf of the on looker is not demanded, and in the theatre today this is a novel experience.
MOVING
Dismissing ghosts of illustrious predecessors, Edward De Souza as Elyot Chase and Rosemary Martin as Amanda Prynne both give performances of exceptional merit. They handle the cascading conversation adroitly, and give moving performances in the second act, which deals almost exclusively with the subtleties of their relationship. Unavoidably in the shadows thrown by these two dominant characters, Roger Booth as Victor and Sarah Harter as the whimpering Sibyl are nevertheless perfect foils. Direction by James Roose-Evans keeps the play springy, and shows technique of a high rating. Christian Kurvenal’s setting for Amanda’s Paris flat won a burst of spontaneous applause on the first night; indeed the airy luxury apartment is completely realistic, and this designer’s skill makes the Hampstead stage look about thrice its normal size.
The Stage, 2 May 1963, p.13
Revival 3
Advertising flyer
Program cover
Another decade would lapse before the next major West End revival. This took place at the Queen’s Theatre, opening on 21 September 1972, and transferring to the Globe Theatre on 2 July 1973, finally closing on 26 January 1974. This production was directed by John Gielgud. The set was designed by Anthony Powell, with costumes by Beatrice Dawson, and lighting by Joe Davis. The central characters were played by husband-and-wife team Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens. Reviews of their performances and of John Gielgud’s direction were positive, but privately, the production was fraught. Irving Wardle in his review in The Times (22 September 1972) called Smith and Stephens ‘beautifully matched’ but in reality their marriage was on the rocks and by April 1973 John Standing had replaced Stephens as Elyot. John Standing (b.1934) was the son of Kay Hammond (who played Amanda in the 1944 London revival) and her first husband Sir Ronald George Leon.
Maggie Smith received the Variety Club’s Best Actress Award for her performance. In 1964, Smith had been seen in the Noël Coward directed National Theatre revival of Hay Fever at the Old Vic. Smith played Myra Arundel, alongside a starry cast that included Edith Evans as Judith Bliss. Four years earlier, in 1960, she had played the role of Jackie Coryton for television when Hay Fever was presented as ITV’s Play of the Week. Edith Evans played Judith Bliss in the version also.
The cast for the Queen’s Theatre comprised:
On 30 July 1973, at the Globe Theatre, the cast changed again. Jill Bennett took over as Amanda, with Geoffrey Palmer and Pinkie Johnstone as the new Victor and Sybil. Although many critics felt Jill Bennett was miscast (‘The sophistication of the time ... seemed to elude her’, wrote one critic), the play enjoyed an extended run.
The Gielgud production was also performed on Broadway in 1975.
Revival 4
Cover of Greenwich program
Duchess Theatre program cover
On 18 March 1980, Private Lives was revived at the Greenwich Theatre in outer London. This production, directed by Alan Strachan, with sets and costumes by Peter Rice, and lighting by Nick Chelton, transferred to the Duchess Theatre from 16 April 1980.
The cast comprised:
Peter Hepple, reviewing the play for The Stage (13 March 1980) pronounced Aitken and Jayston ‘quite superb’, going on to say: ‘The former is a marvellous Coward heroine, tall and elegant, able to make slightly outlandish fashions look just right and getting the most out of every line. Michael Jayston, though inevitably trailing some echoes of Coward himself, is an admirable partner, crisp and assured.’
Revival 5
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Scenes from the play
A decade later, Private Lives received its fifth West End revival, when it opened at the Aldwych Theatre on 19 September 1990 with Joan Collins as Amanda and Keith Baxter as Elyot. Presented by Michael Codron, the play was directed by Tim Luscombe; with designs by Carl Toms; and lighting by Leonard Tucker. The comedy played a week at the Theatre Royal, Bath, 4–15 September, prior to opening in London.
A rare stage appearance for Collins, who was best known as a TV actress, according to the program notes, her appearance in Private Lives was ‘the fulfillment of a secret dream … a dream she has had since her days as a drama student’.
The cast comprised:
Under the heading ‘All that glitters is not gold’, Peter Hepple, writing for The Stage (27 September 1990), felt that, despite having the glamorous Joan Collins as one of the leads, the revival at the Aldwych ‘doesn’t get the real star treatment it so richly deserves’. Collins made a ravishing leading lady—‘it is easy to see why her Amanada should have captivated both the dashing, mercuriel Elyot and the pompous, very English Victor’—but ‘her voice is not very strong and her sentences have a habit of trailing off.’ While ‘Keith Baxter is a more jovial Elyot than one might expect, lacking something in acidity’. Carl Toms’ set on the other hand was described as a ‘masterpiece’.
Further revivals
Lyttelton Theatre, London, 7 May 1999—6 September 1999, with Juliet Stevenson and Anton Lesser
Albery Theatre, London, 21 September 2001—3 March 2002, with Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman
Hampstead Theatre, London, 22 January 2009—28 February 2009, with Claire Price and Jasper Britton
Gielgud Theatre, London, 3 July 2013—21 September 2013, with Anna Chancellor and Toby Stephens
Toby Stephens is the son of Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens and thus, was following in his parent’s footsteps in playing the same role that his father had in the 1972 revival. This revival originated as a transfer of the 2012 Minerva Theatre production at the Chichester Festival Theatre complex. See http://passiton.cft.org.uk/archive/cast-list-private-lives-2012/ for further details
Donmar Warehouse, London, 7 April 2023—27 May 2023, with Rachael Stirling and Stephen Mangan
