Private Lives

All you want to know about Private Lives

Private Lives is a play written by Noel Coward in 1930. Coward, who also starred in the first production alongside Gertrude Lawrence and Laurence Olivier, wrote the play specifically with Lawrence in mind. The play was conceived on a trip around the world, and completed in only four days, while Coward was convalescing in the Peace Hotel (then known as the Cathay Hotel) in Shanghai after a bout of influenza. It was Coward's most enduringly successful work and is generally regarded as the high point of his career both commercially and artistically.

He had always declared that no leading lady would ever play the role of Amanda as well as Gertrude Lawrence did. But on the last evening he would ever spend in London, a friend urged him to see the new production with Maggie Smith in the part. Tired and ill, he reluctantly forced himself to go along to the Queens Theatre for the show. But at the end, he admitted that Maggie Smith's performance was the best he'd ever seen.

1 Plot summary
2 Original Cast
3 Reception
4 Productions on Broadway
5 External links

Plot summary

The action concerns a divorced couple, Amanda and Elyot, both recently remarried, who accidentally book adjoining suites at the same hotel for their honeymoons. The play centres on the two leads and their agonising realisation that they still care for each other, and contains some of Coward's best dialogue.

Original Cast

Role	Premiere Cast, 8 September 1930 London, The Phoenix Theatre	Broadway Premiere Cast, 27 January 1931 New York, Times Square Theatre
Amanda Prynne	Gertrude Lawrence	Gertrude Lawrence
Elyot Chase	Noel Coward	Noel Coward
Victor Prynne	Laurence Olivier	Laurence Olivier
Sybil Chase	Adrianne Allen	Jill Esmond
Louise	Everley Gregg	Therese Quadri

Reception

The play contains many of Coward's most quotable lines, as well as the original song "Someday I'll Find You", and - despite having been written specially for Lawrence - has nonetheless fared well since its inception. A sound recording of Coward and Lawrence performing scenes from the play, made by HMV in the 1930s, still survives and is available on CD, and the play was referenced heavily in the 1945 British farce See How They Run.

Productions on Broadway

Private Lives has been produced on Broadway seven times, beginning with the first production in 1931, and most recently in 2002. Other actresses who have played the character of "Amanda" on Broadway include Lindsay Duncan (2002), Joan Collins (1992), Elizabeth Taylor (1983), Maggie Smith (1975), Tammy Grimes (1969), and Tallulah Bankhead (1948).