Review: Private Lives

By strange coincidence, this is another play that features Solomon Isaacs (see above). Here his name is a codeword to stop bickering turning into hitting when Kim Catrall's explosive Amanda goes toe to toe with Mathew Macfadyen's equally volatile Elyot. In this revival of Noel Coward's fizzing comedy, Catrall delivers a performance that is pitch perfect in posh accent and brimful of wit. Macfadyen matches her for acidic charm. But director Richard Eyre fails to re-energise the play. His back-to-basics version, though entertaining, feels more like a classic exhumed than revived. (www.vaudeville-theatre.co.uk)