PRIVATE LIVES arrives in the West End

Jonathan Kent's 2012 sell-out Chichester Festival prodution of Noël Coward's perennially popular PRIVATE LIVES hit London's West End this week with the transfer opening to another host of rave reviews.

The classic comedy plays at the Gielgud Theatre and stars Toby Stephens and Anna Chancellor as Elyot and Amanda, the ex-lovers who couldn't live together yet can't live apart, features Anna-Louise Plowman as Sybil and Anthony Calf as Victor, their new and thoroughly unsuitable respective spouses, and Sue Kelvin as Louise the French maid, with music by Matthew Scott.

* * * * * The Telegraph

* * * *    The Independent, The Times, The Evening Standard

Writing in  The Telegraph Charles Spencer proclaims it "a gloriously entertaining evening... offering two hours of comic bliss." while in The Independent, Paul Taylor agrees albeit more succinctly, concluding "Bliss; go."

Meanwhile, Libby Purves writing in The Times declares the evening "head-clutchingly funny, provoking helpless snorts of mirth".

And in The Evening Standard Henry Hitchings delights in the "deliciously fresh revival", going on to add "I can’t recall having seen [Toby Stephens] give a better performance than he does here."

The play runs at the Gielgud Theatre until 21 September. Tickets are available here.