Kim Cattrall knows how to make an entrance. Dressed only in a big white towel and diamond earrings, platinum hair impeccably coiffed, she’s divinely luminescent and she positively dazzles the crowd. Theater audiences always applaud when a star arrives on stage. The Private Lives audience cheers for Cattrall.

Those who think her only acting experience is as the uber-sexy Samantha in the Sex and the City series and movies need only read her bio to realize her theater resume is robust. And it shows; she is supremely confident at commanding a stage. She also manages to make Amanda seem warm and sympathetic, no mean feat for a character created to be as cold, bitchy, and self-centered as ever was written in a play.

I suspect this is in no small part because of the sparks that fly with leading man Paul Gross. It’s hard to understand what any woman would find attractive about Elyot, a character usually played without a whole lot of masculinity. Gross projects something entirely different; his Elyot is slick and superficial to be sure, but there’s also a palpable virility, and an element of yearning and despair under the surface. The fact that Gross is devastatingly handsome doesn’t hurt, either. Dressed in Navy blazer, cream slacks, and open white shirt, he is every inch the charming Euro trash rich boy who breaks women’s hearts and moves on without a second glance.

Amanda and Elyot have been married to each other in the past, but for five long years, they’ve been apart. They meet now on the balcony of a hotel in France, separated only by a low partition and the fact that they’re both on their honeymoon with other people. Their attraction to each other is so undeniable, that as they both react to the melody of a certain tune floating up through the Deauville evening air, they are inextricably drawn together. Incidentally, if you want to see how a comic take is performed to perfection, you need only to observe Cattrall’s expression as she realizes who’s standing only a few feet away.

Left in the lurch when the besotted couple escape to Paris are Elyot’s new wife Sybil, and Amanda’s new husband Victor. With the casting of Anna Madeley and Simon Paisley Day, respectively, director Richard Eyre has struck pay dirt. Sybil is usually played as silly and irritating to the point of tears; here, she’s just very young and inexperienced. She keeps bringing up Amanda, much to Elyot’s annoyance, and she pouts. But she’s also lively and devoted, and extremely lovely. True, as Elyot asserts, “all women have plans,” but why not?

Day’s Victor is nowhere as dull and dowdy and he may at first seem. A persnickety gent dressed in brown tweeds and smoking the inevitable pipe, he presses Amanda about Elyot, and can’t bear it when she puts her shoes on the patio table. Wrong! But we also get a sense that he’s intelligent, vital, and has his own deep passion for his new bride.

With less compelling leading actors, it’s probably a good bet to cast lesser actors in supporting roles. Eyre knows that Cattrall and Gross are strong and appealing enough to carry the show with outstanding actors in the secondary parts. The fact that all four performers are superb lifts this old chestnut melodramedy to a whole different category of excellence. The costumes and sets by Rob Howell are genius, especially the second act apartment with the huge, ridiculous fishbowl. There is an old fashioned word, “carriage,” which not only describes the perfect posture of the actors, but also their clothing and surroundings.

I’m in the minority of theater goers who dislike Noel Coward. His wit and sophistication are largely at the expense of those he feels are beneath him. Private Lives is at heart without heart.

The Virgina Woolf style fighting isn’t funny, it’s disturbing. And when is it ever amusing for a man to hit a woman, no matter what the supposed provocation? The fact that the audience laughs makes me question how far we’ve actually come as a species. Sybil and Victor are victims who are set up to be dolts, and so the object of easy jokes and scorn. And poor Caroline Lena Olsson, the actress who is assigned the thankless role of the maid Louise, and sent muttering around the set speaking only in French. Sorry, I get the “merde,” but not the rest of the speech, which goes on for quite a while.

As Amanda states at the beginning of the play, “Everything happens by chance.” But director Eyre leaves nothing  to chance, casting the best actors possible to bring life to what’s essentially a mean spirited play that’s been summer stocked and community theatered to death. Kim Cattrall has a real Elizabeth Taylor star quality. Into her perfect English accent, she occasionally spices in a word or two in a much less posh pronunciation and inflection. The subtle effect is that we wonder if there’s actually more to flighty, temperamental Amanda than meets the eye.

Eyre and his players bring depth, glamour, and yes, heart to this radiant production of Private Lives.

Private Lives
The Music Box
239 West 45th Street
Through February 5, 2012

Michall Jeffers is an accomplished Cultural Journalist. She writes extensively, both in print and online. Her eponymous cable TV show is syndicated throughout the tri-state area, and features celebrity interviews, reviews, and commentary. She is a voting member of Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, American Theatre Critics Association, and International Association of Theatre Critics.