There's always a niggling worry that a hit in London's West End will lose something during a transatlantic journey (a recent example, the musical Oklahoma!). But not to worry. The production of Private Lives that so delighted our London critic, Lizzie Loveridge, has landed at the Richard Rodgers with everything and everyone satisfactorily in place.

As Lizzie pointed out, Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman give fresh feeling to the Coward wit. In doing so they let us see a sense of realistic awareness beneath the brittleness , that was not plumbed in any of a number of other Private Lives I've seen. Unlike the last seen Broadway versions (Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins/Simon Jones) that almost made me swear off another encounter with Elyot and Amanda, this revival is not gimmicky in terms of casting or interpretation. My faith in the play's durability is restored and I now understand why it had Lizzie in a tizzy.

If Coward and his original stage mate, Gertrude Lawrence, could watch just one performance from wherever they are, they would undoubtedly give Duncan and Rickman a rousing ovation. Granted, neither is a singer or a dancer, but when they do the Peabody and hum-sing bits of " If Love Were All" and "Somewhere I'll Find You" you don't need vocal or choreographic perfection to catch the emotional and physical spark between two people who were as Amanda puts it "ridiculously over in love" -- and still are.

Elyot and Amanda also remain ridiculously purposeless, without vocation or avocation to go with the verbal agility that could assure them a place with the Bloomsbury set or at the Algonquin Roundtable of which Coward was an honorary member. Their credo, as Elyot puts it is: "Let's be superficial and pity the poor philosophers. Let's blow trumpets and squeakers and enjoy the party as much as we can, like very small, quite idiotic school children." Instead they are ruled by their jaundiced view of life. Despite the ennui and disillusion driving them to be " figures of fun", Private Lives remains above all true to Coward's lifelong commitment to the theater as a place in which to be entertained.

Howard Davies, who officiated at their Les Liaisons Dangereuses stage union, has once again proved that Duncan's 30s cover girl beauty and elegance and Rickman's sardonic dash make for a match made in theatrical heaven. Fortunately he has also invited the excellent original supporting cast and design team to this wedding. That includes the spectacular dual set -- the remarkable multi-tiered wedding cake hotel that seems to be toppling even before the two pairs of newlyweds have begun their honeymoon; the set's turnaround with Amanda's Paris apartment now tilting inward and bathed in a warm sexy red.

If there's anything that probably doesn't work as well in the play's Broadway home, it's the sound, something which should be fixable before the play moves too much further into its run. From my vantage point in the middle of the orchestra, I noticed several people in my row and at least five rows nearer the stage cupping their ears to better catch the words. I also overheard comments about not being able to hear every line during the intermission. Even though Rickman and Duncan are both potent physical actors, Coward's dialogue is too good to miss even a single bon mot such as: Elyot's deliciously sexist "Some women should be struck regularly, like gongs" and Amanda's "etraordinary how potent cheap music is" and her open to interpretation "I think very few people are completely normal, really, deep down in their private lives."

Finally, a note for trivia fans. According to Coward's friend, biographer and estate executor, Graham Payn, Amanda was actually based in part on Doris Delvigne, a glamorous figure of 1920s society whose brief marriage to Lord Castlerosse was far from tranquil. According to Payn when Lady Kenmore congratulated Coward and Lawrence backstage but said that "those quarrels and rolling around on the floor" all seemed quite unreal, Coward retorted "You obviously don't know the Castlerosses."

LINKS TO OTHER COWARD WORKS REVIEWED
Blithe Spirit
Easy Virtue
Suite In 2 Keys
Present Laughter
Tonight at 8:30 Part A
Tonight at 8:30 Part B

Semi-Monde
Waiting In The Wings

Private Lives
Written by Noel Coward
Directed by Howard Davies Starring: Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan
With: Emma Fielding, Adam Godley, Alex Belcourt
Set Design: Tim Hatley
Costume Design: Jenny Beavan
Lighting Design: Peter Mumford
Sound: John Leonard
Music by Paddy Cuneen
Running time: Two hours and twenty minutes with one intermission
Richard Rodgers, 226 W. 46th St. 212/307-4100
4/19/02-9/08/02; opening 4/28/02.
Tue - Sat at 8pm; Sat at 2pm; Sun at 3pm --$20 - $75.