Swathed in silk, sipping champagne on a seaside balcony, the swanky denizens of Noël Coward’s universe ooze glitz and glamor.
But what this revival of “Private Lives,” a stylish Coward comedy of bad manners now being revived at American Conservatory Theater, lacks is the smolder factor. Chemistry is in short supply in director KJ Sanchez’s slapstick-filled production. Alas, even the sultry tango ignites precious few sparks here.
Sanchez sets this frothy bedroom farce in Argentina, hence the tango emerging as a metaphor for love, sex and loathing as a divorced couple encounters each other on their new honeymoons.
Elyot (Hugo E. Carbajal) and Amanda (Sarita Ocón), have been divorced for five years but the chemistry still burns bright as they lock eyes from adjoining balconies at a hotel by the seaside.
Insults and blows fly as their hapless new spouses, Victor (Brady Morales-Woolery) and Sybil (Gianna DiGregorio Rivera) realize they are mere hangers-on in this passionate pas de deux.
Sanchez directs the rom-com with a flair for schtick that’s fitfully funny but also undercuts Coward’s sophistication as a writer. Carbajal does some dapper clowning around and Morales-Woolery is a very funny faux pugilist but the comedy never quite catches fire.
The wit should be sharper, the comedy more ebullient. Otherwise it’s all far too flat, a champagne cocktail without the bubbles.
Certainly there’s no way to pull off “Private Lives” without a visceral sense of yearning, the sheer electric charge that keeps Elyot and Amanda coming back for more, the inescapable gravity of lust.
But only in the closing moments are there flashes of the carnal flame that should fuel this classic.
Contact Karen D’Souza at [email protected].
‘PRIVATE LIVES’
By Noel Coward, presented by American Conservatory Theater
Through: Oct. 6
Where: Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco
Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes, one intermission
Details: $25-$130 (subject to change); www.act-sf.org
