Some thirty years after he died, and only a couple of months since he had two shows running in neighbouring theatres in Shaftesbury Avenue, Noel Coward is heading back to the West End.

A revival of his Private Lives is due to hit London Sept. 21, officially opening at the Albery, St. Martin's Lane Oct. 4 for a run through (at least) Jan. 6, 2002.

The impresario Duncan Weldon, who specializes in classy revivals of classics, has teamed Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan (who played opposite each other in Les Liasons Dangereuses in the mid-1980s) together in this revival of Coward's best-known play. The characters are generally portrayed with a combination of worldliness and sex appeal.

The comedy with (after Romeo and Juliet) the best known balcony scene in theatre history was performed at the National in 1999, the year of Coward's centenary, and at the Aldwych, starring Joan Collins and Keith Baxter, in 1990.