I saw the revival of Present Laughter at the Roundabout last night. It was OK. I love Coward and I also really like Victor Garber. He was excellent as Gary Essendine and Harriet Harris was good as Monica, his secretary. Brooks Ashmanskas as the whacky playwright Roland Maule, was his usual, hysterical self.
On a side note I saw the wonderful 1982 revival with Nathan Lane as Maule and George C. Scott as Essendine. It was Lane's Broadway debut (done at Circle in the Square when it was still a functioning theatre company) and was marvelous.
On the whole (with the exception of Garber and Ashkanskas) the women were better than the men. Accents (as usual) were a problem. Some of them were first rate but others were less than effective.
It was a decent production, not great but still, when it's funny, it's very funny. If you've never seen the play before I think there are some better filmed versions, for example, the 1981 production with Donald Sinden. It's on DVD as part of the Noel Coward collection, 7 DVDs of his material. If you don't have it, it's well worth getting. There is some wonderful stuff there.
And now, I must get to work. The Mott's are calling.