Theater: Shubert Theatre / 225 West 44th Street, New York, NY, 10036
Synopsis:
Researching material for a new novel, Charles engages Madame Arcati, a spiritual medium of uncertain talents, to communicate with the dead. Quite by accident, she summons the spirit of Charles’s first wife, Elvira, and can't make her go away. Ruth, Charles' current wife, is rather put out. This 1941 comedy features Coward's sparkling dialogue and a wickedly clever plot.
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March 16, 2009: Putting heart aside, Coward constructed a highly efficient laugh machine, sheathed in the satiny sophistication his audiences expected of him. (The show ran for 1,997 performances in wartime London.) Mechanical comedies creak as they age, and “Blithe Spirit” is no exception. But if it is perfectly paced, it can still keep an audience in a state of tickled contentment.
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While the dry martinis flow freely among hosts and guests alike in "Blithe Spirit," those libations do little to loosen up Michael Blakemore's classy but stiff Broadway revival. There are sparkling moments, thanks mostly to the light touch of the sublime Jayne Atkinson and the comedic life-force of Angela Lansbury because she's, well, Angela Lansbury. But overall this is a wispy ectoplasm of the 1941 Noel Coward ghost comedy rather than a full-bodied materialization.
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Broadway will always have its ghosts. They say the specters of past troupers and producers hover through the back alleys and theaters of the Great White Way. Well, now there's another apparition to be found on the Rialto, and it's frightfully funny. The play is "Blithe Spirit", the champagne-light supernatural farce by Noel Coward, and it should continue to haunt the Shubert for a good long time.
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