March 16, 2009

Applause for Lansbury in 'Blithe Spirit' on Broadway

Angela Lansbury in Noël Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” opened on Broadway on Sunday night and many of the critics all but fall at her feet, albeit with nods to her flubbed lines and an overall “bumpy new revival” of the comedy.

Lansbury, as the medium Madame Arcati, is joined on stage by Rupert Everett in his Broadway debut as Charles Condomine, a man torn between his two wives: one live, Jayne Atkinson, and one dead, Christine Ebersole.

Directed by Michael Blakemore, “Blithe Spirit” has an open-ended run at the Shubert Theater, 225 W. 44th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $31.50 to $116.50. Premium seats cost $151.50 to $301.50. If a performance is sold out, standing room tickets will be sold for $21.50.

The reviews:
New York Times - “Yet despite such shortcomings I wound up enjoying this “Blithe Spirit” more than I had many a slicker version. Much of that pleasure came from watching what Ms. Atkinson, Mr. Everett and particularly Ms. Lansbury make of their roles. If “Blithe Spirit” itself misses comic greatness, Coward did create a genuinely great comic character in Madame Arcati, and Ms. Lansbury gleefully makes it her own.”

Variety - “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.”

Daily News - “You wonder what the actress will do next, and when she launches into her go-into-my-trance dance, she’s simply hilarious. Both times. Otherwise, director Michael Blakemore doesn’t offer much in terms of imagination in this revival, unlike the last Coward production on Broadway, “Private Lives,” which ran in 2002 and was out of this world. “

Associated Press - “Lansbury’s performance also captures the essence of the elegant Coward fizz, champagne bubbles of witty conversation that should trip along effortlessly. Equally adept as this spirited dialogue is Atkinson, who turns the often neglected role of Ruth, the put-upon second wife, into a genuine pleasure.”

Bloomberg - “But everything, even the best, pales beside Lansbury’s Madame Arcati. Observe what she can do when someone incautiously refers to her “tricks of the trade.” “Tricks of the trade?” she repeats with a rising inflection that, well beyond skewering mere insolence, could pierce an overflying pigeon. And what stratospheric dudgeon in her hurt-distorted face. Yes, she may be over the top, but when that is a pirouette on the summit of Everest, who would say nay? Hers is a high comic art that leaves you as dissolving in laughter as rapt in worshipful wonder. “

Post - “But while the star almost never delivers a line exactly the way Noel Coward wrote it, she trades precision for zaniness. Few other things in this placid production by Michael Blakemore (“Copenhagen,” “Kiss Me, Kate”) match her unpredictable anarchy.”

Newsday - “Here she plays Madame Arcati, the dotty spiritual medium in Michael Blakemore’s sweet and affectionate, if oddly cartoony and clunky, revival of Noel Coward’s sophisticated 1941 drawing-room comic-fantasy. Lansbury, amazing at 83, is channeling the lighthearted shrewdness of her Jessica Fletcher and the wild comic timing of her Mrs. Lovett from “Sweeney Todd.”“

amNewYork - “Michael Blakemore’s production is competent, but so old-fashioned and reverential that Coward’s script starts to creak with old age. For better or worse, the dark undertones of the story are completely ignored. The cast looks as if it is still finding its footing and refining its comic timing. Because the production is in a rather large theater, the cast has serious problems with vocal projection.”

NY1 - “Starring Rupert Everett as novelist Charles Condomine and Jayne Atkinson as his second wife, Ruth, this revival of “Blithe Spirit” has been expertly staged by London veteran Michael Blakemore.”

Image source: “Blithe Spirit” official website.

Update: More at Critic-O-Meter.

March 16, 2009 6:45 AM in Broadway

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