CurtainUp
CurtainUp
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings
HOME PAGE

SITE GUIDE

SEARCH


REVIEWS

REVIEW ARCHIVES

ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP

FEATURES

NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings


LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway

NYC Restaurants

BOOKS and CDs

OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
Philadelphia
Elsewhere

QUOTES

TKTS

PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS

LETTERS TO EDITOR

FILM

LINKS

MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Los Angeles Review
Blithe Spirit


"We're neither of us adolescent, Charles; we've neither of us led exactly prim lives, have we? And we've both been married before. Careless rapture at this stage would be incongruous and embarrassing." .— Ruth
Angela Lansbury (Photo: Joan Marcus)

It's the season of the octogenarian at Center Theatre Group. This fall, eighty-one year-old Cicely Tyson and eighty-four year-old Lois Smith gave masterful dramatic performances in The Trip to Bountiful and Marjorie Prime, respectively. Next month, eighty-seven year-old Alan Mandell stars in Arthur Miller's The Price. And currently at the Ahmanson, their elder Angela Lansbury is playing medium Madame Arcati to the maximum. Like her character, the eighty-nine year-old is in touch with something that's out of this world. Her stellar performance in the Noel Coward classic has verve, detail, and the kind of charisma that can makes theater such an electrifyingly vital, transcendent experience.

The rest of the production is charming but largely earthbound. It avoids tapping into the text's undercurrents, which push and pull between need and independence, the humdrum and the high-flown. Instead it opts to glide by smoothly, but somewhat superficially, on lapping waves of gentle wit and bits of style.

As a result, the play often betrays its age except when Lansbury, who was already a teen at the time of its '41 debut, is on stage. Another recent Coward revival, Pasadena Playhouse's production last season of A Song at Twilight, proved his work can still be refreshingly flavorful when lacing the smooth with a trace of the writer's sourness.

When Michael Blakemore first directed Lansbury in this on Broadway five years ago, he did greater justice to the play. He cast a trio as novelist Charles Condomine, his new wife Ruth, and his deceased first wife Elvira whose performances remain vivid today. Many in the current tour are less ideally cast and, even while on view, seem relatively indistinct.

Coward created the roles speedily in a white heat using basic, contrasting characteristics. Ruth is pragmatic. Elvira, high-spirited. Whether in the flesh or from beyond the grave, the women try to control Charles, who's dedicated most ardently to his solitary work. Rupert Everett and Jayne Atkinson, Blakemore's original Charles and Ruth, were the crème de la creme, effortlessly embodying these key details.

The current pair, Charles Edwards and Charlotte Parry, are more half-and-half, accomplished but uninspired. He's affably conventional, with none of the "certain seedy grandeur" Elvira describes as defining her husband. Parry, who shined in last season's Broadway revival of The Winslow Boy, has a way with her lines that makes them snap. But she doesn't seem different enough from Jemima Rooper's Elvira.

What still works beyond any doubt or diminishment are Lansbury's delightful scenes as the eccentric Arcati. Her seances, done initially at Charles' behest as research for his new work on the occult, are a scream of the funny kind. Lansbury's movements to summon spirits would earn her an exalted place in The Ministry of Silly Walks.

The plot gets rolling when Arcati unwittingly succeeds, calling forth Elvira from the great beyond. Only Charles can see or hear her, so the literal-minded Ruth doesn't believe her predecessor has returned to the premises. It's a ripe farcical conceit, which demonstrates how past relationships can get in the way of making present-day commitments. Rooper, who played Elvira in the production's recent London stand with Edwards and Lansbury, is assertively droll.

Unfortunately, her silver wig is unhelpfully helmet-like. All of Simon Higlett's new set and costume design is functional but a step down in style from Broadway. Fortunately, Martin Pakledinaz' get-ups for Ms. Lansbury remain. Another carry-over from the New York production is Susan Louise O'Connor as Edith, the maid with surprising powers of her own. Her performance, already broad before, seems stretched somewhat thin here.

The first act climaxes with slam-bang physical humor when Charles finally convinces Elvira to make her presence known to Ruth by moving a vase. The second half, which combines Coward's original latter two acts into one ungainly stretch, comprises an extended battle between the wives for Charles. The action's got galvanizing twists and turns, but plays here somewhat sleepily. The leading trio could benefit from being just a bit larger than life. After all, these characters don't let a little thing like death get in their way.

Though some of the production's assets have dematerialized for the current tour, nothing should stand in your way from seeing Ms. Lansbury dazzlingly live on stage. When the run concludes here, the show moves on to San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre and the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, before finishing the winter in D.C, where she made her American stage debut nearly six decades ago.

Charles, like many of Coward's heroes, ends the play by exiting the stage quietly to be happily alone. Ms. Lansbury clearly prefers the company of friends and strangers and we're all the better for it. Her undimmed talent is here to stay.

Blithe Spirit
Playwright: Noel Coward
Director: Michael Blakemore
Cast: Charlotte Parry (Ruth), Jemima Rooper (Elvira), Charles Edwards (Charles), Angela Lansbury (Madame Arcati), Simon Jones (Dr. Bradman), Susan Louise O'Connor (Edith) and Sandra Shipley (Mrs. Bradman).

Set and costume designer: Simon Higlett
Costumes for Angela Lansbury: Martin Pakledinaz
Lighting designer: Mark Jonathan
Sound designer: Ben and Max Ringham
Production Stage Manager: John M. Atherlay
Running time: Two hours and 35 minutes including one intermission
Runs: Tuesday through Sundays until January 18, 2015
Ahmanson Theatre 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. Reservations: (213) 628-2772
Reviewed by: Jon Magaril
REVIEW FEEDBACK
Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
  • I agree with the review of Blithe Spirit
  • I disagree with the review of Blithe Spirit
  • The review made me eager to see Blithe Spirit
Click on the address link E-mail: esommer@curtainup.com
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V):

Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review.

For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted add http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader
Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter
Subscribe to our FREE email updates: E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com
put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message. If you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country.
The New Similes Dictionary
New Similes Dictionary


Slings & Arrows  cover of  new Blu-Ray cover
Slings & Arrows- view 1st episode free




Anything Goes Cast Recording Anything Goes Cast Recording
Our review of the show

Book Of Mormon MP4 Book of Mormon -CD
Our review of the show

©Copyright 2015, Elyse Sommer.
Information from this site may not be reproduced in print or online without specific permission from esommer@curtainup.com