ABOUT THE SHOW
Blithe Spirit, one of Noel Coward’s most popular comedies, was first seen on Broadway, in 1941, the same year it was produced in London where it set British box office records and was the longest running comedy (1997 performances) until it was eventually surpassed by Boeing-Boeing in the 1970’s. The original Broadway production played nearly two years and co-starred Leonora Corbett, Mildred Natwick, Clifton Webb and Peggy Wood. It was last seen on Broadway in an all-star production in 1987 with Richard Chamberlain, Blythe Danner, Judith Ivey, and Geraldine Page, in her final Broadway appearance. Coward, in his autobiography, claimed he wrote the play in five days during a holiday. Only two lines of dialogue were removed before its first production in London.
Angela Lansbury received her fifth Tony Award, along with the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Awards for her portrayal of Madame Arcati.
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Category: Play, Comedy, Farce, Revival, Broadway
Setting: The living room of Charles Condomine’s house in Kent, England. The late 1930s.
1st Preview Performance: February 26, 2009
Opening Night Performance: March 15, 2009
Final Performance: July 19, 2009
Total # of Performances: 145
Awards & Nominations:
2009 Tony Award® Best Featured Actress in a Play – Angela Lansbury (winner)
2009 Tony Award® Best Costume Design of a Play – Martin Pakledinaz (winner)
2009 Theatre World Award – Susan Louise O’Connor (winner)
2009 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Revival of a Play (nominee)
2009 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play – Angela Lansbury (winner)
2009 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Costume Design – Martin Pakledinaz (nominee)
2009 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play – Michael Blakemore (nominee)
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Opening Night Cast
Christine Ebersole (Elvira)
Angela Lansbury (Madame Arcati)
Rupert Everett (Charles)
Jayne Atkinson (Ruth)
Simon Jones (Doctor Bradman)
Susan Louise O’Connor (Edith)
Deborah Rush (Mrs. Bradman)
Understudies: Mark Capri (Charles, Doctor Bradman), Elizabeth Norment (Edith, Elvira, Ruth), Sandra Shipley (Madame Arcati, Mrs. Bradman).
Theatre Owned / Operated by The Shubert Organization (Phillip J. Smith: Chairman; Robert E. Wankel: President)
Produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Steve Traxler, Scott M. Delman, Bat-Barry Productions, Broadway Across America (John Gore, CEO; Thomas B. McGrath, Chairman; Beth Williams, COO & Head of Production), Ken Davenport, Michael Filerman, Jeffrey Finn, Arlene Scanlan, Ronald Frankel, JK Productions, Kathleen K. Johnson, Patty Ann McKinnon, Judith Resnick, Terry Schnuck, Jamie deRoy/Alan D. Marks, Zev Bufman and Barbara & Buddy Freitag/Wendy Federman
Written by Noël Coward
Directed by Michael Blakemore; Associate Director: Kim Weild
Scenic Design by Peter J. Davison; Costume Design by Martin Pakledinaz; Lighting Design by Brian MacDevitt; Sound Design by Peter Fitzgerald; Wig Design by Paul Huntley; Associate Scenic Design: Ted LeFevre; Associate Costume Design: MaryAnn D. Smith; Associate Lighting Design: Caroline Chao; Assistant Sound Design: Megan Henninger
General Manager: Richards / Climan, Inc.; Company Manager: Bruce Klinger; Associate Gen. Mgr: John Gendron
Production Supervisor: Steven Zweigbaum; Production Manager: Aurora Productions; Production Stage Manager: Steven Zweigbaum; Stage Manager: Àra Marx
General Press Representative: Jeffrey Richards Associates and Irene Gandy; Advertising: Serino Coyne, Inc.; Casting: Telsey + Company; Psychic Consultant: Paula Roberts; Photographer: Robert J. Saferstein
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“Ms. Lansbury brings seven decades of experience with her - in work ranging from fabled musicals ("Mame," "Sweeney Todd'") to classic dark films ("Gaslight," "The Manchurian Candidate") - to the role of Madame Arcati, her juiciest in years. Even when she's off her lines, she's on top of her character, and she demonstrates how an expert can turn surface silliness into something of real substance." – Ben Brantley, The New York Times
“The starry cast of the latest Broadway revival of "Blithe Spirit" delivers the goods, artfully keeping the classic Noel Coward comedy spinning merrily at the Shubert Theatre. But then it helps to have Angela Lansbury on hand to play Madame Arcati, the irrepressible spiritualist who delights in contacting those beyond the grave. She makes it look easy _ and blissfully funny _ as the woman who inadvertently sets up an otherworldly love triangle." – Michael Kuchwara, Assosciated Press
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ANGELA LANSBURY, who last appeared on Broadway in Deuce, has enjoyed a career without precedent. Her professional career spans more than a half-century, during which she has flourished, first as a star of motion pictures, then as a four-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical star and most recently as the star of “Murder, She Wrote,” the longest-running detective drama series in the history of television. The actress made her Broadway debut in 1957 when she starred as Bert Lahr’s wife in the French farce, Hotel Paradiso. In 1960, she returned to Broadway as Joan Plowright’s mother in the season’s most acclaimed drama, A Taste of Honey, by Shelagh Delaney. One year later, she starred on Broadway in her first musical, Anyone Can Whistle. Lansbury returned to New York in triumph in 1966 as Mame, for which she won the first of her unprecedented four Tony Awards as Best Actress in a Musical. She received the others as the Madwoman of Chaillot in Dear World (1968), as Mama Rose in the 1974 revival of Gypsy and as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (1979). From 1984-1996 she starred as Jessica Fletcher, mystery-writing amateur sleuth, on “Murder, She Wrote,” for which she won four Golden Globe Awards. In 1982, she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and in 1994 she was named a Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. Angela and her husband Peter were married in 1949. They worked together until Peter’s death in January 2003. Angela has three grown children, Deirdre, Anthony and David, and three grandchildren.
JAYNE ATKINSON is best known for her scene stealing turn as Homeland Security director Karen Hayes on the hit FOX drama “24” and her Tony-nominated performances on Broadway in The Rainmaker and Enchanted April, Ms. Atkinson has been a powerful and consistent presence on stage, television, and film. In addition to The Rainmaker and Enchanted April (for which she received Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and was Drama Desk nominated), her Broadway credits include Ivanov, Our Town (with Paul Newman), and All My Sons. Off-Broadway, she received a Drama Desk nomination for her performance in The Skriker, and has appeared in The Vagina Monologues, How I Learned to Drive, Henry VIII, and The Art of Success. In addition to “24” for which she received a SAG Award nomination for Best Ensemble, her series regular TV credits include “A Year In The Life,” and “Parenthood,” and guest and recurring spots on the original “Law and Order” & “SVU”, “Criminal Minds”, “The Education of Max Bickford”, “The Practice”, and “The X-Files.” Her film credits include Recount for HBO Films, Syriana, The Village, 12 and Holding, Free Willy, and Blank Check.
CHRISTINE EBERSOLE received the Tony Award, Obie Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Special Citation from NY Drama Critics and the Drama League Award for Performance of the Year for her dual roles as Edith and Edie Beale in Grey Gardens. Her Broadway credits include Steel Magnolias, Dinner at Eight (Tony and Outer Critics Circle noms.), 42nd Street (2001 Tony and Outer Critics Circle Awards), The Best Man, Getting Away With Murder, Harrigan ‘n Hart, Camelot (opposite Richard Burton and Richard Harris), Oklahoma!, On the Twentieth Century, I Love My Wife and Angel Street. Off-Broadway credits include Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads (2003 Obie and Outer Critics Circle awards, Drama Desk nom.), Three Sisters, Geniuses and four Encores! concerts. Regional credits include Much Ado About Nothing (Old Globe), Mame, Evita, My Fair Lady, The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Laughing Wild. Films include Tootsie, Amadeus, Dead Again, Richie Rich, Black Sheep, Folks!, True Crime, Till There Was You, My Favorite Martian, Thief of Hearts and My Girl 2. Television includes “Saturday Night Live” (series regular ’81-’82 season), “Gypsy” with Bette Midler, “One Life to Live” (Emmy nom.), “Ryan’s Hope,” “The Cavanaughs” (with the late great Barnard Hughes), “Valerie,” “Ink,” “Related” and guest appearances on “Will & Grace,” “Just Shoot Me,” “Murphy Brown” and “Ally McBeal.” CD’s include In Your Dreams with Billy Stritch, Live at the Cinegrill and Grey Gardens.
RUPERT EVERETT is no stranger to Noel Coward, having previously delivered an acclaimed performance as “Nicky” in The Vortex at the Garrick Theatre on the West End. Best known for his star making and Golden Globe nominated turns in My Best Friend’s Wedding and An Ideal Husband, Rupert Everett has been a fixture in feature films and television for the past 20 years. Following his theatrical training at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and the avant-garde Glasgow Citizens Theatre, Everett received his big break in Kenneth Branagh’s 1982 West End production of Another Country. Since his first film appearance, in the feature film adaptation of Country, he has appeared in over 25 acclaimed motion pictures, including Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Hearts of Fire, The Comfort of Strangers, Prêt-à-Porter, The Madness of King George, Shakespeare in Love, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Next Best Thing, The Importance of Being Earnest, To Kill a King, Stage Beauty, Shrek 2 & 3, Separate Lies, Stardust, and St. Trinian’s. His television credits include “Arthur the King,” “Mr. Ambassador,” and “Boston Legal.” In addition to eight credits with the Glasgow Citizen’s Theatre (notably Picture of Dorian Gray, Noel Coward’s Private Lives, Don Juan, and Heartbreak House), Everett’s other West End credits include Appeal at the Lyric Hammersmith
SIMON JONES made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing and has since appeared in Benefactors, The School for Scandal, Getting Married, Private Lives, The Real Inspector Hound & Hamlet (Stoppard’s 15-minute version), The Herbal Bed, Ring Round the Moon, Waiting in the Wings, and (voice only) in the current production of The 39 Steps. Off-Broadway appearances include Woman in Mind, Terra Nova, You Never Can Tell, Passion Play, Privates on Parade, Long Island Sound, Home, and Phallacy. In addition to a long list of UK credits, his U.S. regional appearances included the lead role in the American premiere of Brian Friel’s The Home Place, at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis last year. He has returned to the Guthrie, where he stars as C.S. Lewis in Shadowlands for a 2-month run this November and December. Among Simon’s film credits are Privates on Parade, Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, Miracle on 34th Street (the remake), The Devil’s Own, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy , Griffin & Phoenix and the forthcoming Spectropia. On television, recent appearances include “OZ” for HBO, “Cambridge Spies” for the BBC, and the portrayal of C.S.Lewis in “The Question of God” for PBS. Nonetheless he is still best remembered as ‘Bridey’ in “Brideshead Revisited” (the original mini-series), and ‘Arthur Dent’ in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a role written for him by the author Douglas Adams. He is co-Artistic Director of TACT (The Actors’ Company Theatre), which currently has the acclaimed production of Bedroom Farce playing on Theatre Row. DEBORAH RUSH (Mrs. Bradman) was nominated for the 1984 Tony Award for Best Actress for her work in Noises Off! and has also appeared on Broadway in Absurd Person Singular, Hay Fever, The Sisters Rosensweig and Dance With Me. Other New York City credits include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Alice in Wonderland and several Shakespeare-in-the-Park productions. Rush might be most recognizable to television audiences for her work in “Strangers with Candy”, “Law and Order” and “Spin City”. Her film credits include Julie and Julia, The Visitor, You've Got Mail, Purple Rose of Cairo, and the Strangers with Candy movie, among many others.
SUSAN LOUISE O’CONNOR Broadway Debut. Off Broadway: What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends (Four Chairs), Apostasy & Marion Bridge (Urban Stages), Walk Two Moons (Lucille Lortel), Never Swim Alone (GO Prod.), See Bob Run (Rattlestick Theatre), St. Scarlet (Women's Expressive Theatre). A Sleeping Country (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), What the Butler Saw (Huntington Theatre), Wonder of the World (Barrington Stage) & Indoor/Outdoor (Portland Stage). Films include: Flying Scissors, Acts of Worship, The Day My Towers Fell, The Question, The Moment & Parallel Passage. Television: Law & Order: C.I.
MICHAEL BLAKEMORE (Director) is one of the theatre’s most accomplished directors of comedy, having attained the singularly notable feat of winning the Tony award for Best Direction of a Play and a Musical in the same year (2000 – for Kiss Me, Kate and Copenhagen) Broadway credits include the original productions of Noises Off and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Lettice and Lovage, the Tony Award winning musical comedy City of Angels and last season’s unique Mark Twain-David Ives collaboration Is He Dead?
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