BLITHE SPIRIT Reviews- Page 2

[DAME]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:15pm

"Apparently she has been having some serious line problems. She is wearing an earpice to prompt her when she goes up."


That is a total lie and vicious fabrication.

Updated On: 3/15/09 at 10:15 PM

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:20pm

What an awful attempt at starting a rumor.

She's Angela freakin' Lansbury, not your grandma.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:21pm

Apparently she has been having some serious line problems. She is wearing an earpiece to prompt her when she goes up.

This nonsense about an earpiece is nothing more than unsubstantiated rumors.

[Neverandy]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:21pm

hmmm. My source is about as trustworthy as they come. It happened during Deuce. It's also not an uncommon occurrence.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:23pm

The New York Times [with Brantley] is Mixed-to-Positive:

"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.

Mr. Blakemore’s production is not, at this point, perfectly paced, which is surprising given that this British director is the man who originally whipped Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off,” that most frantic of backstage comedies, so expertly through its complicated maneuvers.

As designed by Peter J. Davison (set) and Martin Pakledinaz (costumes) “Blithe Spirit” has the comforting luxuriousness you associate with a Coward play. (The production emphasizes the quaint historical distance of it all by prefacing each scene with arch place-setting title cards.) But on the night I saw it, the leading performers seemed slow in picking up their cues. The rabbit-out-of-a-hat scene closers never landed firmly. And there’s no denying that the red-blooded Ms. Ebersole, as delectable as she looks here, was not born to play the ethereal Elvira.

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."

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/theater/reviews/16blit.html

Updated On: 3/15/09 at 10:23 PM

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:23pm

My source is about as trustworthy as they come.

The same source that told us Aaron Tveit was set for the WSS revival and the Pippin revival was transferring?

[Neverandy]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:27pm

Check my post history. I don't think I ever posted anything about Aaron Tveit in Pippin. You have me confused with someone else, I thinkAnyone who knows me, would know that I only post things that I know to be true.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:30pm

I wasn't saying you spread those rumors, but other people have in the past under the auspices of "very reliable sources".

It's a nasty, unrealistic rumor. No established, multiple-Tony-award-winning actress who is still in her right mind, no matter how old, would have an earpiece in the middle of a show to remember lines.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:32pm

No, you were implying that Neverandy spread those rumors.

[BNN]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:33pm

I highly doubt Ms. Lansbury would stoop to an earpiece to remember lines, she's an actor, not some stagehand they threw in at the last minute. So what if she flubs a line or two? It happens all the time, I would hazard in nearly every show that has ever graced a stage.

Also, I'm not sure the Variety review is Very Negative, it sounds a bit Mixed to me, perhaps negative, but not Very Negative.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:38pm

Get lost, Neverandy.

You're the epitome of what we all find loathsome.

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:40pm

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/theater/reviews/16blit.html?pagewanted=1&8dpc

[Neverandy]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 10:58pm

Wow! I think this is my first flaming! Anyway, since I can't "out" my source, there is nothing more to say about the specifics of this.
Re: earpieces worn by actors. It happens all the time. The public, for obvious reasons, is often kept in the dark.
Mary Martin (how many Tony's did she win?) wore one in the national tour of "Legends" in 1986 (she was 73 at the time)
Sir Michael Redgrave (Father of of Lynn and Vanessa) famously wore one in 1971 inLondon in "Old Boys".
Richard Dreyfuss wore one in "Complicit" in London.
Get over it people. It happens.

[bschneid76]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:03pm

I'm glad Brantley mentioned Susan Louise O'Conner as the maid, she walks away with each scene she is in. I am glad it is getting some good notices. It was a charming evening in the theatre. Ms. Atkinson is superb and I would love to see her snag a Tony award for her comedic performance. I'd love Angela to get a nomination and maybe win as well.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:03pm

No one cares. You're creepy. Go away.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:06pm

John Simon is a Rave:

"When a scintillating comedy, masterly direction and superior performances come together, what have you got? A rip-roaring revival of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” that lights up Broadway’s Shubert Theatre.

Angela Lansbury’s splendid portrayal of the psychic Madame Arcati is the highlight of a show whose stellar cast includes Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersole and Jayne Atkinson. Under the wizardly guidance of Michael Blakemore, the laughter never stops, though it stings as well as tickles."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601098&sid=ajleQ4SI_RAg&refer=movie

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:09pm

TheaterMania is a RAVE:

"There are abundant reasons for racing to top-drawer director Michael Blakemore's just-about-perfect revival of Noel Coward's 1941 boulevard-comedy trifle Blithe Spirit, now at Broadway's Shubert Theatre, but the chief attraction is definitely Angela Lansbury's side-splitting performance as the zany medium Madame Arcati.

...

As the women in his life, Ebersole -- another expert at on-stage flightiness -- sees Elvira's calculated ditziness as sounding and looking like Marilyn Monroe in the footage from her uncompleted film, Something's Got To Give. (Wigmaker Paul Huntley happily colludes in the appearance and Pakledinaz obliges with a diaphanous gown featuring sleeves down to there that ripple whenever Ebersole moves.) Atkinson has a less showy role as the at first baffled and eventually frustrated Ruth, but she hardly allows herself to fade into the fancy woodwork. Incidentally, she astutely revives the one-arm-akimbo posture that women assumed back in that day but have long since abandoned.
..."



Full Review

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:12pm

Why would you tell someone to "Go Away"? Someone who obviously enjoys being here, just as you do and has just as much right to write what they want, just as you do. Seems somewhat childish to insist they "stop bothering you", no?

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:17pm

Backstage is Very Positive:

"If theatregoers came for Lansbury, they'll stay for Coward, as smartly directed by Michael Blakemore. If not properly staged, this 1941 staple of community theatre can come across as dated, as its main conceit -- the hero conversing with a spirit no one else on stage can see or hear -- has been repeated in countless films and TV sitcoms. Blakemore treats the premise and the characters seriously and allows the comedy to emerge without forcing it. We empathize with Charles Condomine's predicament -- his first wife returns from the dead to the scene of his second marriage -- because Rupert Everett doesn't overplay his distress. This matinee-idol movie star proves to be as dry as the martinis he serves.

My only quarrels with Blakemore's choices are Peter J. Davison's cavernous drawing-room setting and allowing costume designer Martin Pakledinaz to dress Jayne Atkinson as Ruth, the second spouse, in matronly attire, so that she seems more like Charles' mother. Atkinson handles her assignment admirably, perfectly timing her properly British responses to flying furniture and ghostly jealousy until she finally reaches the breaking point and runs screaming up the stairs."

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/nyc/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003951611

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:18pm

Talkin' Broadway is (?!?!?!) VERY POSITIVE:

"...Blakemore has defined his commitment to the work largely by his willingness to stay out of it. Aside from refashioning the three-act original into two acts, which doesn’t much impede the flow of the action but also does nothing to help it, he shows almost unguarded respect for the piece. He’s not afraid to keep the action very quiet, even low key, and he forces far fewer jokes than you might expect if you saw his 1999 revival of Kiss Me, Kate. He does most everything possible to avoid inflating a very delicate evening of theatre - even Peter J. Davison’s outsized living room set is an example of no-nonsense elegance, rather than extravagance - which means this is never a raucous outing, although it’s a consistently honest and funny one.
...
Surely this is due, at least in part, to Lansbury’s wide experience as a character actress of film and theatre. But it seems to extend deeper, all the way to the core of familiarity-baiting creativity that describes Lansbury’s body of work as well as it does Madame Aracati’s: Even if you think you’re positive you know what she’s going to do next, you can never be completely sure. It’s thanks to the piquant professionalism of Lansbury, Blakemore, and the rest that the same is always true of this lively Blithe Spirit."


Lansbury can pretty much pick up her Tony now, don't you think? Most, if not all, of these reviews dedicate at least a paragraph to her performance.


Full Review

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:22pm

Lansbury can pretty much pick up her Tony now, don't you think?

Maybe. Unless the voters don't think her performance is, by her standards, original enough.

[Neverandy]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:24pm

How is this "creepy"?
It's totally germane to the thread. It's a common practice. It is a well known fact that she was having trouble during previews remembering her dialogue and cues. She's in her 80's. If Richard Dreyfuss (20 years her junior) did it not 2 months ago in London, why would it be so outlandish for her to do it? It obviously isn't hurting her performance.
This board is a strange place sometimes, but I love it nonetheless!

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:28pm

I do hope that in all the praising of Lansbury (earpiece or not, and really who cares?), that people and the Tony voters don't forget the remarkable job Jayne Atkinson did.

[broadwayman17]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:31pm

Entertainment Weekly- Mixed to Positive (B-)

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20265789,00.html

[darwinsf]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:33pm

I, for one, so last Saturday's preview performance and it does feel as though she is being fed her lines. But I felt the same for the entire cast.

I chalked it up to it being a preview performance at the time, but after reading through these comments, there may be some truth to this.