BLITHE SPIRIT Reviews- Page 3

[BNN]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:38pm

Thanks Entertainment Weekly, for spoiling yet another show for me. gaaaaah

[jejr]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:46pm

Neverandy, it seems you have an ax to grind with Lansbury. Who cares if she has an ear piece as long as she gives the fantastic performance she does. Would you also make a big deal out of Peter Pan flying on a wire? Get realistic and stop defending a silly post.
Updated On: 3/15/09 at 11:46 PM

[Neverandy]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:50pm

You're right jejr.
She got the best of me in street fight outside the Winter Garden in '66. I've been waiting for just the opportunity to enact my revenge. I think I've succeeded.
You people are nuts.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:55pm

Loving the all the positive press!

I think I'm going to have to go see this again, since I really loved it.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:58pm

From Brantley's review:

"But it’s Madame Arcati who walks — or rather dances — away with the show, as she has always been wont to do."

Clearly there's some sort of a typo here. I'm thinking he meant "been known to do."

[KingKong]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 12:00am

wont
   /wɔnt, woʊnt, wʌnt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [wawnt, wohnt, wuhnt] Show IPA adjective, noun, verb, wont, wont or wont⋅ed, wont⋅ing.
–adjective
1. accustomed; used (usually fol. by an infinitive): He was wont to rise at dawn.

no typo, just a word not commonly used.
Updated On: 3/16/09 at 12:00 AM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 12:03am

I felt Brantley should have spent less time orgasming about Lansbury and actually talking about the show. Yes, Lansbury is giving a wonderful funny performance, but I felt that Jayne Atkinsons deserved more than two lines in the review, she was simply spectacular in every way, from every gesture to the delivery of every line. I could not wait for her to come on stage whenever she wasn't, she outshone Ebersole (who I agree just wasn't the right person for the role) in every single scene. Though I'm also glad he mentioned Susan Louise O'Conner, she was incredibly funny and had the comedy down to a T.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 12:10am

To me, the real comic star in this is Everett. The man is truly hilarious.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 12:10am

To me, the real comic star in this is Everett. The man is truly hilarious.

[Barihunk]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 12:59am

I think these reviews are pretty much right in line. I saw Saturday's matinee and I found the production to be of a whole utterly delightful. Atkinson was clearly at the top of her game, Everett was masterful and beyond reproach and should be welcome back on the boards whenever he so chooses. Ebersole was quite delectable to me even though I see what people are quibbling about but I found of no consequence. I ask you who of today's actresses could do a better job (and sing so exquisitely in the interludes?) Lansbury was genius and I think Brantley's review gave her her due... it was obvious she was having line problems but when you have that much in front of you, who cares? I would much rather watch an 83 year old Angela Lansbury fumble for a line or two than watch someone else give a "safe" or "adequate" performance. It was apparent to me that everyone on that stage was infinitely suited to their roles and were having the time of their lives. I say kudos and may this Spirit live as Blithely as it is wont [sic]. There hasn't been this much class and sophistication on Broadway for a while and I say Bravo! I think people who have never heard of Noel Coward before will now come see this production and experience something they never have before - and what better mission is there for a Broadway revival? None that I can think of...

[MiracleElixir]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 3:08am

I use "wont" frequently, and am delighted to see Brantley joining my club of rarely-used vocab :)

And sad to say, I agree with the Variety review more than any other, though I would say a fair classification would be MIXED-To-NEGATIVE rather than VERY NEGATIVE.

[bschneid76]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 5:38am

Even if Angela does fumble through a few lines, she does it in a way that Madame Arcarti may stumble through her words. There were no awkward pauses between lines. So it didn't bother me at all. I am glad for the great notices! I look forward to seeing it again.

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 6:22am

How would we describe Brantley's review? Mixed? Mixed to positive? Regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing it on April 9.

[bschneid76]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 6:41am

I thought it was positive but not a rave, because he did say he left enjoying it. But his website has him sitting on the fence.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 7:27am

New York Post is positive for Lansbury and Atkinson, mixed to negative on the production. Two and a half stars.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03162009/entertainment/theater/spirit_willing__flash_weak_159816.htm

Like her character, daffy medium Madame Arcati, Lansbury creates mischievous chaos in "Blithe Spirit" - some of her co-stars seem to struggle to keep pace with her somewhat loose M.O.

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.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 7:30am

Daily News is similar to the Post. Great for Lansbury, mixed on the production. Three stars out of five.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2009/03/16/2009-03-16_angela_lansbury_moves_us_but_blithe_spir.html

Playing an eccentric psychic medium who stirs up ghostly trouble in “Blithe Spirit,” Angela Lansbury may be fidgety and frazzled at times, but she’s the spark in the new production of Noel Coward’s 1941 comedy, now open at the Shubert.

Watching the 83-year-old Lansbury work her magic is endless fun, as she seemingly channels past characters — from the loopy Mrs. Lovett from “Sweeney Todd” to the cagey detective Jessica Fletcher from “Murder, She Wrote.”

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.

This conventional “Spirit” is more earth-bound. The set is basic, the pace on the slow side, and though the cast speaks the author’s zingers with efficiency, the play doesn’t fizz like this champagne should.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 7:35am

Newsday also loves Lansbury and a few of the other cast members, mixed on the production.

http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/exploreli/ny-etblithe166070539mar16,0,4124047.story

Unless you count a brief run two years ago in Terrence McNally's unfortunate "Deuce" (which I prefer not to count), this is Lansbury's return to Broadway - and return to form - after she packed up her four Tony Awards in 1984 to become the iconic lady detective on TV's "Murder, She Wrote."

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." Her hair is in the copper cinnamon buns of an aging Princess Leia. She wears the eye makeup of a melting raccoon and the bejeweled velvet costumes that more than once may remind you of a batty but somehow dangerous organ grinder's monkey. Delicious.

Coward hasn't had much luck on Broadway in recent years, and this "Blithe Spirit," for all its pleasant charms, doesn't entirely reverse the curse. How odd that Blakemore - the British master director of such stylish braininess as "Copenhagen" and such stylish foolishness as "Noises Off" - does not locate more of the luxurious, brittle sheen and the high-style physical humor in this farce about a married novelist bewitched by the ghost of his first wife. Instead, we get old-fashioned scene titles, hokey effects and a pretty dowdy set.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 7:38am

Bergen Record is negative.

http://www.northjersey.com/entertainment/41298587.html

If the revival of "Blithe Spirit" were a dessert, it would be an unrisen soufflé.

The cast for Noel Coward's popular 1941 play, which opened Sunday at the Shubert Theatre, is top-drawer, but, as directed by Michael Blakemore, they never quite make the shift from conventional comedy to the exaggerated, antic style of farce.

And that style is badly needed to keep the witty but slender play aloft and in motion. Without it, there are more than a few tedious patches.

[fflagg]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 8:21am

Thank you, Ms. L. for gracing us once again with your talent and class. I do not care if you need an earpiece; she is 83 and maybe it is a hearing aid??? So what. She is a brilliant actress and I hope she wins her 93rd Tony. :) As for Ms. Everett, good looks and smirking can only go so far.

The other ladies I am sure are fine but are too old for the parts. How about Emily Blunt and Emily Watson?

Ah well, I cannot wait to see it. Maybe she will sign my "Death on the Nile" DVD.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 8:27am

Sorry, Everett's performance consisted of a lot more than "good looks and smirking." He comedic timing was right on target and he ripped off Coward's bon mots with alacrity and the needed sophistication. Without question the best Charles I've ever seen (and I've been seeing this play since 1956).

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 9:06am

Quibble as you will, the Brantley review is a money review -- a quotable ticket seller if I ever read one. He basically describes the Lansbury performance as unmissable (and I heartily disagree). Thank the theatrical stars, or Gods, that Ms. Lansbury could return so quickly on the heels of the less-than-wonderful DEUCE. We get another chance to savor her brilliance, in a jewel of a role.

See her, give her a Tony and the keys to the city! In her own say, she's landing a plane on the Hudson, too.,

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 10:46am

"Don't quibble, Sibyl."

(That's my favorite Noel Coward line of all time.)

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 11:00am

This is very true bschneid76. When she flubs her lines here and there, it feels completely natural, as if someone who is any age (but especially in their mid-80s) might misspeak. It doesn't detract from the performance AT ALL.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 2:53pm

The official video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgZ9Gz2XeHc

[jv92]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 3:06pm

Well, my dream of Ebersole winning a 3rd has vanished. However, could this be Angela's year for a 5th? I hope so!