Christine Ebersole to star in BLITHE SPIRIT Revival- Page 2

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 9/30/08 at 1:37pm

Maybe the Lyceum? I hope not (since I'm still holding out hope that [tos] will stay open). It's also not right for Blithe Spirit. Too old/too dark. That theatre needs an update like whoa.

I'm excited about Christine. Elvira is the memorable role in the show. She has the most opportunities to steal the show, so Christine deserves it.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 9/30/08 at 1:47pm

BLITHE SPIRIT is a ghost story. The Lyceum or Belasco are perfect.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 9/30/08 at 1:52pm

But it's also a drawing room comedy. It's not THAT kind of ghost story. The Belasco isn't as bad as the Lyceum. I wasn't thinking of the Belasco.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 9/30/08 at 2:50pm

WithoutATrace also forgot about Shrek.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/30/08 at 2:58pm

If Lansbury doesn't do it, I'm pulling for Marian Seldes as Mme. Arcati.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 9/30/08 at 3:11pm

The Belasco is technically booked through April with American Buffalo, but the theater certainly has an eerie quality that would fit well with this show.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/30/08 at 3:42pm

I kind of love the Belasco. I remember seeing Ralph Fiennes Hamlet there--a perfect setting!

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 9/30/08 at 3:48pm

But Blithe Spirit isn't a creepy show. It's set in the drawing room of a very posh, wealthy home. There are one or two barely creepy moments in the show. Elvira is a very high-spirited... err... spirit. I suppose if the producers want a creepy feel, the Belasco (which, as pointed out by frogs_fan85, isn't even available) or the Lyceum would be fitting. But I can't see why they would want the theatre to be creepy and eerie for a non-creepy play. It's a play about a ghost, but is by no means a "ghost story."

Plus, it's Noel Coward. If the theatre is dark and dreary, the audience will fall asleep. Unless judicious cuts are made to the script.
Updated On: 9/30/08 at 03:48 PM

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/30/08 at 3:59pm

I personally wasn't plumping for the Belasco for BLITHE SPIRIT; just saying I liked it.

And I don't find it particularly creepy, the stories of hauntings notwithstanding. Just atmospheric.

At any rate, I don't find it creepier than Marian Seldes, whom I was to see as Arcati.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 6:20am

I wish I could have seen the original Broadway production, with Clifton Webb as Charles, Peggy Wood as Ruth and the wonderful Mildred Natwick ("the vessel with the pestle") as Madame Arcati!

Reg, I like your idea of Marian Seldes as Madame Arcati.

I could also see (and I've been throwing her name around a lot lately) Estelle Parsons in the role.

I wonder who they'll get for Ruth? Poor Ruth.

This play was actually one of the earliest I remember seeing. My mother played Ruth, and I LOVED all the "ghost action," particularly at the end (okay, no spoilers here)! But I'm sure technology has improved to allow for some pretty stunning visual effects toward the end of the play. Hell hath no fury like TWO women scorned!

[Macy2]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 12:20pm

I'm excited to see Christine Ebersole again -- she was words-can't-describe-it fabulous in "Grey Gardens" but I wish her next project had been original material, and not a revival of something.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 12:23pm

Ebersole is too old for this role. Elvira is supposed to have died young (and the dead don't get older). I hope they can get Everett and, of course, Lansbury, but I'm kind of sorry to hear about Ebersole. Elvira is supposed to still be young and sexy (though dead).

The play is very long and the original Broadway production had cuts that were made by Coward but it's still long. But it's a brilliant script if it's done well.

I've never seen High Spirits onstage but I agree with Smaxie about the score. Most of them are good enough songs but they don't seem to enrich the play.

best12bars, most of the original principals reunited to perform Blithe Spirit on the radio for Theatre Guild on the Air. Only Peggy Wood was missing. She was supposed to do it but for some reason couldn't at the last minute (and I think she was replaced by her Broadway understudy).

This can be downloaded online at http://www.archive.org/details/TheaterGuildontheAir

Unfortunately, though many of the Theatre Guild on the Air broadcasts are terrific, the Blithe Spirit is awful. Not only is the script greatly cut to fit into the hour time slot, but it's rewritten to a huge extent. I think less than half the lines are actually Coward's. And the cast sounds underrehearsed, with Natwick going up a number of times on her awful new lines. Very disappointing.

Still, that website has some terrific stuff. I especially recommend The Importance of Being Earnest, The Great Adventure, The Glass Menagerie, and the Hamlet. I haven't heard all of the ones on that site and I imagine others are good as well.

Natwick did play Madame Arcati on Hallmark Hall of Fame in the 1950s, with Coward, Bacall and Colbert as Charles, Elvira and Ruth. I haven't seen it but I'm told it's terrific. The Paley Center has it.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 1:07pm

How is the No Time for Comedy? I love that play! Do you know who's in it?

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 1:15pm

I LOVED all the "ghost action," particularly at the end (okay, no spoilers here)!

"I'll be loving you... always." Love the ending. It's one of the most perfect endings to a play ever written, in my opinion.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 1:32pm

Haven't listened to No Time for Comedy, but I just clicked on it and it stars Fredric March, Florence Eldridge, Walter Abel and Frances Fuller.

Someone gave all of them to me on a couple of MP3 discs but I see now that you can just click on individual titles at the link to listen to them.

[Sandy in Sable]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 1:33pm

Speaking of glamorous ghosts, does anyone remember the short-lived '80s sitcom "Jennifer Slept Here"? It starred Ann Jillian as a bodacious Bob Mackie-wearing ghost of a Hollywood star who was haunting the new inhabitants of her home. I was about 5 or 6 when this show was on, there's a bit of it on UTube.

I think Seldes is a little too reserved for Mme Arcati. I'd say someone like Elizabeth Ashley or Kristine Nielsen, but perhaps those are obvious OTT scenery chewing choices. Maybe someone like Deirdre O'Connell.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 1:42pm

Ebersole is a tad old for the part, but I think getting the (ahem) spirit of the thing right is more important than age. I think she definitely has the right touch.

As to Seldes as Arcati, I saw the revival in London a few years ago, with Penelope Keith as Arcati. You couldn't imagine a performance more different from the Margaret Rutherford model, but it worked. She played her as a no-nonsense, roll-up-your-sleeves-and-raise-the-dead sort of medium. Like a Girl Guides troop leader.

Now, that's not Seldes, but my point is that I could imagine her doing something wonderful with it.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 1:44pm

Oh, and btw, I have a wonderful old BBC recording with Michael Denison (of "Importance of Being Earnest" fame) as Charles. I forget who others were; I'll have to check.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 1:57pm

I'd like to see someone like Marion Lorne (Aunt Clara from Bewitched) as Madame Arcati.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 2:11pm

PJ, if you're going to cast actual dead people, shouldn't they at least be playing Elvira?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 2:50pm

There are very few roles that Marion Lorne would have been brilliant in, and Mme. Arcati is one of them.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 3:25pm

I always thought she would have been a wonderful Aunt PittyPat in a (totally unnecessary) remake of "Gone with the Wind."

Ooh, so how about Laura Hope Crewes as Mms. Arcati?

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 3:54pm

Blithe Spirit was one of the first plays I ever saw -- summer stock in 1956 with Mary McCarthy as Ruth, Margaret Phillips (original Alma in Summer and Smoke)as Elvira, Eric Rhodes (of countless 30's movie musicals) as Charles and the wonderful Enid Markey (Jane in 1918 film of Tarzan). She was a wonderful character actress and stopped the show every time she opened her mouth. Her take put me somewhat in mind of Marion Lorne, but Enid was unique (and a lovely person).

Did see High Spirits in '64. Bea Lillie was -- well, Bea Lillie, which means great, but -- not really Madame Arcati. Lillie always just did her own thing, which was always uproarious. Grimes was fun, but flukey.

I didn't care for the 1988 revival -- felt it just didn't sparkle and Page didn't cut it for me. Chamberlain was miscast, I thought, but Judith Ivey was rock solid as Ruth and stole the show. Blythe Danner as Elvira was okay, but didn't quite convey the loopiness of the part.

Which brings me to the projected revival. I've ALWAYS felt that Lansbury would be theatrical heaven in this role. Take a look at Death on the Nile, which she steals from everybody in sight --- her intonations in that role would be PERFECT for Madame Arcati. It's not THAT strenuous a part, although, in the right hands, can be the most gratifying role in the play (IMO).

[Parks]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 5:45pm

Ooh! I can't wait to see this!

A PLAY I actually want to see... I never thought I'd hear myself say that. I must be maturing! Oh boy!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/1/08 at 5:46pm

Laura Hope Crews...or Billie Burke!