Blithe Spirit plays final performance on Broadway

The Broadway revival of Noel Coward's comedy, Blithe Spirit, starring Angela Lansbury, plays its final performance on 19 Jul 2009. When the show closes it will have played 20 previews and 145 regular performances.

Blithe Spirit, directed by Michael Blakemore, opened at the Shubert Theatre on 15 Mar 2009, following previews from 26 Feb 2009.

The production opened to mixed reviews: "misses comic greatness" (NY Times); "doesn�t fizz like this champagne should" (NY Daily News); "placid production" (NY Post); "A rip-roaring revival" (Bloomberg); "sweet and affectionate, if oddly cartoony and clunky" (NewsDay); "it's frightfully funny" (Time Out NY); "classy but stiff Broadway revival" (Variety).

Blithe Spirit tells the story of socialite Charles Condomine, an author seeking to expose psychics. During a seance with the eccentric medium Madame Arcati, Charle's dead wife, Elvira (Christine Ebersole), is accidentally summoned and refuses to leave. Only Charles can see and communicate with Elvira, and he grows increasingly alarmed once he relises that his dead wife is planing to kill him so that he can join her on the otherside - a plan which has unfortunate consequences for his present wife, Ruth.

The production also stars Rupert Everett (Charles Condomine), Christine Ebersole (Elvira), Jayne Atkinson (Ruth), Simon Jones, Deborah Rush (Mrs. Bradman) and Susan Louise O�Connor (Edith).

The production is produced on Broadway by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Steve Traxler.