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This is the bubbling latest adaptation of Noel Coward’s play that first was adapted by none other than Alfred Hitchcock’s in a melodramatic silent 1927 film; but this Stephan Elliot adaptation is not melodramatic at all, as has the sharp darkish comedy style so particular to true British cinema and well, the stage. Link Tribeca Film Festival - Easy Virtue, directed by Stephan Elliott, written by Sheridan Jobbins and Elliott. (UK) - USA Premiere, Narrative. Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth, Jessica Biel, and Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian) star in the comical tale of a young Englishman who brings his glamorous American bride home to meet his stuffy British parents. Based on the Noel Coward play. Always sublime, Scott Thomas scored nominations from the British Independent Film Awards and the London Critics Circle. A Sony Pictures Classics release. Link The last few nights I've been lying awake until the early hours with a racing heart and no real idea precisely what it is my body is panicking about. It started with watching the movie Easy Virtue, a supposed romantic comedy which had me sobbing most of the way through. Web |
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| 26.06.2009 | BRAVO Angela! Wednesday night in New York Angela Lansbury, the five-time Tony-winning Queen of Broadway, brought down the house once again as dotty Madame Arcati, the medium whose séance brings a dead wife back in ghostly form in the hit revival of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit.” Lansbury was loudly applauded when she made her entrance – and she never broke character – and again when she went off. Boston Herald |
| 24.03.2009 | Noel Coward subtitled Blithe Spirit "an improbable farce," but, really, there's nothing improbable about it -- it's a sturdily constructed piece of malicious hilarity that miraculously retains its freshness after six decades. Like most of Coward's works, however, it is notoriously vulnerable to directors and actors whose work is less than pitch-perfect. It's our great good luck that Michael Blakemore's production is infused with high spirits, featuring a cast of actors who are precisely attuned to Coward's mordant, martini-dry commentary on relations between the sexes, as practiced on both sides of the grave. Link |
| 18.03.2009 | Blithe Spirit Work is picking up for me. This week I'm working 8 shifts at the Shubert Theater and I'm delighted that Blithe Spirit is playing - a positively delightful Noel Coward play. It stars Christine Ebersole and Angela Lansbury. Link |
| 17.03.2009 | Angela Lansbury on Broadway Opening Night: Broadway TV (detailed reports) |
| 16.03.2009 | Is it possible that the reviewers saw vastly different performances of Blithe Spirit? That's the only explanation I come come up with to explain how several reviewers (including AMNY, the Times and the Post) cite paraphrased lines, unsure blocking, long pace-killing set changes and projection issues in their reviews while several others (The New Yorker and NY1 chief amongst them) gush over the precision and overall excellence of Michael Blakemore's production. Conservative gadfly John Simon, whose grades usually hover in the D-to-F range here on CoM, hands out his first A+. Everyone praises Angela Lansbury and newcomer Susan Louise O'Connor (congrats, Susan!) Link |
| 16.03.2009 | “Blithe Spirit” is advertised outside, but this Broadway revival of Noel Coward’s 1941 screwball comedy may as well call itself “Angela Lansbury Love Fest.” Link |
| 13.03.2009 | Blithe Spirit with Lansbury- A True Late Winter Treat on Broadway PLUS comments on Ebersole, Everett, Lane, Lansbury Link |
| 13.03.2009 | Off tonight to see the Broadway revival of Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit—so excited! The prospect of savoring Coward’s martini-dry wit and his perfect balance of archness and silliness is just too, too much to bear. Link |
| 12.03.2009 | How Angela Lansbury is going to make me feel a whole lot better. Link |
| 11.03.2009 | On Blithe Spirit "The casting is superb, with Everett a natural as the pithy and suave husband, Lansbury a treat as the dotty medium Madame Arcati, and Ebersole gliding about like Carole Lombard in gossamer. This is a no-brainer for these economic times: a sophisticated classic comedy with a wonderful cast and plenty of laughs. Look for it when they announce the Tony nominations..." Link |
| 11.03.2009 | "STAGE SET: While in New York last weekend, I caught two terrific shows: a preview of director Michael Blakemore's revival of the classic Noel Coward comedy ''Blithe Spirit'' (starring Angela Lansbury, Rupert Everett, Jane Atkinson and Chicago's own Christine Ebersole) and Will Ferrell's biting satire of our 43rd president, ''You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush.'' Link |
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| Brief Encounters at Shaw Festival in Niagara - Packet & Times Noël Coward and more at Shaw Fest Nigara Falls Reporter |
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| 15.03.2009 | Noel Coward, who first ventured to New York and back again on borrowed money, found the trip to be a life-changing experience. Much of his stylized dialogue, indeed much of his style, that many people call “quintessentially British” was in fact, developed from listening to the briskly paced banter of well-dressed New Yorkers. Link |
| 15.03.2009 | Sail Away--1962 Original London Cast Album on CD Link |
| 15.03.2009 | "It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit" (Act 1, Scene 1). Link |