Although not so many people pay attention to Sir Noel Coward today, he was truly a renaissance man — a playwright, composer, director, actor and singer. During the middle of the 20th century (he died in 1973) he was a “bon vivant,” a public personality whose witty pronouncements entertained people from all walks of life.
One of his most enduring plays is Blithe Spirit, the story of a séance that backfires leaving the leading man haunted by the ghost of his irritating first wife. The show had a well-received Broadway revival in 2009 (Angela Lansbury won her fifth Tony playing the eccentric medium Madame Arcati), and for the next few weeks you can channel this humorous piece with a stop at Cincinnati Shakespeare’s downtown theater.
Director Brian Isaac Phillips calls it “a very, very funny play full of wit and absurdity.” He adds that a frivolous piece like this feels a bit like a summer vacation for members of the acting company, including Corinne Mohlenhoff and Jeremy Dubin, who proved they know what to do with a witty script from Coward, having co-starred in Cincinnati Shakespeare’s production of another of his plays, Private Lives, in 2005.
Read Rick Pender’s review and get showtimes and ticket information here.
This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2010.
