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A JOYOUS NOËL
Coward's Blithe Spirit returns to Broadway after 45 years

[[image: color photographic of principal cast of the show, photo credited to Martha Swope, and captioned: From left: Geraldine Page, Blythe Danner, Richard Chamberlain and Judith Ivey star in Blithe Spirit at the Neil Simon]]

While England was being ravaged by war in 1941, playwright Noël Coward sat down at his typewriter and, between May 4 and May 9, wrote the comedy Blithe Spirit. In a letter to John C. Wilson, who produced the play a few weeks later, Coward explained why he had chosen to write what he called "an impossible farce" during such a dark moment in his nation's history.

"I have not written it to lighten Britain's war gloom with laughter," he commented. "Our country is already full of laughter. It isn't merely gallantry and putting on a brave face; it's very real and infinitely stimulate. Realizing that this particular feeling was more important than anything else, I decided to write a comedy."

Blithe Spirit tells us the unlikely story of mystery writer Charles Condomine who, with the aid of the psychic Madame Arcati, participates in a seance as research for a book and conjures up his dead wife, Elvira – much to the dismay of his second wife, Ruth. Charles becomes the focal point of a rather unusual triangle, as these two domineering women lay claim to him.

In spite of – or perhaps because of – the place irreverent attitude toward death, Blithe Spirit proved to be atomic for audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. The original British production ran for more than four years and is most fondly remembered for the performance of Margaret Rutherford as Madame Arcati (a role she later repeated in the film). The Broadway version, which opened a month before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, featured Mildred Natwick as Madame Arcati and Clifton Webb as Charles, ran for 657 performances and was the recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play later became the inspiration for High Spirits, a moderately successful 1964 musical in which Beatrice Lillie played Madame Arcati; Tammy Grimes was Elvira; and Edward Woodward, televisions "Equalizer," was Charles.

Yet, even as critics raved about Blithe Spirit, many of them claimed that while it was rich in laughter, the material was as wispy as the ghostly Elvira. That is the sentiment disputed by Brian Bedford, who originally assembled an all-star cast and mounting the play's first Broadway pro-

by Sheryl Flatow

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BERGDORF GOODMAN

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