AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

Updates for March 17, 2009:

The Guardian

Blithe Spirit, Shubert Theatre, New York
With a lavish set and excerpts from Coward songs between acts, this is as good a cure for grimness as it ever was, says Emma Brockes

Time Out New York

Review: Blithe Spirit
Angela Lansbury heads up a hauntingly fun new revival of the Noël Coward comedy classic.

Hartford Courant

Lansbury, Ebersole Help Make 'Blithe Spirit' Soar
Hail to thee, "Blithe Spirit." The revival of Noël Coward's 1941 ghost story opened Sunday in a transcendent revival at the Shubert Theatre in New York

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AmericanTheaterWeb

Review - Blithe Spirit
Breezy Comedy for the Spring

New York Times

The Medium as the Messenger
This genial but bumpy new revival of Noël Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” stars Angela Lansbury in her juiciest role in years.

New York Daily News

Lansbury moves us, not 'Spirit'
Playing an eccentric psychic medium who stirs up ghostly trouble in “Blithe Spirit,” Angela Lansbury may be fidgety and frazzled at times, but she’s the spark in the new production of Noel Coward’s 1941 comedy, now open at the Shubert.

amNY New York City Theater

Theater Review of Blithe Spirit
“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.”

Newsday

Review: Angela Lansbury takes "Blithe Spirit" to heights
Broadway audiences have been known to interrupt a production to applaud a famous actor's entrance. On occasion, they clap after a fancy exit. But I can't recall a time when an audience has burst into applause, over and over, just about every time the star comes onto the stage or walks off.

New York Post

'Spirit' willing, flash weak
At this point in her career, Angela Lansbury's approach to the stage is that of a jazz virtuoso: She may not always stick to the written score, but somehow the music comes out just fine. Like her character ..

ny1

NY1 Theater Review: "Blithe Spirit"
...the champagne-light supernatural farce by Noel Coward, and it should continue to haunt the Shubert for a good long time.

The New Yorker

“33 Variations,” “Blithe Spirit.” by John Lahr

Bergen Record

Theater review: "Blithe Spirit"
If the revival of "Blithe Spirit" were a dessert, it would be an unrisen soufflé.

Associated Press

Lansbury and Company Wittily Spin 'Blithe Spirit'
Light and airy requires heavy lifting -- theatrically speaking

Bloomberg.com

Angela Lansbury's Comic Psychic Lights Up Fervent `Spirit': John Simon
When a scintillating comedy, masterly direction and superior performances come together, what have you got? A rip-roaring revival of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” that lights up Broadway’s Shubert Theatre.

Variety

Review: Blithe Spirit
While the dry martinis flow freely among hosts and guests alike in "Blithe Spirit," those libations do little to loosen up Michael Blakemore's classy but stiff Broadway revival.

Hollywood Reporter

Theater Review: Blithe Spirit
Bottom Line: This revival of Coward's 1941 comedy proves that the playwright still has the "talent to amuse."

Back Stage

Blithe Spirit reviewed by David Sheward [critic's pick]
It's clear that audiences filling the Shubert Theatre have not come principally to see Blithe Spirit, Noël Coward's classic comedy of whimsy and the occult.

TheaterMania

Review: Blithe Spirit
Angela Lansbury gives a side-splitting performance as Madame Arcati in Michael Blakemore's near-perfect revival of Noel Coward's world-class comedy.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: Blithe Spirit
Madame Arcati, the motley clairvoyant around whom the most otherworldly aspects of Noël Coward’s heavenly comedy Blithe Spirit revolve, is by her nature not a headline grabber. She might be good for a half-page profile in an alt-weekly, or as a one-liner in the “fashion don’ts” ...

CurtainUp

Review: Blithe Spirit
With New Yorkers being blitzed with bad news, the producers of the latest revival of Noel Coward's wartime prompted ghost story may well be right in thinking that it will once again prove to be a perfect escape from grim reality