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Review: Blithe Spirit

BLITHE SPIRIT by Noel Coward (Mirvish). At the Princess of Wales Theatre (300 King West). Runs to March 15. $35-$175. 416-872-1212, mirvish.com. See Continuing. Rating: NNN

Angela Lansbury may have lead billing in the tour of Noel Coward‘s Blithe Spirit, but she’s not the only reason to see this often funny production.

At its centre is Charles Condomine (Charles Edwards), a writer who invites a medium, Madame Arcati (Lansbury), to hold a paranormal session in order to get some pointers for his new novel. Those in attendance include his second wife, the practical Ruth (Charlotte Parry), and the Bradmans (Simon Jones and Sandra Shipley). Arcati somehow manages to conjure up the ghost of Charles’s first wife, Elvira (Jemima Rooper), and can’t send her back to the spirit world.

The result is an elegant and sometimes funny series of encounters involving Charles, Elvira and Ruth, who can’t hear or see her predecessor. It’s a unique romantic triangle filled with jealousy, bickering, desire and infidelity. Coward, adept at lovers’ quarrels, knows how to build the comic tension and then release it characters can do an emotional 180 in the course of a few lines. Still, some of the confrontations involving Charles and one or both women circle around the same material a few too many times.

The production, directed by Michael Blakemore, has the benefit of an English cast who understand Coward’s rhythms and how to find the touch of heart beneath the sometimes brittle laughs. Both Rooper and Parry bring an elegance to their roles that doesn’t preclude the occasional bitchy moment, and Edwards goes from a seemingly loving husband with two spouses to a man who’d rather be rid of them both.

From its applause at her entrance – no one else gets this – the audience loves Lansbury, and thankfully she never overplays the potentially scene-chewing part. Her Arcati does a clever little seductive dance as preparation for calling the spirits, and she reacts with cold disdain when some at the seance treat her talents as dubious.

But it’s not Arcati’s play, and Lansbury is only one of several actors who contribute to this production’s success. Another is Susan Louise O’Connor as Edith, the Condomines’ service-challenged maid, who’s always floating in a slightly different reality than the others in the house and seems to have a bit of a crush on Charles.

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