{"id":16203,"date":"2015-01-25T12:39:44","date_gmt":"2015-01-25T20:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=16203"},"modified":"2015-01-25T12:39:44","modified_gmt":"2015-01-25T20:39:44","slug":"dead-playwright-old-actress-antique-play-still-delightful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/dead-playwright-old-actress-antique-play-still-delightful\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead playwright, old actress, antique play still delightful"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 4]<\/span><\/p>\n

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Appearing in touring company of \u201cBlithe Spirit\u201d are (from left) Sandra Shipley, Charles Edwards, Susan Louise O\u2019Connor, star Angela Lansbury as Madame Arcati, Charlotte Parry and Simon Jones. Photo by Joan Marcus.<\/p>\n

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Susan Louise O\u2019Connor (left) shines in small role alongside Charles Edwards and Charlotte Parry in \u201cBlithe Spirit.\u201d Photo by Joan Marcus.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

I thought deceased playwright No\u00ebl Coward was so yesterday.<\/p>\n

And I feared 89-year-old Angela Lansbury might fit into that pigeonhole, too.<\/p>\n

But \u201cBlithe Spirit,\u201d which originally debuted on Broadway in 1941, proves my pre-show presumptions were way off.<\/p>\n

All three are charming \u2014 despite their antiquity.<\/p>\n

In the small but crucial role of second-generation medium Madame Arcati (at the Golden Gate Theatre), Lansbury is an absolute rib-tickling marvel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a part that earned her a Tony Award for the 2009 Broadway revival.<\/p>\n

Opening night in San Francisco, I found the character actor\u2019s physical comedy \u2014 as well as her ability to zoom her vocal elevator from squeaky to bass and back again \u2014 delightful.<\/p>\n

But major kudos also are due Susan Louise O\u2019Connor, whose comic antics in a secondary part are honed so finely they virtually steal the show.<\/p>\n

As maid Edith, she manages to transform her earliest lines of\u00a0 \u201cYes, mum,\u201d \u201cYes, mum\u201d and \u201cYes, mum\u201d into comedic diamonds.<\/p>\n

Laugh-aloud gems.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s so good at it, and in becoming a mousey creature stuck alternately in fifth and slo-mo gears, she almost outshines Lansbury in the slapstick-with-pinpoint-timing department.<\/p>\n

Almost.<\/p>\n

Lansbury had the opening night audience in her palm before the curtain went up.<\/p>\n

Director Michael Blakemore deserves recognition, though, for acutely and cutely layering the manifold moments of shtick \u2014 and for making at least the first half of a protracted 115-minute two-act play move swiftly.<\/p>\n

I can offer shout-outs, too, to Charles Edwards as an ultra-correct, ultra-British Charles Condomine, who asks the medium to conduct a s\u00e9ance in his living room so he can use it in his novel, and Jemima Rooper as Elvira, the churlish, lethal dead wife he summons despite remembering \u201chow morally untidy she was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such phraseology may seem archaic in print, but when used on stage it holds up.<\/p>\n

Astonishingly well.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlithe Spirit,\u201d which followed otherworldly films such as \u201cTopper\u201d and \u201cThe Ghost Goes West\u201d into the public\u2019s imagination and favor, allegedly was written in a week.<\/p>\n

But Coward\u2019s velocity doesn\u2019t show through.<\/p>\n

His wit does.<\/p>\n

Adding to the onstage fun are old-fashioned projections of scene names and action, accompanied by screechy sounds from vintage recordings.<\/p>\n

As well as ectoplasmic special effects that peak just before the final curtain.<\/p>\n

On a personal note, repeated use of Irving Berlin\u2019s \u201cAlways,\u201d ancient enough to have been my parent\u2019s favorite song, hit me right in the labonza.<\/p>\n

Angela Lansbury\u2019s 70-year career includes harvesting five Tonys, six Golden Globes and an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. She starred on Broadway in \u201cMame,\u201d \u201cGypsy\u201d and \u201cSweeney Todd.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s best known, of course, for playing Jessica Fletcher in \u201cMurder, She Wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which I never saw.<\/p>\n

In spite of the original series being on TV for 12 years (and the cable re-runs still going strong).<\/p>\n

She first awed me, rather, in a 1962 Cold War film thriller, \u201cThe Manchurian Candidate,\u201d while playing the conniving mother of a potential political assassin.<\/p>\n

Her \u201cBlithe Spirit\u201d characterization couldn\u2019t be more dissimilar.<\/p>\n

She portrayed Madame Arcati as a bent, cantankerous, peculiar old lady with a distinctive shuffle. But when it came time to take her bows, the nearly nonagenarian\u2019s body was suddenly erect, and she was smiling and sprightly.<\/p>\n

Why\u2019d I like her and this play so much?<\/p>\n

Maybe because too many shows nowadays are heavy, heavy, heavy.<\/p>\n

In contrast, \u201cBlithe Spirit,\u201d which Coward appropriately subtitled \u201cAn Improbable Farce,\u201d didn\u2019t require` me to think about it, chew on it, discuss it, worry about it or dissect it.<\/p>\n

All I needed to do was sit back and enjoy it.<\/p>\n

It and Lansbury, that is.<\/p>\n

Last year, the living legend made headlines when Queen Elizabeth aptly made her a dame.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d earned the honor.<\/p>\n

And clearly, to steal a line from a hit Broadway show she didn\u2019t<\/em> star in, she\u2019s still up there in the footlights proving \u201cthere is nothing like a dame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially a spry old one.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlithe Spirit\u201d will play at the SHN Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor St., San Francisco, through Feb. 1. <\/em>Night performances Tuesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m. Matinees, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $45 to $175 (subject to change). Information: (888) 746-1799 or shnsf.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or check out his blog at www.vitalitypress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 4] I thought deceased playwright No\u00ebl Coward was so yesterday. And I feared 89-year-old Angela Lansbury might fit into that pigeonhole, too. But \u201cBlithe Spirit,\u201d which originally debuted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"