Noël Coward’s ghostly comedy
Blithe Spirit first hit audiences back in 1941 in the West End. However, if ghosts are real in the sense that Coward imagined them, surely he was haunting this ghastly adaptation of his play.
The real spirit of this play is Elvira (Mann), a successful mystery novelist’s late wife who is summoned from the dead after a washed up spiritualist (Dench) accidentally conjures her. This is a wonderful convenience for writer Condomine (Stevens), who used his previous wife’s stories for his books, but this twisted ménage à trois is the last thing his new wife (Fisher) wants to compete with.
By KATIE WALSH Tribune News Service
February 17, 2021
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Noel Coward’s 1941 play “Blithe Spirit” is classic material: a comic screwball play about a mystery novelist who is haunted by his ex-wife, summoned by a medium while trying to work through his writer’s block. The play has been staged numerous times on the West End and on Broadway since its debut, adapted to a musical (“High Spirits”) and filmed as a movie in 1945, starring Rex Harrison. The ongoing revival continues with Edward Hall’s film version, starring Dan Stevens, Isla Fisher and Leslie Mann.
Dan Stevens, left, and Leslie Mann in “Blithe Spirit.” (Courtesy of IFC Films/TNS)
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Noël Coward’s 1941 play “Blithe Spirit” is classic material: a screwball comedy about a mystery novelist with writer’s block who is haunted by his late first wife after she is inadvertently summoned by a medium. The play has been staged numerous times on the West End and on Broadway since its debut, filmed as a movie starring Rex Harrison in 1945 and adapted into a musical, “High Spirits,” in 1964. The ongoing revival continues with Edward Hall’s film version, starring Dan Stevens, Isla Fisher and Leslie Mann.
In this particular adaptation, the play has been given a Hollywood twist, with the novelist, Charles Condomine (Stevens) struggling to write the screenplay of one of his works for the producer father of his wife, Ruth (Fisher). When the couple attends the mystical show of Madame Arcati (Judi Dench), they find her to be a fraud, but Charles thinks observing the tricks of her trade might offer some inspiration for his writing. During the séance, Madame Arc
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