Having movEd Gracefully through the moral shadowlands of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt, acclaimed actress Adriane Lenox now finds herself in a lighter realm - that of Noel Coward's hilarious classic Blithe Spirit, which plays the Williamstown Theatre Festival from July 18th through 29th.
In Doubt (for which she won the 2005 Best Featured Actress in a Play Tony Award, and also performed in on tour), Lenox played Mrs. Muller, whose support of the accused boys' school priest Father O'Flynn clashes with the suspicions of the dour Sister Aloysius. As Blithe Spirit's bubbly Mrs. Bradman, Lenox is herself dubious of Madame Arcati, the ectoplasm-spouting, bicycle-riding medium who will be played by "Just Shoot Me" star Wendie Malick. Mrs. Bradman and her husband attend a séance in which her novelist friend Charles Condomine plans to ascertain that Arcati is a fraud; the couple is then taken aback when Charles' dead wife starts to make her presence felt. Lenox, who is now in rehearsals with the cast, is "having fun with playing Mrs. Bradman as if she would get a kick out of something actually happening, even though she is a bit of a skeptic."
Directed by Maria Mileaf, Blithe Spirit will also feature Michael Boatman as Dr. Bradman, Kate Jennings Grant as Elvira, Jenn Harris as Edith, Jessica Hecht as Ruth, and Bernard White as Charles Condomine. Lenox, who has yet to run into any ghosts herself, says: "We're having fun figuring things out - bits, as it were." Lenox is not surprised at the enduring popularity of Blithe Spirit: "It's funny and fast, even though it's three acts and two intermissions. I think we're going to revamp and just have one intermission."
The spectral comedy of manners marks Lenox' third production at Williamstown, the prestigious summer mecca for actors. She has previously performed in the Donald Margulies play Broken Sleep and also a reading of Jenny Giering and Beth Blatt's musical The Mistress Cycle alongside Sara Ramirez, Julia Murney and others. "This was back when Michael Ritchie was the head of the festival," Lenox says of Williamstown, which is now captained by Tony Award-winner Roger Rees.
