Blakemore to Direct Noel Coward's 'Blithe Spirit' On Broadway in March 2009

Variety is reporting that Noel Coward's play Blithe Spirit will have life on Broadway this upcoming Spring season. The play will be produced by the same group behind August: Osage County and the upcoming Speed-The-Plow.

Michael Blakemore will be directing. In 2000 Blakemore became the only director receive a Tony for both Best Direction of a Musical and Best Direction of a Play in the same year for his work on Copenhagen and Kiss Me Kate.

The play is aiming for a March opening in a Shubert theater that will announced at a later date. No casting has been announced.

Blithe Spirit is a comedy written in 1941 and tells the story of a socialite Charles Condomine who is haunted by his late wife Elvira's ghost after he takes part in seance. The play set box office records for a straight play on the West End that were not broken until 1970 with premiere of Boeing-Boeing

The Broadway premiere took place on November 5, 1941 at the Morosco Theatre directed by John C. Wilson and designed by Stewart Chaney. The play transferred to the Booth Theatre on May 18, 1942 and it ran for a total of 657 performances. It was revived at the Neil Simon Theatre on March 31, 1987 in a production directed by Brian Murray. In its most notable casting it featued Richard Chamberlain as Charles, Blythe Danner as Elvira, Judith Ivey as Ruth (Charles' new wife) and Geraldine Page, who received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress, as Madame Arcati. It ran for 104 performances.

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.