Alhambra to Present BLITHE SPIRIT

The story line of Blithe Spirit could be anyone's fantasy: return to life as a ghost and haunt your former spouse and newly betrothed partner. Such is the premise of Noel Coward's comedy opening May 4 at the Alhambra Theater & Dining for a four-week run. Blithe Spirit has been heralded as one of three jewels in Coward's crown. It's most recent Broadway and touring revival from starred Angela Lansbury received rave reviews around the country. The Alhambra performances will feature Lisa Valdini-Booth in the lead role of medium, Madame Arcati, who leads the séance that brings back the ghost of Charles Condomine's wife.

"As wonderful as our cast is for this show," said Alhambra Managing Partner Craig Smith, "The real star of Blithe Spirit, is Noel Coward." Coward was among the most popular personalities of his time. Born in 1899 in a south-western suburb of London, started as an actor and went on to be a songwriter, director, producer and founder of a movie production company (which, of course, produced Blithe Spirit in 1945). Smith added, "Noel Coward was kind of the Elvis of his era. He was a bonafide star during a glamorous time when literary figures, play writes and artists we among the most popular of celebrities." Coward's career spanned more than four decades with success in theater, film cabaret and music.

In praise of Coward's versatility, Lord Mountbatten said, in a tribute on Coward's seventieth birthday, "There are probably greater painters than Noël, greater novelists than Noël, greater librettists, greater composers of music, greater singers, greater dancers, greater comedians, greater tragedians, greater stage producers, greater film directors, greater cabaret artists, greater TV stars. If there are, they are fourteen different people. Only one man combined all fourteen different labels - The Master. According to Coward, his nickname "started as a joke and became true." It was used of him from the 1920s onwards through the rest of his life. Coward himself made light of it: when asked by a journalist why he was known as "The Master," he replied, "Oh, you know - Jack of all trades, master of none."

In his profession Coward was widely admired and loved for his generosity and kindness to those who fell on hard times. Stories are told of the unobtrusive way in which he relieved the needs or paid the debts of old theatrical acquaintances who had no claim on him. From 1934 until 1956, Coward was the president of The Actors' Orphanage, which was supported by the theatrical industry. He received many honors, including being knighted in 1969 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement. In 1972, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Lettersdegree by the University of Sussex. Coward passed away in 1976 from heart failure. TheNoël Coward Theatre in St Martin's Lane, originally opened in 1903 as the New Theatre and later called the Albery, was renamed in his honor after extensive refurbishment, re-opening in June of 2006

The comedic play concerns the socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to gather material for his next book. The scheme backfires when he is haunted by the ghost of his annoying and temperamental first wife, Elvira, after the séance. Elvira makes continual attempts to disrupt Charles's marriage to his second wife, Ruth, who cannot see or hear the ghost.

The play was first seen in the West End in 1941, creating a new long-run record for non-musical British plays of 1,997 performances. It also did well on Broadway later that year, running for 657 performances. Coward adapted the play for film in 1945, starring Rex Harrison, and directed a musical adaptation, High Spirits, on Broadway in 1964. It was also adapted for television in the 1950s and 1960s and for radio. The play enjoyed several West End and Broadway revivals in the 1970s and 1980s and was revived again in London in 2004, 2011 and 2014. It returned to Broadway in February 2009. In 2004, Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph wrote, "With Hay Fever and Private Lives, Blithe Spirit strikes me as being one of Coward 's three indisputable comic masterpieces. [It is] the outrageous frivolity with which Coward treats mortality that makes the piece so bracing."

Executive Chef DeJuan Roy creates a new menu at the Alhambra for every show, basing his creativity on the themes he finds in the scripts. For the Blithe Spirit, Chef Roy expertly weaves in English themes to his unique menu: the first course includes a choice of an appetizer of deviled eggs, candied bacon, pepper jelly and toast points or a Napa cabbage salad with field peas, cucumber, heirloom tomato, fried wontons and Mandarin orange dressing. The second course features a choice of bangers and mash with sweet pea coulis, grain mustard and caper relish, or pan-seared brook trout with cauliflower grits, tomato, charred corn, thyme, Meyer lemon and brown butter, or pan-sautéed chicken breast and pappardelle pasta with creamy Provençal sauce and asparagus, or as the vegetarian dish, a seasonal vegetable flatbread with field pea hummus, goat cheese and feta. The dessert course includes a choice of Yorkshire bread pudding with whiskey sauce or English pound cake trifle.

Blithe Spirit runs May 4, 2016 through June 5, 2016. Times are 8:00 PM for evening shows Tuesday through Sunday. Doors open at 6:00 PM and dinner starts at 6:30 PM. Matinees on Saturday are at 1:15 PM. Doors open at 11:00 AM and meal service starts at 11:15 AM. Sunday matinee is at 2:00. Doors open at noon and the meal service starts at 12:15 PM. Group sales are available. Tickets start at $35 for and range to $53. Ticket price includes dinner, show and parking. Call the box office at 904.641.1212 or at www.alhambrajax.com

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