Alison Steadman to Lead BLITHE SPIRIT in West End; Opens March 2011

Baz Bamigboye reports in the London Daily Mail today that Alison Steadman has signed on to lead the cast of BLITHE SPIRIT as 'Madame Arcati' in the West End. Rehearsals are scheduled to begin sometime in late September and open at the Theatre Royal in Bath on November 3, 2010 for a limited run.  Thereafter, Bamigboye reports, the show will tour the U.K. briefly before landing at the Apollo Theatre in the West End on March 2, 2011.

Thea Sharrock is set to direct the production.  Sharrock's After the Dance is currently running at the National Theatre. She alleges that she will recreate a pure, traditional rendition of the show.

The Daily Mail quotes: "'You cannot really mess with those old boys - the structure is so particular,' she said, referring to both Coward and Rattigan. She and Ms. Steadman met and the deal was signed and sealed within 24 hours."

Kiera Knightley was also on Sharrock's list of stars to fill the roles of either Elvira or Ruth, however, the actress' filming schedule prohibits her participation in the project.

To read Bamigboye's full report, click here.

On stage, Steadman created the role of 'Beverly' in Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party, which she reprised with the original cast on television. Steadman also appeared in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Hotel Paradiso, and others in locations such as the Royal Court, the Theatre Royal, the Old Vic, The Hampstead Theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse, the Everyman Liverpool and The National Theatre. She starred as Elmire in the 1983 RSC production of Molière's Tartuffe, which was adapted for BBC television.

Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noël Coward concerning 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, following 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 on the West End in London in 1941 and set 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. It returned to Broadway in February 2009 starring Angela Lansbury.

 

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