Blithe Spirit

Blithe Spirit at the Princess of Wales, with Angela Lansbury (winner of Tonys for Anyone Can Whistle, Mame, Dear World, Gypsy and Sweeney Todd), is the best production of Noel Coward's play that I have had the pleasure to see. Brilliantly directed by Michael Blakemore, and beautifully set by Simon Higlett and lit by Mark Jonathan, co-starring Downton Abbey's Charles Edwards, one could not ask for more. I have seen many productions of this play starting in the late 1950s at the Red Barn Theatre, at the Royal Alexandra, and Stratford with Seana McKenna. and of course the 1945 David Lean film with Rex Harrison and Margaret Rutherford, which won Oscar for special effects. Broadway has had Angela, Mildred Natwick, and Geraldine Page play Madame Arcati.