Jayne Atkinson Joins BLITHE SPIRIT Revival Cast

Variety reports that Jayne Atkinson has joined the cast of the upcoming Broadway revival of "Blithe Spirit," Atkinson will play the bride of Everett's character, who is plagued by the ghost of his deceased first wife (Ebersole). Atkinson was last on Broadway in "Enchanted April" in 2003.

The producers of Blithe Spirit have recently announced the show will play The Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street).  Rehearsals are scheduled to begin Monday, January 26, 2009 with the first performance on Thursday, February 26, 2009.

Jones joins the previously announced Angela Lansbury (Sweeney Todd, Gypsy, Dear World, Mame) in the role of "Madame Arcati", Rupert Everett (My Best Friend's Wedding, An Ideal Husband) in the role of "Charles", Christine Ebersole (Grey Gardens, 42nd Street) in the role of "Elvira" and Simon Jones (Waiting in the Wings, The Real Thing). The production will be directed by two-time Tony Award winner Michael Blakemore (Copenhagen, Kiss Me Kate).  

 Blithe Spirit is returning to its roots at the home of straight plays, joining a distinguished list of plays that ran at The Shubert Theatre.  Prior to the long run of A Chorus Line, the theatre has been home to a plethora of successful straight plays.  In 1913, the theatre opened with a trio of Shakespearean plays: Othello, The Merchant of Venice and Hamlet.  Over the course of 95 years, the theatre has featured:  George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly's Beggar on a Horseback (1925), Sidney Howard's Dodsworth (1934), Alexandre Dumas' Camille (1935), Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (1938), Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story (1939), Robert E. Sherwood's Idiots Delight (1936), Maxwell Anderson's Anne of the Thousand Days (1948), George Axelrod's Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter (1956), Leonard Spigelgass' A Majority of One (1959), John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence (1966), Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark, Arthur Miller's The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972), Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys (1973), W. Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife (1975) and Edward Albee's Pulitzer-prize winning, Seascape (1975).

Blithe Spirit will be produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, and Steve Traxler, currently represented on Broadway with August: Osage County and the production of Speed-The-Plow.

Blithe Spirit, one of Noel Coward's most popular comedies, was first seen on Broadway, in 1941, the same year it was produced in London where it set British box office records and was the longest running comedy (1997 performances) until it was eventually surpassed by Boeing-Boeing in the 1970's.  The original Broadway production played nearly two years and co-starred Leonora Corbett, Mildred Natwick, Clifton Webb and Peggy Wood.  It was last seen on Broadway in an all-star production in 1987 with Richard Chamberlain, Blythe Danner, Judith Ivey, and Geraldine Page, in her final Broadway appearance.

Coward, in his autobiography, claimed he wrote the play in five days during a holiday.  Only two lines of dialogue were removed before its first production in London.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.