Blithe Spirit revival fleshes out casting
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 | 1:49 PM ET
CBC News
Actresses Angela Lansbury (left) and Christine Ebersole are among the revival's star-studded cast. (Peter Kramer/Getty Images) A star-studded revival of Noel Coward's play Blithe Spirit is moving closer to a Broadway debut, with stage and TV actress Jayne Atkinson joining the cast.
Atkinson, whose credits range from Broadway's Our Town to TV action thriller 24, will join the forthcoming show's previously announced cast: Angela Lansbury, Chrstine Ebersole, Rupert Everett and Simon Jones.
The play is set to begin previews on Feb. 26 at the Shubert Theatre. An opening date has yet to be announced, but will likely be in March.
The comic stage production revolves around an author (Everett) who hires an eccentric medium (Lansbury) to perform a seance at his home as part of his researching the occult for a new novel. Unexpectedly, the spirit she conjures turns out to be his late first wife (Ebersole), much to the dismay of his latest spouse (Atkinson).
The Coward farce first emerged in 1941 and became a hit both in New York and London.
It also spawned a 1945 film version that starred Rex Harrison and Kay Hammond, as well as subsequent musical, TV and radio adaptations.
The play's most recent Broadway revival was in 1987, with a cast featuring Richard Chamberlain, Blythe Danner and Judith Ivey.
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