| Think Noel Coward --- think arched eyebrows, martinis from a shaker, smoking-jacketed dandies intoning, "I love you, my love" and brittle femme fatales in permanent pout. Think wit, wile and consummate theatric style. Think "Blithe Spirit," Coward's 1941 slip of a comic invention. Then think "High Spirits," its adroit 1964 Broadway musical incarnation by writers/composers Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray. (Why the "dumbing down" from "blithe" to "high" remains a mystery.) TheatreFest at Montclair State is ending its year 2000 summer season with a 100th anniversary "High Spirits" tribute to the talented Mr. Coward. As directed with panache and tongue-in-cheek humor by Geoffrey Newman, the show manages to keep Coward's comic balloon, for the most part, buoyantly afloat and to offer up several memorable musical moments along the way. This in spite of occasional dead spots in the writing, stage blockings that are seriously hampered by the tiny Next Stage Theatre's poor sight lines, and a major casting miscalculation that threatens to undermine the balance in the ensemble. There's much to enjoy about this supernatural slugfest involving a ghostly apparition named Elvira. Roused from the dead during a sociable post-dinner-party séance, Elvira quickly finds herself inspired to "do-in" Charles Condomine, her very much alive husband, in order to part him from his current wife Ruth. Michael Ricciardone and Martina Vidmar play the Condomines, Charles and Ruth --- on the surface, models of sophistication, elegance and affected mutual concern, inwardly both suffocating from corrosive marital ennui. Ricciardone's affable Charles seems to relish his role as a troublemaker, ready to sacrifice Ruth to Elvira in a flash. Vidmar - mouth pursed in a perpetually inquisitive pucker --- steals the show as she moves from total stupefaction at her husband's conversations with the invisible Elvira to resolute conviction that her shameless rival must go. Her rueful ballad, "Was She Prettier Than I?" provides a lyric opener and the tender duet, "If I Gave You," is beautifully sung by both her and Ricciardone. As Madame Arcati, séance facilitator and psychic of choice, Barbara Spiegel pulls out all stops. Wrapped, head to toe, in acres of vibrant silk (where did costume designer Karen Ledger find those outrageous pink pumps?), this inventive actress takes British upper-class eccentricity to a new and comically hilarious level. Whether riding her bicycle through the midlands extolling the virtues of her two-wheeler or conjuring up trances for her student assistants in the bouncy "Go Into Your Trance," Spiegel is a hoot. And that brings us to soap opera star Kim Zimmer as the troublesome Elvira. Graced with a pleasantly husky singing voice and a forthright manner that demands attention, Zimmer barrels her way through this physically demanding role with good-natured determination. Anything approaching whimsy or quirky improvisation (the irrepressible Tammy Grimes was the original "High Spirits" Elvira) is simply not part of this seasoned actress' arsenal. The result is a stolidly earthbound and heavy-footed performance rather than one that's sprinkled with stardust. Roger Bennett Riggle's choreography keeps the energetic chorus of singers and dancers busy if not always totally visible and Mark George conducts the musical ensemble with aplomb. I liked the show; I didn't love the show. But then, exiting the theater with one's spirits even modestly lifted must be considered a plus, and "High Spirits" manages that quite nicely. |