Blithe Spirit

It seems petty to be offered a tart Noel Coward cocktail blended with a generous helping of some of the Boston area's finest actors and wish it was a bit more fizzy, but that's the position you're put in by the Lyric Stage's production of Blithe Spirit. Director Spiros Veloudous has assembled the finest of ingredients and frequently whips up a delicious concoction, but somehow something's off and the whole never elevates into the sublime lark it could have been.

Coward's comedy premiered in 1941 during the last days of the Blitz and provided a much needed diversion for war-weary Brits during its near 2,000 performance run. It proved a success on this side of the Atlantic as well, was made into a popular film and has been a repertory item ever since. Last season its fourth Broadway revival gave Angela Lansbury the opportunity to win her fifth Tony Award. At the time of its premiere Coward called the play a "very gay, superficial comedy about a ghost"; unintended or not, his words point towards a subtext that reads the play as a coded comedy about a gay relationship coming back to haunt someone who wishes it best be kept in the closet.

That someone is writer Charles Condomine who, with second wife Ruth, holds a s�ance led by the batty Madame Arcati, for research for his next book. Unfortunately, the s�ance conjurs up a real spirit in the form of Charles' dead first wife Elvira. Caught in a sort of "astral bigamy", Charles tries to make the best of the arrangement, much to Ruth's disbelief and then consternation.

In a script filled with witticisms, Coward's script is deservedly a classic, and when the Lyric's production is good, it's very good indeed. Richard Snee (a bit too old for the role but so good, who cares?) as Charles and Ann Gottlieb as Ruth kick the play off with verbal sparring that makes you think a revival of Coward's Private Lives might be in order. Gottlieb is especially good when she realizes Elvira really is her new housemate and begins to lose her grip on sanity while still trying to keep her dignity. Snee's real life wife Paula Plum as Elvira is so full of, well, life that she conjures smiles just by mincing across the stage. Together, the trio is a stitch in an extended bit where Ruth thinks Charles' barbs at Elvira are directed at her.

But the production periodically stumbles in its pacing, particularly in the first s�ance scene, where thank god there's at least the pleasure of watching Sarah deLima make hay out the small role of Mrs. Bradman, perfectly bubbly in a veddy British, stiff-upper-lip way. Kathy St. George as Madam Arcati doesn't seem to find her footing until the third act, despite some darn sparkly rhinestone-sprinkled slippers, just one of costumer Chip Schoonmaker's flourishes. Seemingly trying too hard early in the show, St. George does recover beautifully and makes her non-traditionally spritely Arcati work, but by then the play is starting to feel every one of its two and a half hours.

Proof that there's a fine line between good and great, nothing in the Lyric's production is at all bad, but there are enough small drags and pushing when the archness should seem effortless that they add up to the feeling that the show isn't as good as it should be. Perhaps the cast was having an off night, or perhaps director Veloudous trusted too much to his experienced cast and didn't drill the madcap verbal and physical choreography enough. Whatever the reason, this Blithe Spirit is a cocktail that feels ever so slightly flat.

Blithe Spirit continues through June 6 at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston. For more information visit the Lyric's website.