Simon Jones Joins Blithe Spirit Revival; Shubert Theatre Set

Simon Jones will join previously announced stars Angela Lansbury, Christine Ebersole and Rupert Everett in the forthcoming Broadway revival of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, which has been booked into the Shubert Theatre. The play will begin previews on February 26, 2009, directed by Michael Blakemore. No opening date has been set.

In Coward's 1941 farce, Lansbury plays Madame Arkati, the eccentric medium hired by author Charles Condomine Everett to perform a seance at his home during a party in order to seek material for an expose he's planning on psychics. Much to the dismay of Charles' second wife a part still to be cast, Madame Arkati winds up summoning the spirit of Elvira Ebersole, his first wife, who has plans to get revenge on her former husband. Jones will play Dr. Bradman, a guest who attends the seance; the role of his wife is not yet cast.

Jones, co-artistic director of The Actors Company Theatre, is veteran of many Coward productions, including TACT's Long Island Sound. His Broadway credits include The Real Thing, Benefactors, Getting Married, Private Lives, The Real Inspector Hound and The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, The School for Scandal, The Herbal Bed, Ring Round the Moon and Waiting in the Wings. Fondly remembered for playing Bridey in the original Brideshead Revisited miniseries, he is currently starring in Shadowlands at the Guthrie in Minneapolis.

Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Steve Traxler will produce the revival of Blithe Spirit, which will feature sets by Peter J. Davison, costumes by Martin Pakledinaz and lighting by Brian MacDevitt. The current tenant at the Shubert, Monty Python’s Spamalot, will end its run on January 18.