Madison Lyric Stage Kicks 2017 Season Off with Madcap Comedy
Madison Lyric Stage (MLS)’s first production of the 2017 season is Noel Coward’s madcap comedy Blithe Spirit. Performances will be held Fridays and Saturdays April 21, 22, 28, and 29 at 7:30 p.m., with a special matinée performance on Sunday, April 30 at 5:30 p.m., at the Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society, 297 Boston Post Road, Madison.
Coward’s smash hit revolves around novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant Madame Arcati to his home to conduct a séance, hoping to gather material for his next book. The scheme backfires when the ghost of his temperamental first wife, Elvira, is conjured. Mayhem and hijinks ensue.
“We’re setting the story in 1964 and my inspiration is the classic television comedy of the supernatural, Bewitched,” said Marc Deaton, artistic director of MLS. “Imagine Samantha and Darrin Stephens inviting Larry and Louise Tate to their home for an evening of martinis and ghost stories. Since we will be magically transforming the space, the audience will feel that they, too, are attending Madame Arcati’s séance.”
Deaton directs this ghoulish farce starring A.J. Lincoln (MLS’s The Glass Menagerie), Maureen Gallagher, Allison Waggener, and, as Madame Arcati, famed Madison storyteller Jennifer Munro (MLS’s A Little Night Music).
Single tickets are $35 and can be purchased at madisonlyricstage.org or by calling 203-215-6329. Tickets are also available at R.J. Julia in Madison.
MLS returns to the Madison after hosting its 2016 season in Guilford. The company will present the opera Otello, with orchestra, in June and the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, with band, in July. Money-saving season subscriptions for all three summer shows are available for $90.
MLS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts collective for the shoreline of Connecticut. Its mission is to present professional-quality entertainment from the worlds of opera, musical theater, and drama. Past productions include A Little Night Music, Evita, Macbeth, Peter Grimes, Salome, The Glass Menagerie, and many others.
For more information about MLS, visit madisonlyricstage.org.