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Blithe Spirit (play)
''Blithe Spirit'' is a comic play by Noël Coward, described by the author as "an improbable farce in three acts". The play concerns the socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant Madame Arcati to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to gather material for his next book. The scheme backfires when he is haunted by the ghost of his wilful and temperamental first wife, Elvira, after the séance. Elvira makes continual attempts to disrupt Charles's marriage to his second wife, Ruth, who cannot see or hear the ghost. The play was first seen in the West End in 1941 and ran for 1,997 performances, a new record for a non-musical play in London. It also did well on Broadway later that year, running for 657 performances. The play was adapted for the cinema in 1945; a second film version followed in 2020. Coward directed a musical adaptation, '' High Spirits'', seen on Broadway and in the West End in 1964. Radio and television presentati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit may refer to: * ''Blithe Spirit'' (play), a 1941 comic play written by Noël Coward * ''Blithe Spirit'' (1945 film), a British comedy film based on the play * Blithe Spirit (''Ford Star Jubilee''), a 1956 television play version of the play * ''Blithe Spirit'' (2020 film), a British-American comedy film based on the play See also *'' To a Skylark'', poem ("Hail to Thee, blithe spirit ...) of Romantic Era, by P. B. Shelley *'' Blythe Spirit'', 1981 jazz album by Arthur Blythe {{disambiguation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Keats
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculosis at the age of 25. They were indifferently received in his lifetime, but his fame grew rapidly after his death. By the end of the century, he was placed in the canon of English literature, strongly influencing many writers of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' of 1888 described his "Ode to a Nightingale" as "one of the final masterpieces". Keats had a style "heavily loaded with sensualities", notably in the series of odes. Typically of the Romantics, he accentuated extreme emotion through natural imagery. Today his poems and letters remain among the most popular and analysed in English literature – in particular "Ode to a Nightingale", " Ode on a Grecian Urn", " Sleep and Poetry" and the sonnet " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas Phipps
William Nicholas Foskett Phipps (23 June 1913 – 11 April 1980) was a British actor and writer who appeared in stage roles between 1932 and 1967 and more than thirty films between 1940 and 1970. He wrote West End plays, songs and sketches for revues, and film scripts. Life and career Early years Phipps was born in London on 23 June 1913, the son of the civil servant Sir Edmund Bampfylde Phipps and his wife Margaret, née Phipps (the grand-daughter of Charles Paul Phipps). He was educated at Winchester College.Herbert, pp. 1282–1283 He made his first appearance on the stage at the Old Vic on 25 January 1932, walking-on ''Julius Caesar''. In 1933, he played in Anew McMaster's Shakespearian season at the Chiswick Empire, and at Christmas, appeared at the Embassy in ''Aladdin ''. At the St Martin's in March 1934 he played Henry in ''Love in a Mist,'' subsequently joining the Northampton repertory company. During 1934–35, he was co-director of the Imperial Institute Theatre. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecil Parker
Cecil Parker (born Cecil Schwabe; 3 September 1897 – 20 April 1971) was an English actor with a distinctively husky voice, who usually played supporting roles, often characters with a supercilious demeanour, in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969. Career Parker was born in Hastings, Sussex, the second son (and fifth of six children) of German-born Charles August Schwabe, manager of the Albany Hotel, Hastings, and his English wife, Kate (née Parker), a church organist. He was educated at St Francis Xavier College, and at Bruges in Belgium.Who's Who in the Theatre by John Parker (11th Edition) (1952) (London) He served with the Royal Sussex Regiment in the First World War, reaching the rank of sergeant. He began his theatrical career in London in 1922, adopting the surname "Parker" from his mother's maiden name. He made his first film appearance in 1933 and subsequently became a familiar face in British and occasionally American films until his death. He appeared les ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Mousetrap
''The Mousetrap'' is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The play opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until 16 March 2020, when the stage performances had to be temporarily discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemic. It then re-opened on 17 May 2021. The longest-running West End show, it also has by far the longest run of any play in the world, reaching its 30,000th performance on 19 March 2025. Attendees at St Martin's Theatre often get their photo taken beside the wooden counter (showing a count of the number of performances) in the theatre foyer. As of 2022 the play had been seen by 10 million people in London. A whodunit, the play has a twist ending which the audience are traditionally asked not to reveal after leaving the theatre. There are eight members of the cast, and by 2012 more than 400 actors had played the roles. Richard Attenborough was the original Detective Sergeant Trotter, and his wife, Sheila Sim, the first Mollie Ralston – o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gladys Calthrop
Gladys Edith Mabel Calthrop (''née'' Treeby; 29 March 1894 – 7 March 1980) was an artist and leading British stage designer. She is best known as the set and costume designer for many of Noël Coward's plays and musicals. Early life Gladys Edith Mabel Treeby was born in Ashton, Devon, the daughter of Mabel and Frederick Theophilus Treeby. She was educated at Grassendale School, Southbourne, West Sussex. Her parents sent her to a finishing school in Paris, and she returned married to Army captain Everard E. Calthrop, from Norfolk. The couple had a son, Hugo, whose care Calthrop entrusted mostly to her mother. He was later killed in the Burma Campaign. She was soon separated from her husband (she had lesbian relationships thereafter) and studied art at Slade School of Fine Art. Career Calthrop was introduced to Noël Coward by Mrs. Astley Cooper while on holiday in Italy in 1921.Hoare, Philip. ''Noël Coward, A Biography''. Sinclair-Stevenson, 1995. , pp. 85–86"Mrs Gladys Calt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duchess Theatre
The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street near Aldwych. The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest West End theatres with a proscenium arch. It has 494 seats on two levels. It is a Grade II Listed Building. The Duchess Theatre was purchased in 2005 by Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer forming part of the Nimax Theatres group. History The Duchess Theatre was designed by Ewen Barr and constructed by F. G. Minter Ltd for Arthur Gibbons. The theatre is built with stalls below street level, both to overcome the scale of the site and to maintain the rights of neighbours to ancient lights. The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 with a play called ''Tunnel Trench'' by Hubert Griffith. The interior decoration scheme was introduced in 1934 under the supervision of Mary Wyndham Lewis, wife of J. B. Priestley. The original interiors were Art Deco in style, designed by Marc Henri and Gaston Laverd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St James's Theatre
The St James's Theatre was in King Street, St James's, King Street, St James's, London. It opened in 1835 and was demolished in 1957. The theatre was conceived by and built for a popular singer, John Braham (tenor), John Braham; it lost money and after three seasons he retired. A succession of managements over the next forty years also failed to make it a commercial success, and St James's acquired a reputation as an unlucky theatre. It was not until 1879–1888, under the management of the actors John Hare (actor), John Hare and Madge Kendal, Madge and William Hunter Kendal, W. H. Kendal that the theatre began to prosper. The Hare-Kendal management was succeeded, after brief and disastrous attempts by other lessees, by that of the actor-manager George Alexander (actor), George Alexander, who was in charge from 1891 until his death in 1918. Under Alexander the house gained a reputation for programming that was adventurous without going too far for the tastes of London society ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piccadilly Theatre
The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at the junction of Denman Street and Sherwood Street, near Piccadilly Circus, in the City of Westminster, London. It opened in 1928. In its early years the theatre presented a wide range of productions, and was briefly a cinema. During the Second World War it presented productions ranging from the premiere of Noël Coward's '' Blithe Spirit'' to John Gielgud's lavish production of ''Macbeth''. Later productions in the 1940s and 1950s included Cole Porter's ''Panama Hattie'' (1943), Coward's revue ''Sigh No More (musical), Sigh No More'' (1945) and Peter Ustinov's ''Romanoff and Juliet (play), Romanoff and Juliet'' (1956). In 1964 the Piccadilly presented the British premiere of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'', but by this time musicals had begun to outnumber non-musical plays at this theatre, with revivals of ''Oliver!'' and ''Man of La Mancha'', and later productions including ''Gypsy (musical), Gypsy'' (1973), ''A Funn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchester Opera House
The Opera House in Quay Street, Manchester, England, is a 1,920-seater commercial touring Theatre (structure), theatre that plays host to touring Musical theatre, musicals, ballet, concerts and a Christmas pantomime. It is a Grade II listed building and one of the main theatres in Manchester. The Opera House and its sister theatre the Palace Theatre, Manchester, Palace Theatre on Oxford Street are operated by the same parent company, Ambassador Theatre Group. History The theatre opened as the New Theatre in 1912, renamed the New Queen's Theatre in 1915 and as the Opera House in 1920 when it came under the wing of John Hart and his associates of United Theatres Ltd. In 1931, it was bought by, and prospered under, Howard & Wyndham Ltd which had been formed at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1895 by Michael Simons. The group's managing director A Stewart Cruikshank, headquartered at the group's headquarters in the King's Theatre, Edinburgh, was joined on the board by Charles B Cochran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hay Fever (play)
alt=middle-aged white woman in large sun-hat, with young adult male and female kneeling to each side ''Hay Fever'' is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924. Its first production was in the West End in 1925 with Marie Tempest as Judith Bliss. A cross between high farce and a comedy of manners, the play is set in an English country house in the 1920s, and deals with the four eccentric members of the Bliss family and their outlandish behaviour when they each invite a guest to spend the weekend. The self-centred behaviour of the hosts finally drives their guests to flee while the Blisses are so engaged in a family row that they do not notice their guests' furtive departure. The play's original production opened in London in 1925 and ran for 337 performances. Coward wrote the piece with Tempest in mind for the central role of Judith. In later productions the part has been played by actresses including Constance Collier, Edith Evans, Constance Cummings, Rosemary Harris, Judi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
