OregonLive - Recommended
"...Yes, Yuletide is upon us, and as usual the local theater companies will welcome the holidays with a rich array of Christmas entertainments. Artists Repertory Theatre, however, has opted to celebrate the festive season with a different kind of Noël play -- the company has turned to Noël Coward's "Blithe Spirit" to enliven this year's cold dark December nights. With its ghosts and supernatural playfulness, this 1941 "otherworldly comedic classic" is still a sprightly piece, and the Artists Rep production, while perhaps lacking some of the sparkle one would associate with a Coward play, is certainly loads of fun."
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Oregon Arts Watch - Highly Recommended
"...The talent's unquestionably there: Mendelson in a funny and precisely manic mood, Hennessy all saucy and sassy, Allen Nause bluff and genial as the visiting Dr. Bradman, JoAnn Johnson in a slyly funny performance as the good-hearted and gullible Mrs. Bradman, Val Landrum as the clunkily inept maid Edith (Coward created theatrical worlds in which servants, inept or not, were as natural a part of the environment as dry martinis and cigarette cases), O'Brien, in a role originated by Margaret Rutherford, as a classically British backbone-of-the-nation oddball. On Wednesday Jill Van Velzer seemed the most comfortably and pliably up to speed member of the cast, playing what might be the comedy's most difficult role: Ruth, Condomine's second wife, who needs to be a bit of a nag and a drag but somehow also must hold the audience's sympathy."
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Dennis Sparks Reviews - Recommended
"...Moore has done an exemplar job of creating and, possibly, defining this play. He has done wonderful creative projects at OSF in Ashland and hopefully will not be a stranger here, either. His masterful sense of timing and reimagining this play gives it new life! The Scenic (Alan Schwanke), Costumes (Nancy Hills) and Lighting (Kristeen Willis Crosser) designs add immensely to the enjoyment of the show, without overpowering it. All very well conceived."
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